Home  ›  Forums  ›

Rumor Mill

all discussions

show all 10 replies

Verizon to start charging for technical help.

Eiron

Feb 24, 2010, 1:27 PM
Verizon Wireless is gearing up to start charging customers a $20 fee in-store for training sessions with their technicians. So now when you get a new phone and need a little guidance on all the new features you will have to pay $20 to talk to a technician.

As I understand it you will be given 30 minutes with the technician to go over any questions about how to use any particular device. They are still going to do the initial setup for free on each device.

This combined with the recent changes to phone replacement procedures is crazy. Currently if you have scratches on the phone case they will not replace it under warranty, but they will replace it for a 50$ fee. Another reason to purchase their $30 cell phone case. It seems to me tha...
(continues)
...
DE 2 Philly

Feb 24, 2010, 2:06 PM
That sounds very bad. With Sprints 4G going so good and Sprint already offering this same service called "ready now" for free - they actually market this as something all reps should do.. looks bad on Verizons part.
...
WernerCD

Mar 1, 2010, 10:13 AM
It's a mixed subject honestly.

As a salesman, I have no issues helping someone with a phone. It gives good customer experience and leads to a good relationship.

On the flipside... My paycheck depends on sales. Sales that can't happen for the 30+ minutes I'm helping someone.

Granted... going the extra mile *CAN* lead to additional sales, so can extra time not helping someone for free.

I personally wouldn't charge someone if given the choice. If Verizon starts charging for lessons/help, it'll honestly be yet another way I'm better priced than Verizon.
...
maverick218

Mar 18, 2010, 8:45 PM
I have no problem harging people who come in repeatedly for help. Especially customers who bought their phone somewhere else, but come to me for help learning how to turn their phone on.
...
Menno

Apr 1, 2010, 1:13 PM
Yeah, you buy the phone from someone, you help them. (unless they come back every 2 days with the SAME exact question).

if you get your phone online or somewhere else.. then you should pay for the reps time, or at least buy the poor guy/gal some java.
...
CS2006

Apr 9, 2010, 4:40 PM
If someone buys a phone from WalMart then they need to go to WalMart for their service. If enough people have a bad service experience at WalMart then they won't do their wireless business there. If they buy the phone online then they are just up a creek as far as I am concerned.

People need to understand that where you buy your phone is where the service needs to come from, you are their customer. If someone buys a phone from a carrier website then the carrier stores will help them.

I am tired of people coming from WalMart because the Walmart people don't know how or don't want to help. The WalMart people send them our way because we are a highly visible company.

We all get paid when someone buys something from us. If they buy e...
(continues)
...
Gizmo

Apr 10, 2010, 9:50 AM
ok first off Werner. It does create more sales. there is no "could" about it.

Secondly, Regardless of where they purchased the phone if they go to a Verizon store they should not be getting charged for it since these are Verizon products. Now if they went to some place like Humbug electronics then came to me wanting me to teach them how to use their phone. That should be a chargeable since I made nothing off of you in the first place and you want me to spend time on this.
...
sinister

Mar 2, 2010, 12:26 PM
it's capitalism man...don't complain, without capitalism you wouldn't have such a wide variety of cell phones to choose from & you'd be forced to go with one carrier for everyone with only one crappy lil cell phone on a poor network. so i say don't complain, if you're going to go in store to interrupt them while they're trying to help a customer with a legitmate sale or billing issue with "how do i activate my voicemail?" when you could have asked that when they initially set your phone up phone, causing them to stop what they're doing with that customer, when they offer you ton of self service option through your online accounts for tutorials...then yeah, you should be charged for that assistance. it's more of a deterrant to help all of th...
(continues)
...
epik

Mar 2, 2010, 12:31 PM
1) Taking a single technician off the line for half an hour would be suicide for our wait times and customer flow.

2) We already offer a free class every other week. Not all areas do it. It's before we open, two hours of time. Refreshments paid for. They do this for one reason only: to prevent returns. They found that customers educated in their phone are a lot less likely to return them. A return costs the company an average of $300 - more for smartphones. It's well worth the cost of six or more employees for two hours, plus orange juice and donuts.
...
sinister

Mar 2, 2010, 12:48 PM
good idea 😁
...
Menno

Apr 1, 2010, 1:09 PM
I used to "charge" customers a cup of coffee if they wanted extended help that required me to come in after my normal hours. most people were more than willing to do so because we wouldn't call it a night until they loved their phone/we got them one they loved.

Initial setup is fine, but like Epik said, taking someone off the line (even at an indirect like mine was) would be suicide for numbers.

It would be nice if our local corp store had those meetings.. I'd like to hear what they're saying because we had some pretty confused customers come in after getting a phone down there. (I'm sure there is a lot of user error involved)
...

You must log in to reply.

Please log in to report a message to the moderator.


all discussions

Subscribe to Phone Scoop News with RSS Follow @phonescoop on Threads Follow @phonescoop on Mastodon Phone Scoop on Facebook Follow on Instagram

 

Playwire

All content Copyright 2001-2024 Phone Factor, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Content on this site may not be copied or republished without formal permission.