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Cellular forums Home > Archive > Sprint PCS > August 2006 > "The answer to Radio Shack's rhetorical question on buying cell phones"
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"The answer to Radio Shack's rhetorical question on buying cell phones"
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| See "http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=3147"
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| Boo on that.
At the risk of flying completely off the handle, if you're going to buy a
phone and you're comparison shopping, well, you're on here, you have the
internet, pull up the carriers' websites and GET THE INFORMATION DIRECTLY.
The problem with Authorized Agents or Dealer Locations is that they are
usually poorly informed, poorly trained, don't have the full array of
equipment, and are 999 times out of a thousand more interested in selling
you accessories with a big fat margin over one that won't blow your phone to
bits (literally, I have stories). Do yourself a favor, drive out of your
way, go to your carrier's corporate-owned store, and do business there.
It's just better, trust me on this.
As a consumer, you owe it to yourself to be well-educated about the products
and services you are consuming. Anyone trying to sell you anything has an
agenda--getting your money, so they can in turn get their commission. So if
T-Mobile offers some big fat commission bonus for selling this phone or if
US Cellular offers some big fat commission bonus for selling that feature,
guess what? This is a GREAT phone! You'll love it! And you just have to
have this feature to go with it, too. Carefully review the terms and
conditions of service *and* the contract before you sign it--you may be
unwittingly locking yourself into a rate plan that requires you to renew the
contract every time you change it. Any business has the legal right to
assume you have read every stitch of everything they've ever given you.
Carefully review your coverage area, so when you're travelling, you know
whether you're going to get that big fat roaming bill--or if you should call
*611 and add Free to Roam so you have that 100 roaming minutes for emergency
use or what-have-you. In a nutshell: READ EVERYTHING. Once you sign your
name or dial that phone, you have accepted the Terms & Conditions intact and
are at that point stuck with it, or stuck with an Early Disconnect Penalty.
Alltel may indeed hope you love every minute, but if there's something you
don't love and it's in the fine print and costs you a bazillion dollars
because you didn't read the fine print, well, Alltel still loves you but
you're payin' that there bill.
Thus endeth my tirade. :)
"Isaiah Beard" < sacredpoet@sacredpoe
t.com> wrote in message
news:128bg78gnp82n15
@corp.supernews.com...
> SMS wrote:
>
>
> Hear hear!
>
> The problem with RadioShack is that they limit themselves to just two
> post-paid wireless carriers. If they truly made a commitment to offer
> at least the top four nationwide, and THEN if they managed to negotiate
> contracts with each carriers that brings them ALL in parallel in terms
> of what kinds of incentives and kickbacks RadioShack and its employees
> get for selling service, then I MIGHT consider RadioShack as a one-stop
> shop worth considering. They would of course also have to deal with the
> whole most-sales-droids-barely-know-how-to-breathe thing, and actually
> make sure they have some semblance of knowledge about what they're
> talking about.
>
> But, since this is clearly not going to happen, RadioShack really should
> never be considered authoritative on who to pick for wireless service.
>
> I do disagree with the article on one point though. The author suggests
> asking to borrow a friend's phone for the day. I seriously doubt a lot
> of people would say yes to that. Personally, my phone IS my phone, and
> I make and receive jsut about all of my calls on it. So while I have no
> problems at all with letting someone make a quick phone call in a pinch,
> I would be very wary about parting with my phone for a whole day.
>
> --
> E-mail fudged to thwart spammers.
> Transpose the c's and a's in my e-mail address to reply.
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| Agent_C 2006-08-16, 10:33 am |
| On Tue, 15 Aug 2006 22:53:46 -0700, "Jo" <evazjo@cox.net> wrote:
>The problem with Authorized Agents or Dealer Locations is that they are
>usually poorly informed, poorly trained, don't have the full array of
>equipment, and are 999 times out of a thousand more interested in selling
>you accessories with a big fat margin over one that won't blow your phone to
>bits (literally, I have stories).
I do too… Including the dealer who told my friend he would pay the
$200 early termination fee if he’d switch carriers… The $15 a month
plan that turned out to be a $25 plan when the bill arrived. In both
cases, the merchant denied making the statements. They’ll apparently
*say* anything to make a sale without regard for the truth.
In New York these ‘Authorized Dealers’ are typically really sleazy
merchants (and often look the part), that I would *never* do business
with.
The sales reps in the Verizon corporate stores may not be the most
well informed, but they don’t have a vested interested in ripping you
off and I’ve never known them to be rude or arrogant.
A_C
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