I tried to buy a new cell phone for my wife today. A pink 
one like this one in the picture to the right...I saw that they were having a sale on these for just $49.95. I wanted to switch out her old phone for this new one, and was prepared to sign a two year contract for the sale price. In our family, that would mean about $3000 over the next two years to Cingular Wireless, with a chunk of that going to the store that sold us the phone.
The adventure began...
...went to store number one. One other customer in the store, three salespeople, two of them sounded like they were on personal calls. One of them looked at me, hung up, and walked towards me.
I explained what I wanted. "We can't do that," she told me. "It's only for new activations only."
"Well," I said, "can I activate a new line and then cancel our other line that my wife uses right now?" She thought about it for a second or two. "No, I don't think we can do that." I walked out. Of course, she could have done that. But I presented a bit of a challenge to her, and she didn't want to take the extra time to get the sale.
The sales lesson learned: Fail to take the time to make the sale happen, and you'll lose it to someone who does take the time.
» Trying to Buy a Cell Phone: Part II from LandingTheDeal
So, I went down the street to find another store. Amazing thing about cell phone stores...there's one on every few blocks. Sure enough, two blocks away, I found another Cingular store. I walked in, hoping for better service. Stup... [Read More]
Tracked on: March 6, 2006 9:05 PM | Permalink to Trackback