Bad WP7 sales experience? Express your concern

A WINDOWS ENTHUISIAST? Who would actually admit to that?
Microsoft are old, run by Steve Ballmer. They are going down the toilet.
PEOPLE DONT WANT WP7!!! How come the windows fanboys dont get that???
 
Apple and Google rain supreme!

Area: San Jose, CupertinoCarrier(s): Verizon Wireless & AT&TMy issues stem back as far as the original launch of WP7 platform in USA. I remember the anticipation of the launch even in itself. The day WP7 was released I headed to AT&T with my friend who just attained a Motorola Droid. I went to the store so he as well could see and experience WP7 and see what it was all about. When entering the store in Santa Clara we were approached shortly after heading over to look at WP7 devices. I already new they'd have some sales pitch when in reality we just wanted to see the OS. They'd come over and asked if we needed any help and when we responded with "No" they'd pushed iPhone as well as Android. At that point in time I had a BlackBerry Storm 2 and he had his Droid. Since the sales rep didn't get fully into the sales pitch and meandered off we finally were able to look at the devices. I showed him how his Droid and my Storm 2 compared with the Samsung Focus, he was absolutely shocked at the fluidity of the phone and the unique interface. After about 30 minutes of playing around he wanted one just as bad as I had. We both are on Verizon's network so we'd have to wait for Verizon to get in the loop of phones as well. When it came down to Verizon I'd been on their support forums and noticed one of the most commented topics was WP7, if and when it would be coming to Verizon and a lot of angry customers complaining. There were some trolls following up to peoples threats of leaving Verizon for AT&T just to have a WP7 device and trolls always commented the same of "oh all 10 of you" and so on. I never let it get to me as I just accepted the fact these trolls quite possibly never used WP7 or even knew what it was or looked like. Verizon taking forever and a day even with Sprint already launching their phone in March both Sprint and Verizon being CDMA you would think that Verizon could have gotten their act together and launched the phone accordingly as well announcing the new platform opposed to keeping it in the dark and not even acknowledging the phone OS at all.The Verizon store I'd gone to was in Cupertino near by Stevens Creek and De Anza Blvd. When the supposed leaked road map showed the release being March 24th I'd headed over to Verizon to get pricing information and general availability of the phone. When I walked in there was a younger man with a condescending grin to welcome me and ask if he could help me. My immediate response was "Absolutely, do you have the HTC Trophy or any information on the phone?" response... "What the **** is that? I never heard of it!... We got the HTC Thunderbold coming on the 17th..." back to me... "I didn't ask about the HTC Thunderbolt, I would like information on the HTC TROPHY, things such as... release date, price both with and without contract." Verizon rep "What the **** is so special about this Trophy?" reply "It runs Windows Phone 7 OS which is comparable to iOS without being tied to garbage iTunes and the interface is more in depth, and isn't a Hong Kong counterfeit knock off of iOS like Android. Also I don't give a **** about Android with the privacy issues with Google selling me to 3rd parties getting rich off me like a pimp does with his ho*s... I want WP7 and only WP7." At this point the rep was shocked and quite puzzled in how to respond. It is not that I dislike Apple as I feel they make decent products but I feel they are over priced as well I hate iTunes with a passion. Google is simple... No privacy, glitchy, slow, knock off of iOS/Windows Mobile, riddled with Ads everywhere, updates every 3 days, fragmentation and so on... This guy without even looking into the computer said it isn't in the computer... How would he know if he's never even heard of it? I told him I'd be back on the 24th to follow up. I came back much later in April or May looking for any info I could get, this time caught by a lady service rep... She too had never heard of Windows Phone 7 or the HTC Trophy. She had no information for me but was very happy to shove iPhone and Android in my face... I gave her a similar talk about the other phones and that I am determined to get WP7. I told her it is getting me so angry the fact I listened to a different rep which pushed me into the Storm 2 when I originally wanted a HTC Imagio, first and last time listening to a rep. I also told her that if they don't release WP7 ASAFP that I am willing to either wait for the end of my contract and go to AT&T to get my WP7 or pay the early termination fee as I cannot stand my Storm 2 which is my fault for listening to any of "you clowns"... I also mentioned how Sprint has had theirs since March, both CDMA networks... Sprint got theirs to the market... What is Verizons problem? Still in testing? How so? If anything I feel Verizon held off with all the releases such as iPhone 4 as well their 4G LTE Android garbage with the failure of the KIN phone which I still thought was a decent phone. The irony is it was announced 2 days later that HTC Trophy WP7 was to be released May 26th/June 2nd. I ordered mine over the phone after reading on wpcentral of users getting theirs ordered. The lady on the phone was polite and helpful in a lot of ways as I was able to submit my order but she too had never heard of Windows Phone 7 or HTC Trophy. She also started talking about Android and iPhone which I squashed real quick and all the sudden she wanted to see this phone as well.I feel there are better ways to handle things, I feel that carriers are the biggest at fault but I also feel Microsoft could take a much better approach with both advertising as well working with carriers such as Verizon to get the heads out of the clouds and back down to earth. I whole heartedly feel carriers are black balling WP7. It has me angry enough to camp out at phone stores to correct the issue as well head to Microsoft in Mountain View and find the top ranking manager or president and rip them a new one and explain the frustrations and better approach I feel not only needs to happen but can.On another note, I love my HTC Trophy and cannot wait for Mango and Nokia in the future! I feel this is the best platform with the best integration and things are only going to get better as time goes on as long as it is known the issues with carriers as well as visibility of the device!

I must have gotten lucky. Got my phone in Jan from an AT&T store (paid too much now) and the rep talked well but admitted to not knowing a lot about WP7 (he was an android fan). He did try to point me to the Surround and told me how I was missing out when I wanted the Focus but hay - he said thing like "In my opinion" instead of just how bad what I was looking at was going to be. It helped to have some of my own things to toss back at him when he did bring up Android or iPhone so I had my own opinions too.Now, I will say that the reps in AT&T and at places like Best Buy are bringing their bias (dont we all). So if you are so easily swaied - don't go and ask just go and buy. Thought it was funny that 6 months after my son got his android and we took it back the rep we talked to ran the phone so far down the road it wasn't funny. So like everyone you just have to expect the fans to push you toward what they are comfortable with.

I noticed when you look at an Windows Phone 7, you sometimes get that oh hum/oh that one reaction. The sales people are suppose to be trained on them before the release, but I always get the one person that doesn't know a thing about Windows Phone 7. The worst retailer I've been to is Verizon. The sales guy was confused, I had to repeat myself a few times. I wanted to look at a working phone, the sales guy I got didn't know if they had it. He wasn't sure where it was, while he was asking I found it myself. While I was looking at it, he went to help someone else. Another sale person finished who she was talking to. She tried to talk me into looking at the Droids, she was really trying to push the new $300 Samsung Charge. I don't know about you, but I will not pay $300 for a phone. Not even the IPhone, they can keep them both. The Trophy is over priced at Verizon at $149.99, it should be $79.99-$99.99. My rules are for buying a phone are: 1.I found the best you can do is not jump at buying a phone when it comes out. 2.Go look at the phone you want, you might need to try it first. 3.Carriers are setup to sell Android or IPhones they are afraid of what they don't know or uncertain of. And if you want a Windows Phone 7 phone go in knowing you may know more than the sales person. 4.The best deals maybe online. Amazon has a better deal now than, they did when the phone came out.

I went to an AT&T store this Sunday to look at the HTC HD7S in person to compare with the Samsung Focus. There was a somewhat prominent display with 2 or 3 WP7 devices (Focus, Surround). I looked around the store but all I could find was a placeholder for the HD7S. After a 30 minute wait - they weren't busy, they just had chatty salespeople talking about their weekend, etc - I get someone's attention and point out that I am interested in seeing an HD7S, but they don't have a display unit for me to play with. They have them in the back but won't open up the box and turn it on for me to look at and compare, so I told them thanks and left.Credit to the salesperson though, he recognized that is what I wanted to look at and did not try to turf me off to the iPhone or Droid phones, like several others are reporting.

When I bought my Omnia7, I had a terrible sales experience. The store I was buying from was an official T-Mobile store, so you would expect them to have information about it, but now, the staff were completely clueless and had no idea what was going on about it.It took over three weeks after launch for them to get the phone in stock and every time I checked they said "it will be in tomorrow" when it wasn't. I was messed around a **** of a lot before they even got it in stock, which was annoying as I live a good hour or two's drive away from the store.As if that wasn't bad enough, when they eventually got it in stock and I went to pick it up, I had the sales people slag it off something chronic. They were trying to push me towards the "latest greatest android phone" in their words, but it was a year old xPeria locked to Donut... This was the same store which had previously sold me my G1 two years earlier and they didn't seem to be able to comprehend why I was wanting a WP7 instead of an Android, even after listing my reasons why I disliked Android for a phone and loved the look of WP7. They couldn't understand that I wanted WP7 because I wanted a smartphone which was usable as an actual integrated phone, not just an icon grid.I was incredibly disappointed at the sales experience in that store, especially after I'd been in to the O2 store down the road a couple of times over the few weeks I was waiting for the Omnia7 and had sales people who were genuinely excited about the new OS showing and discussing it with me. I only stayed with TMobile because O2 didnt have the Omnia and I've been with TMobile for so long I figured they deserved the benefit of the doubt. Now, though, I would much rather have gone with O2...

Richard, I fully support customers with bad sales experiences being able to express themselves, but I think you need to fully understand how the the cell phone sales system works, especially in the U.S.Heavily subsidized loss-leader phones are merely the candy in the window (no Microsoft pun intended) to get the children into the store. It's contracts, contract extensions, and services where the money's at and what's really being sold. For minimum wage and commission based sales people, the norm in the U.S., compensation will always be based on non-phone and non-OS considerations as dictated at the corporate level. What a customer may interpret as an "anti-WP7 bias" may indeed be a "personal compensation bias" instead. Also, never forget that the very definition of sales is to be sold something you don't want or don't need.So to say "As one would agree with me saying this - that's wrong. No platform should be down pitched at all, a customer should always receive what product they wish to purchase based on personality, requirements and personal preference, not what the member of staff making the sale wants the customer to buy" is rather naive when one looks at the economics of the market.Personally, I do all my research up front and avoid dealing with a human all together if possible. With the Internet and web sites like NewEgg.com and Amazon.com, there's really no need to visit an actual store. It's why places like BestBuy are struggling and I suspect why Microsoft hasn't significantly entered the retail space with it's own stores.So you see, no need to go looking for conspiracies or anti-WP7 bias where it doesn't exist.

The Sprint store by my work which is even a repair center usually does outstanding work but that has not been my experience since buying my HTC Arrive. They didn't want to sell me the phone. The woman working there told me, "You don't want a Windows Phone you want an Android."The problem isn't the bad experience buying the phone. I smiled and bought my phone anyways. The problem is that I've broken two of them and the "repair center" has no idea how to work on them. It's so bad that I have to show them how to remove the battery. Since they don't know how to work on them they just give me a new one. That's fine except this time they didn't have one in stock. I'm without a phone from 6/3 - 6/7 while they send off for one!Sprint Store # 4123000 S. Hulen, Suite 100Trinty CommonsFort Worth, TX 76109

Hope Microsoft already has this in their plans, but they need to setup a few hundred kiosks in shopping malls this holiday season and showoff "every" Windows Phone model. Even if the stand is not equip to sell you a phone or write a new contract, have plenty of fully functional phones, loaded up with popular apps/games and of course, a good WiFi connection, and let passers by have some fun. A few of those large screen Windows Phone touch emulators wouldn't hurt either. Oh, and don't forget the $25 discount coupon you can use towards purchase for stopping by. A lot faster and cheaper than trying to open dozens of brick and mortar stores. If 10 or 20 people come into your phone store every day asking for Windows Phone, even the most stubborn salesrep will eventually get the message, understanding that that's where the fast money is this month.

I live in Atlanta, GA. I went into a local AT&T store the other day to kill time and evaluate the WP7 displays.After searching through the walls of phones, I found the Windows Phones in the back right corner of the store. To my shock, they actually had android phones sitting out under the Windows Phone display. There was some other Samsung android phone sitting in the spot for the Focus. There wasn't a single Windows Phone over there. The Windows Phones were scattered throughout the store with various other feature phones!I plan to go back soon and take a picture. I will also fill out the OneNote catalog.I see several big problems for Windows Phone right now:1) Little to no advertising. At least in my area. I don't see anything about Windows Phone on TV, radio, billboards, nothing.2) Sales reps are biased beyond belief simply because its Microsoft. They haven't even used the phones and make wild claims about how poor they are.3) After looking at several retail locations (AT&T stores, best buy, etc) I notice that Windows Phones are just thrown in the middle of a sea of ordinary feature phones or android phones. They do not stand out to consumers. The iPhone ALWAYS has a huge special display area. Microsoft needs to negotiate their own special display area in all retail locations to that WP is front and center.Microsoft made, in my opinion, the best phone out there right now. But they haven't put forth any effort to tell anyone about it. They need to crack open that piggy bank and spend some big bucks on personal store reps, new Microsoft stores, and advertising.

You're tellin me... I went to 5 VZ stores over the past week and none of them, I repeat, NONE, knew what the Trophy was. They all had to ask someone what that was and that person went to go find out. Not one had a working demo, and most end up saying, we can order one for you... I mean thats just disgraceful. I dont know whos to blame there. MS for poor channel prep, or VZ for suck **** commitment. Certain Sprint stores I visited had the same problem for the Arrive but nowhere near as bad as VZ. I'm in Texas.I'd bet a wad of cash that if I had asked any of these places when they were getting the iPhone4 or something to that effect, they would all know exactly when to the hour it sells and would know all about the device.How can you expect your product to succeed if your frontline point of sale effort just stink.Oh wells.. Wp7 could end up the BetaMax of phones. LOL.

@benjitecHave to agree with you on this.. I can't stand the salespeople in these carrier stores but if Microsoft would have had WP7 out last summer they would have quitted the Android storm... Now all the average joes that where talked into getting androids are now locked into a contract and for all they care won't need a new phone for 18 months. Microsoft might have to wait for these people to come around and need new devices. But the jerks that work in the carrier stores don't know anything about anything. They never know anything about ne wphones or what a particular phone can do. All they do is go for their notebook and hit on selling points handed down from Verizon, At&T, and ect.. Microsft needs to market the H*** out of Xbox on the phone, the Windows Live Stuff, and the camera feature ( hold button for 2 seconds to take a pic). I used the camera function this afternoon; i pulled the camera from my pocket and within 3 seconds i was snapping a picture of my daughter with a chocolate cake messy face...That would make a good commercial for Microsoft, or the jacka** carriers. We need time for this platform to marinate and simmer... know one knew ( average joes) what android was before the Motorola Droid campaign. Thanks to this dude for building such a site and passing it along to Microsoft. I'll sign up for whatever i need to, in order to get this message across.

I live in Sofia, Bulgaria, and wanted to get a WP7 device very much, even though it cost about $620 with a one year contract, and about $750 without a contract. I had to choose between 3 carriers, each offering 1 device: LG Optimus 7, an HTC (not sure which one) and Samsung Omnia 7.I eventually chose the Omnia and am happy with my choice, except it can be a bit hard to grip and I've dropped it several times already (since Christmas). Luckily, it's a sturdy device - hasn't got a scratch.The sales experience was terrible though. I had been asking around for WP7 for months, but no carrier offered it yet in my country. I saw an Optimus 7 once in a store, and the clueless sales girl had no idea that it's a WP7 device (I recognized the start button logo). She said that she can't take it out, didn't have the key, blah blah, but offered to show me an iPhone 4 instead. She was chiming the same old cliches that every salesman uses: "It's really good...", reciting the specs of the device.When I once again told her I already knew all that stuff about the iPhone and read numerous reviews and articles and that I wanted to look at the WP7 device instead, she almost sounded offended that I didn't need to listen to what she had to say. Small stores are useless anyway, their employees only read the brochures and have almost no hands on experience with the devices they're trying to sell, so I decided I'd only look in bigger stores.I eventually got hold of my Omnia 7 in another carrier's store, and it was beautiful, I decided to buy it. My brother is a manager of another store of the same carrier in another town, so it would be easier, cheaper and safer to get the phone from him next time we saw each other.But even my brother was unconvinced. "It's Windows, and that's too slow. Here, try this", he said, handing me a Nokia N8. When I expressed my doubt about WP7 being slow, he admitted he hadn't actually tried it, because they didn't have one in the store (it was a small town shopping mall). But I had already made my mind and they had one sent from their central department in Sofia.To this day, I'm not sure if he realizes that the phone is NOT slow. It's fast, smooth, beautiful and functional. And that's before Mango. I'm glad I invested in this platform and I hope it will become more popular, despite the huge amount of Apple and Android billboards all over the city, though I have to admit, I saw several of WP7 devices as well :)

I went to Best Buy today in the Chicago area to get an Arrive on Sprint and they told me they don't stock the Arrive, but could special order it. I asked them to check another store and to my shock, 90% did not have it either, I had to drive at least 45 minutes to get to a store that had it. Then of course they asked me why I wanted that phone and said that nobody ever asks for it. If I wasn't dead set on getting this phone, I certainly would have been dissuaded.

Verizon store in Orleans, Massachusetts told my friend that they do not carry the WPH7 because of previous bad experience with the KIN. Go ahead and call them and ask.

Yeah, I bought my Samsung Focus online right when it came out. I work at Best Buy and all of the Best Buy mobile workers look down on the WP7. I think it is so much better than any other platform!!! But they just don't know. They are too bias to the Android OS. I think Microsoft has to give sales men cheep or free WP7 so that they can tell the costumers how cool the phone are from personal experience!!!

Heh, go into ANY Austin, TX AT&T dealership and ask them to "learn more about WP7 OS and phones..." - say you're intent on a Samsung Focus and then ask them how it compares to Andriod phones and of course the ever ubiquitous iPhone... they'll try to sell you one of those before reading the spec and feature sheet of any WP7 phone. Thankfully, I preshop and research so I already knew... but was curious what my sales experience might be had I not. I don't have ANY issues with AT&T with any other aspect of their service other than their WP7 ignorance.

When I first wanted my HD7, I called into TMobile to get it on launch day and was so afraid that it would sell out... The Sales rep I got on the phone spent 30-40 mins trying to change my plans, after I told him that all i wanted (and needed it fast before it sold out) was to upgrade my handset to HD7, he went on and on to steer me away from the product, and just stopped talking about it, and said, "so is that all I can do for you today?" then I got angry and told him I never got the confirmation of the phone being added to my acct after making changes to all of the other stuff, and he said, "we are not going to add that today..." I said unacceptable, I have been on the phone almost an hour, and it was all I wanted, and then he told me that he would check availability, and told me that they were indeed out of stock now, and just a few secs ago they were in, bc he had been checking since I was interested... He hung up on me actually before even inquiring about anything else I might need, so I called back immediately to speak to someone about his behavior, and customer service issues, and the lady I spole with told me they were indeed still available, and that she could make the arrangements to add it to me acct and get it to me in 2 days if I wanted... Sure enough, I had the handset in 2 days... These reps are most certainly to blame for the sales, especially when I was going in full throttle to purchase one... The first guy tried everything to get me to buy the G2, and I told him no thank you on the android, and it all went down hill from there... Even beyond salesperson bias, I think there are $$ incentives for particular models and devices/manufacturers, and this creates huge leans toward certain OSs... But I still got my HD7 and will hope to be a long time WP7 user... I love the platform, and think it has great plans for the future!!

that's so true.. if MS is wondering why WP7 is not selling as well as it should, it has to do with mobile salesmen and carrier stores!Since WP7 is a new OS, people don't know much about it, and they rely on the salesman's "expertise" to buy their new phone. Lately I was shopping for a new plan / phone, and everywhere I went (Rogers / Telus / Fido / Bell - in Canada), the salesman tried to convince me that Android was the best mobile OS on the market now.One guy said that because it was open source, apps were much cheaper! lol Yeah right! For me, Android is such a clumsy mobile OS. It just copied the jailbroken iPhone (which I used since 3G and got bored with).They never mentioned WP7! after I told them it was my OS of choice, one salesman tried to convince me that the Focus is not "a very good phone" and that I should look into the HTC Desire Z instead (another Android device).At Rogers, the guy told me that they didn't have the Focus, so I told him that I saw it on their website, so he said: we have it, but I can only show it to you if you want to buy.Also what's crazier is that in all the mobile stores you find giant posters of Android devices and iPhone 4, and almost nothing that showcases WP7..WTFI wonder what did Microsoft ever do to them? lol

Besides contributing to this list, I'd recommend giving these so-called "sales people" an earful if they do this to you or to another customer while you're in the store.

Sprint Store (reseller)Winter Park, FloridaNo Display for WP7Android biased salespersonWent in specifically looking for the HTC Arrive. I explained that I wanted to demo WP7 as I have been a Windows Mobile user since the HTC (AudioVox) Harrier. I was told that they did not have one on display and that the salesman has only sold one and that was at another store. He then stated that the customer returned it within 24hrs and tried to show me the Android phones. I told him that I did not want to look at anything other than a WP7 device and he asked if I was certain I would buy it because he would have to open a new retail phone. I agreed and he brought the phone out for me to use.I told him I wanted it and when he tried to activate it he found that it was already active. It turns out that it was the stores display phone that they "didn't have". It had been sitting in the back for over a week and they never setup the display.The entire time, he is still trying to sell me an Android. I explained to him about all of the upcoming integration between WP7, Live, Office, and Windows. He said that Android already does all of this and does it better. He also admitted that he had spent less that 5 minutes with a WP7 device and didn't know, or want to know, anything about it. After I purchased the phone and was ready to leave, he said that he was sure I would back in a few days to return the phone.4 weeks later I walked in with my wife and he asked if I was there to return my HTC Arrive. I smuggly sad "No, I love it" and explained that we were there for a problem with my wifes Samsung Epic (Android) which we purchase the same day I got my phone. As we waited for them to diagnose her phones freezing issues, I raved about all of the things my phone could do and how happy I was with it. He started touting all of the Android Apps and features and I responded with the fact that the WP7 Marketplace is the fastest growing store and that I have not had to reset my device in the 2 months that I have owned it.

I've recently been to two independently owned Sprint stores in Sandusky OH and Cleveland OH. The Sandusky store had the Arrive in a glass case under the Android phones that were out on display. The Cleveland store had one in the back room but non on the floor. All the employees I talked to at both stores had no experience with the phone, and some of them talked smack about it because it was a Microsoft product.

I was at Sam's Club and the guy was smug and just let out a laugh when I asked it they had the HTC Arrive. He said "why would you want a windows phone", I asked him if had had used windows phone 7. He had not, didn't know anything about it at all. I found that he didn't really know much about any of the phones once I started asking him what he liked about this phone or that phone. It seemed that he know the sales lines for certain phones that he was trying to push. The Sam's Club didn't even have the Arrive in stock. It was for sale on Sam's website but not in the stores. The guy told me that he worked for Radio Shack and they ran the Sam's Club in store phone sales.

MS waited too long, this is but one of the results :(

Small retail store in the mall in Huntsville, Alabama. He was trying to push another iPhone to me. He said that WP7 was just Window Mobile reskinned. SMH.

You know:Microsoft should really think about launching they own stores.If they did, I'll bet you 20 to 1, WP7 would sell more (at least, as far as relying on salesman skills, platform preferences, and good will).Just a thought.

education and incentives are the keys to motyivating sales people.

I find most salesmen push for android or iOS. They also typically have one of those two devices. I'm not really sure what the salesmen should be pushing in the first place, but they definitely should be less biased towards what they have. Maybe they should have a salesman for every OS so that a customer could have different points of view. Just thinking...

Good. The sales point at the carrier/product stores are very much actively pushing people away from wp7. Even people that go in knowing they want one.Its a problem MS needs to come down on.

I'm glad someone decided to opening do this and put the retailers on notice about this stupidity. The more you hear about it the more it sounds like some conspiracy to make WP look bad regardless.Why should the retailers care wht you buy in the end? They'll still get your money, just give people what they ask for and stop trying to force them to something else.

I cannot post to his OneNote folder.

Best Buy is the worst at this.

The day i bought my HTC Surround (launch day in the US) it was at a small private owned at&t store. The guy behind the counter was like 'id never buy another microsoft product' and was an iphone user. After i turned it on and he saw how smooth it was and what it looked like he was shocked that it was that good looking and usable.