How not to be a sales person

I've been debating finally make the leap towards a smart phone for a while. I'd been debating the iPhone vs. the Blackberry Torch. All those commercials during the baseball playoffs didn't help. Go Rangers, but go my money too.

Well, there's two commercials that caught my attention this week. The first is that Sister Wives is airing a new special tomorrow night. The second is that Blackberry Torches dropped from $199 to $99. Armed with some birthday money, and some of my own, I decided that Thursday was the day.

I took Thursday off work for my birthday and after meeting up with Angie and Deacon for a birthday Blizzard, I went by the AT&T store. They were out of Torches since the price drop (the first day the guy saw the new price on the list, he called four people to make sure it wasn't a misprint). GRRR. I could get on the waiting list since I didn't like the red.

From there, I went to CVS to vent my frustration at the photo lab yet again. On Saturday, I had pictures printed, but didn't look at them until Sunday. On Sunday, I took them back to complain about the color which was barely existent. They agreed and were having a tech come in. On Wednesday, I checked in with them, still not reprinted. On Thursday, I had enough of the run around and finally got my reprints. The photo manager had made a note to refund my money, but I was fine with finally just getting reprints although I had been in their 4 times. Mental note to self: next time, let Shutterfly mail them to you.

I texted Jenny that the phone store was out of phones.She asked if I had tried Radio Shack since I had seen one in a Radio Shack in Waxahachie. Ah hah! That's the idea!

Is it a nationwide Radio Shack stereotype that the guys that work there are A) not really helpful and B) the ultimate geeks? So, I go into Radio Shack I go.

"May I help you?"

"Do you have any Blackberry Torches?"

"Yes. Well, I should look first before I say that."

He leads me to the sample out on the floor. "Have you had a Blackberry before?"

"No."

"Well, I tell anyone that hasn't that they are very difficult to use."

"The reviews say this one is better than the ones in the past."

"Do you have a smartphone plan?

"No, but I'm going to get one."

Anyway, he goes on to try to talk me out of what I expressly walked in the door to purchase. However, he doesn't have anything else that he is trying to talk me into. He's just expressing his dislike towards Blackberrys.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"It's going to come to around $107. Is that ok?"

"Yes. The price has dropped, the AT&T store is out. This is what I want."

"You'll have to buy an accessory too if you are upgrading to a smartphone plan."

"What do I have to buy and what's the cheapest ting of use I can get?"

He still proceeds as he opens the box to try to talk me out of it. On and on he goes, trying to talk me out of it.

With no customers in the store, only four salesmen, I loudly say, "you all are terrible sales people. All you have done since I walked in the door is try to talk me out of what I came in to buy." I say this addressed to all of them because they all have other phones. Two I phones and two androids. I don't want your android. It sounds like an alien, and I don't want to sound like I have a geeky alien phone you Trekkies!

All through the "cancelling contract" speech, he's still whining on. He can tell I'm annoyed after a while and finally tones it down.

Later that evening, I am talking to my brother on my parents' house phone telling him I'm trying to figure out my new phone. He says, "I should have given you my iPhone and gotten me something else because I don't need all this stuff."

Well, heck, why didn't he offer this before I wonder? I might have taken him up on his offer, but there was no way I was going back to Radio Shack to return anything.

I'm still trying to figure out the phone as a whole. Especially when it came to taking pictures at the Mavs game with Jenny last night. (I was proclaiming that perhaps the Radio Shack guy was right.) Working the camera is ridiculous, but at least loading up to Facebook is really, really easy.

I did finally get my calendar off of showing up on the main screen all the time, but I have no idea how I did it. It's supposed to be able to sync music with iTunes, but I've not gotten that figured out yet.

Comments