ATT and Verizon hurting dealers

[Wireless Consultant]

I think ATT and Verizon hurt their indirect dealers by holding back on the top selling phones that they carry,
ATT does not allow dealers to sell the iPhone that accounts for a major amount of new and existing customers signing a contract with ATT. This was a downfall foe dealers in the past months. Plus if a dealer sold a RAZR to a new or existing customer and that customer went out a few weeks later and purchased an iPhone. That dealer would lose his commission and lose out on a phone that they subsidized.

Verizon on the other hand came out with a iPhone type phone called the Voyager. This phone was the top selling phone for Verizon Wireless throughout the holidays. Verizon allowed their dealers to sell this phone but never supplyed the phone to them. Today is 2/9/08 and dealers still can not order the Voyager.
LG Voyager Inventory Update
posted: 12/10/2007 9:04:36 AM (ET)
Due to the overwhelming excitement and demand for the LG Voyager, inventory is currently constrained for this device, and Verizon Wireless regrets that we will be unable to fulfill Local Agent orders at this time. We are doing our best to replenish inventory as quickly as possible to fill all our customer's needs.

The limited Voyager inventory being received will be distributed to the VZW retail channel, and small quantities will be allocated to Premium Agents. We regret any inconvenience this has caused, and thank you for your patience. You will be notified as soon as adequate Voyager inventory becomes available and we can resume the normal equipment ordering process.

In my opinon the business is not enough for everyone these days and ATT and Verizon have to cheat to keep business in the corporate stores.

[Jay2TheRescue]

Originally Posted by Wireless Consultant

I think ATT and Verizon hurt their indirect dealers by holding back on the top selling phones that they carry,
ATT does not allow dealers to sell the iPhone that accounts for a major amount of new and existing customers signing a contract with ATT. This was a downfall foe dealers in the past months. Plus if a dealer sold a RAZR to a new or existing customer and that customer went out a few weeks later and purchased an iPhone. That dealer would lose his commission and lose out on a phone that they subsidized.

Verizon on the other hand came out with a iPhone type phone called the Voyager. This phone was the top selling phone for Verizon Wireless throughout the holidays. Verizon allowed their dealers to sell this phone but never supplyed the phone to them. Today is 2/9/08 and dealers still can not order the Voyager.
LG Voyager Inventory Update
posted: 12/10/2007 9:04:36 AM (ET)
Due to the overwhelming excitement and demand for the LG Voyager, inventory is currently constrained for this device, and Verizon Wireless regrets that we will be unable to fulfill Local Agent orders at this time. We are doing our best to replenish inventory as quickly as possible to fill all our customer's needs.

The limited Voyager inventory being received will be distributed to the VZW retail channel, and small quantities will be allocated to Premium Agents. We regret any inconvenience this has caused, and thank you for your patience. You will be notified as soon as adequate Voyager inventory becomes available and we can resume the normal equipment ordering process.

In my opinon the business is not enough for everyone these days and ATT and Verizon have to cheat to keep business in the corporate stores.

Not only that, but they offer deals in the corporate stores & on the internet that many times they cannot match in the dealer.

-Jay

[Sprint Master Dealer]

This is interesting news. I know it wasn't easy in the first place to get Verizon onboard. Usually the few large dealers would get in the way of the smaller dealers and the reps would side with the larger dealer on locations. Its to bad that the #1 and #2 dealer in the nation would perform tactics against its own name with the dealers. Sprint was easy to work with and hopefully they can work through their problems and bring back a customer base.

[Eric47]

for many reasons, ATT and Verizon both are becoming almost total Corporate Sales driven. This is the reason in a nutshell that you find indirects taking a back seat where in the past they were on the front lines with everyone.

[Sprint Master Dealer]

No, Sprint still doesn't pay ontime and they are going through some major issues. I don't understand Sprints stance on trying to look good to investors by cutting everything that was working for them. If Sprint is cutting jobs, I sure hope it is in the retail sector and not the customer service and commissions. Two places where Sprint lost customers. The Master Dealer I worked for paid on time, but of course was able to due to a bankroll, but was always fighting with Sprint to get paid themselves. We also have to take into cosideration that 80% of non paid activations are due to paperwork issues on the dealer side of things. That comes from two things, either the dealer isn't taking care of business or the rep isn't assisting the dealer to ensure paperwork procedures are up to date.

[RadioFoneGuy]

Bad thing about ATT dealers is when ATT bought Dobson is cut almost all of the Cellular One dealers in my area except the bigger ones that only sold ATT products and there wasnt a previous Cell One store.

They closed one in my town that was a Movie rental, tanning salon, Cellone (ATT) and just a couple of months ago a IPCS dealer (i dont catagorize them as Sprint) ATT claimed they were dropped because they only want dealers to offer just ATT and not other carriers.

Bestbuy and Walmart and the other mega stores still get to offer ATT and other carriers.

There was a huge article in the paper and TV about ATT cutting dealers, just the dealer in my town lost $3000 a month from people paying their Cell ONe bills, I guess the dealer used to get $2 bucks for collecting payments.

The funny thing is ATT made all the Dealers go to training on the new ATT products. The dealer in my town didnt get a call or a letter, he called in a new activation and CS said "our records show that you are no longer an active dealer".