Verizon employee lies to my face.

[BORTZ]

Today i went to Walmart. I stop in to the Walmart Wireless store that supports the 3 big wireless carriers in the US (Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T)
I dropped in cause i needed some 2.5 mm headphones for my phone.
I find one pair. $25. A little too much for something ill be using for about a month.
I realized 2.5 mm headphones are kinda going extict.
Which is good for the general public, but not for me.

Also.
Im looking into getting and Iphone.
Since im at a multi carrier store i feel like i would get an honest answer about the legendary "Verizon Iphone"
Hes payed on comission so i understand him covering some of what he knows but not everything.

I nonchalantly waltz up to the counter.
Me: Whats the word on the Verizon Iphone?
Him: Oh its not happening.
(reasonable)
At least not till 2013.

(common Verizon contracts are 2 years. Its almost 2011. 2 years is 2013.
Now. Hes payed on commission. Sell more phones/contracts get more money.
If i was to buy a phone now cause its chirstmas season, a huge money making season for any company, he would get commission.
If i was to see the Iphone be released later like in early 2011 like rumor state, he will be making someone else money when i pay a huge sum to have my contract voided. On top of that i would be paying a TON to get another phone, the iphone, and the huge amount of money to pay for the plan.

It also doesnt help that the other 2 employees just sat there wide eyed and made sure i would swallow is bold faced lies whole. Its so obvious.

He continues to babble about how after Verizon transfers to LTE, then they will be transfering to GSM from CDMA.
Plausible IF LTE actually stands for Long Term Evolution network...

To wrap things up i ask if they have any 2.5 headphones.
Him: Nope we dont have those. I dont think we even have the converters for going from 2.5 to 3.5.
Bullshit. I JUST picked them up as well as a 2.5 to 3.5 converter.

BULLSHIT

tl;dr verison:
Verizon employee blatantly lies to my face about the Verizon Iphone not happening till 2013 cause hes payed on commission.

EDIT: I forgot to add that there are alot of people hanging on these "Verizon Iphone" rumors. People who are just like me, waiting for the Verizon Iphone to be released. If/When it doesnt, Verizon is going to lose alot of business when they all move to AT&T. Its kinda in Verizons favor to make this rumor come true.

 

[MelodieOctavia]

Sounds like less of a lie and more of him talking out of his ass because he didn't know what he was talking about. I find this situation more with Gamestop employees than with Verizon/other companies.

 

[_Chaz_]

Complain.

If the higher-ups hear this, he'd likely get fired in time for Christmas.

 

[junn]

Also.
Im looking into getting and Iphone.

there's a $50 off at radioshack if you're going to get one.

source

 

[jesterscourt]

You went to Walmart, first thing, so you managed to get someone working in the electronics department that day. They don't actually work for Verizon Wireless. Their paycheck comes from Walmart. You asked someone that's potentially commissioned-based for the truth? Yeah, good luck with that.

 

[dinofan01]

What did you expect? if you actually expected to hear "oh yeah its coming soon! you should wait a bit and buy it from someone else," thats your fault. And to even expect a common walmart employee to know the details of the verizon iphone is dumb. Just cuz he sells phones doesnt mean he's on wired or engadget everyday find out info. He probably knows enough to do his job and thats it.

 

[Canonbeat234]

Um...Verizon is a company, honesty will always be vague till the last minute. I believe these Verizon Iphones are just like new fireware for the G1 from 2006. It's not going happen or there will be a Verizon vision of the Iphone.

 

[JB1970]

As a recently retired Verizon employee (Field/Network Tech/Engineer) I feel obliged to correct some of the assumptions being made:

Even if the salesman you were dealing with was an actual VZWireless employee, given VZ's corporate culture, it's unimaginable that a sales clerk would know when/if they were getting the Iphone. It just wouldn't happen. We all now know they're getting it, but prior to that unless you were an upper echelon executive, you were subject to pretty much the same rumors as the public. I have friends who are managers, directors and even one VP.... they were all as in the dark as the rest of us before the Iphone announcement was made. Any chance the average in-store sales guy would have the inside info before them? None whatsoever. That's like expecting the average Corporal to be in on the Generals strategic plans. If he said 2013, he was just repeating whatever rumor he chose to believe. He wasn't lying; he's just an idiot.

Don't think for one minute I'm defending VZ; I'm not. They do truly suck and I'm much happier now that I left. But working there for 15 years I know how and WHY they suck better than the public does. Much better. The way VZ is internally, I'm actually amazed they ever get anything done.

But the public can suck pretty bad too. I can't tell you how many times I dealt with screaming, abusive customers who thought nothing of cursing me out as soon as I walked in the door only to find out they hadn't set their routers correctly or some other issue that was the customers responsibility. Did I ever get an apology? Not once. Apparently customer stupidity was my fault too.

Anyway, go ahead and hate VZ. I certainly do.... but hate them for the right reasons....