I’ve been with Verizon since way back. I usually speak highly of them and LOVE the service.
I had Bell Atlantic Mobile back in the mid 80’s before they were acquired/merged whatever by Verizon and have been with then ever since.

Here’s the problem……..
I want to upgrade my phone and their selection SUCKS. Every other company has better phones.
Every newspaper or sales flyer I pick up has BIG colorful ads for cool phones with TONS of the latest features.
Verizon has CRAP.

They’ve been promising new phones for the last few weeks but are STILL not delivering anything worthwhile.
As Ken pointed out in the other thread, most people are DONE with their Christmas shopping by now.
All Verizon is offering are discounts on the old VX6000 which is getting quite dated compared to what others have out now.

They must have gotten MANY new customers because of the phone number porting thing, but I’m sure they lost a bunch too.
And all those people that just signed on are NOT gonna get rid of the phone they just bought to upgrade in January or February.

Anyone else agree ???

 

I'm with you on this one. I like my V60i and the service that Verizon gives as a whole is great on LI. However i've had this phone for nearly a year and a half and "nothing" besides the V60p with the PTT feature has come out since.

They really need to get on the ball with some nice new phones.

 

from my persepective, sales are doing great.
the average consumer prefers entry level phones at nominal prices. other consumers demand more of a variety, which is great, but the true "demand" is just not there. LNP did give us a decent boost in gross adds, but it was def not the bulk of it.

i do agree with you shawn, we do need more of a selection in the line up, but as far as us missing out on the ship, currently, our average consumer is fine with our selection.... which leaves your particular type of consumer to wait for new equipment. now, you could go with one of those other providers and get sub-par service to get the phone u really want now... you just have to figure out whats more important to you......

 

Of course you say that….You’re in SALES aren’t you.

And if the “average consumer” is happy with Verizon’s phones, who are ATT, Sprint & the others selling all that cool stuff to?

 

supposedly a new phone is coming out on Friday, 12/12/03.

http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/phone.php?id=241

Found the info from PhoneScoop, not sure how accurate it is.

 

Yea, I heard about that one, but the 12th is still not definite from what I hear.
And there are some “issues” already with the phone from early testers.

 

those who know no better....

i'm not arguing with you shawn. i'd love to have more of a selection in phones, but i'm looking at it from a business perspective. even if we do come out with those big-ticket, feature-rich phones, we'd be catering to a mere percentage of our customers. in a few months, i hope to get into the marketing division, maybe even corporate sales... my tone may change then....

 

who knows

 

I like how he threw in the 'sub-par' service bit at the end.

I've had Cingular since it was Comcast & NO PROBLEMS. Service is great, just looked at their site & they have a ton of new phones to choose from. I've also had Verizon phones...that is why I went to Comcast in the first place.

Cingular has plenty of nice phones that cost zip & plenty that have internet capability, etc for as little as $30. Just take a peak online. I am upgrading as we speak to a Motorola that does internet duty...$50 w/2 yr contract.

 

to each their own :o

 

:o :o :o :o <-------------Christmas carolers...

 

shawn if youve been with verizon for so long you should of expected this...

when has verizon ever been ahead of the others with their phones?

ill tell you...... never. which is one reason why i dumped verizon for sprint.

 

that phone is a piece of shit.

that looks like something Sprint would of released 3 years ago.

 

i just think that the big manufacturer's of phones just dont look at CDMA anymore...but i really cant say that because sprints has a decent amount of phones...but GSM is the way to go for the latest and greatest considering GSM is worldwide, which opens the eyes of Nokia, Motorola, Samsung etc considering its a much larger market than just the US.

verizon phones suck period.

 

Hate to break it to you but Verizon is NOT winning the LNP war. The small battle that took place end of November might have netted you a few sales but it was far from the "massive migration" that you expected. Maybe you did get a lot of customers....but they didn't leave Sprint. I challenge you to show me where Verizon took Sprint's best customers...if anything you got our slow-pays and no-pays or people with a 4-year old phone who didn't have the money to upgrade to a PCS Vision plan and a cool phone. Verizon LOST that battle, let's see what happens next year.

You got it completely wrong. It's not EITHER/OR, perfect service and a so-so phone vs. a cool phone and crappy service.

20 million customers are OK with Sprint.
20 million customers are OK with ATT.
30 million customers are OK with Cingular.
10 million customers are OK with Nextel.

You can get a good network/service and a great phone. Just ask the 80 million customers above. Which is 50 million more than Verizon.

You need to go back and ask your management why they think their network is so great that they fail to match it with a phone. You need to ask your management why they perpetuate the lie that millions of other customers hate their current non-Verizon carrier....if someone say this, it's a lie. For the life of me, I don't know why you would believe this.

 

Baloney. There are more handset websites on the Internet than you can count. It IS all about the phone. And it's all about Internet...and Cameras....and other cool services. All of the Verizon customers want better phones....all of them.

Sprint has a lot of big ticket expensive cool phones but we also have a lot of excellent inexpensive phones. The VGA1000 is FREE at Best Buy today. The Sanyo 8100 with a camera is sub $100. And we are coming out with more goodies, I got so many phones that I am working on, I literally CAN'T KEEP UP. Why isn't Verizon? I'll explain.....

 

Who knows if the Toshiba is coming out?

I know.

 

The average consumer is not happy, but they are willing to settle...for awhile. Verizon launches enough phones to keep people happy but they are going to have to change/adapt or they will start to lose.

Don't let anybody fool you. The cool phones are selling. We killed Verizon with PTT. We have 3 PTT phones with more on the way. Verizon has 1. And they can barely pull out the second one. I'm sure we have 5 times as many PTT phones in the market than they do and we launched AFTER them.

Camera phones are everywhere. We have about 8 camera phones, how many does Verizon have? People want them. We don't have a bunch of phones that nobody wants. Verizon will be forced to acknowledge the camera phone...and they will.

 

I thought about it and I probably shouldn't comment why Verizon is having trouble with phones. Truth is...I don't know for sure. They will probably tell you that they have rigourous specifications and testing requirements and they don't let "just anything" out the door. Sure it is much tougher to build a CDMA phone to a CDMA carrier's specification than it is GSM. Maybe you should just make your carrier aware of the fact that you do expect them to put out a few more phones and a few more services. I get the message all the time. That's all I hear from my customers. Cooler, smaller, faster, brighter, cheaper....and I respond. And they keep buying. Ten to twenty phones models a year, minimum.

 

I should have answered Shawn's original question. Verizon had the opportunity to seal the deal with a great selection of handsets. They already have a decent network. What better way than to present a lineup which reflects the quality of your network. After all, handsets are desireable. Verizon can't compete on price (service) plans. This Christmas, a few more people had some more money to spend. Two or three good Verizon phones would have helped. Yes they still might get some good numbers...but they could have gotten more.

The bottom line is if I leave Sprint and throw my camera phone in the garage can and I go to Verizon, then Verizon will have to give me a camera phone. No question about that. If they hand me the LG and says "this is all we have", that ain't gonna win over customers. Tens of millions of pictures were shared. And tens of million more pictures taken and deleted. These people will keep on snapping and sharing....with Sprint.

 

 

way to whore a thread ken!

 

I started typing in one post and it just got too long....sorry.

 

holy fuckin shit ken.... i could just see you punching away at the keyboard in frustration.... ur crying to the wrong person man. when i'm ur counterpart then we'll go at it, but that was just about enough propaganda to overthrow a small countries' government.... sheesh....

as for lnp info, now now.... u know that cant be released yet. as far as winning it... i think we most def are. we continue to port dozens of lines over daily. yet our port-out ratio is relatively low compared to others. ken, i'm all for you, i was never giving reason or justifying why it takes vzw so long to aquire a handset.... i think u got a little carried away there.... i was stating my view of the situation and how its not directly affecting my channel. i'm a little blindsighted by the immense traffic that comes into my store everyday to ask if granny cares about 1x data on her phone or 10 line larry wants a video phone for his fleet.... the 1,500 lines we do monthly just isn't enough anymore i guess.....

 

That's sprint.com ..... right Ken ???

 

heh.... try em out. we'll welcome u back after your experience

 

I know what you're saying. Should be interesting after Christmas. If for whatever reason I don't work at Sprint, I might have to take a look at Verizon in Bedminster, NJ.

 

Yep. Or sprintpcs.com

Give it a try.

 

Not all loyal consumers care about handset only. Coverage area and quality counts immensely. I was a loyal cingular customer for over 5 years. I regularly upgraded my phone but have always been unhappy because I got a shitty signal at my house. I've been forced to stay w/cingular because of the phone number. Once LNP went into effect I started shopping around for another carrier. Sprint plain and simply sucks out here so they were out of the picture immediately. T-mobile is basically the same as cingular out here so they were out of the picture. Nextel has an even worse signal than cingular at my house. Verizon on the other hand got great coverage in my area and in my house. I've seen all the sprint phones and even though they seem really cool. All I really care about is the coverage and signal quality I get. All the cool gadgetry means shit to me If I don't have a good signal. The verizon phone that I got (lg-6000) suits me just fine.

and regarding the crack about verizon getting the shitty customers. I pay my bill on time every month and have 4 phones hooked up on the plan. I also utilize an upper tier plan and upgrade phones regularly (every year or so). Sounds like a pretty prime customer to me.

 

to above.

Why do people care that much about actual phone selections? Verizon does have a pretty waek selection, but they do have nice, current phones from what I have seen. I'm content with what they offer.

I could give two shits about the all the technology and gadgetry and camera (why would you want a camera on your phone that takes crappy pics? I'll use my small digicam for pics, thanks. And some places are starting to ban camera phones)as long as my PHONE WORKS, EVERYTIME, without fail. And from what I have noticed, Verizon is the best at that.

Ken or others in the industry can give me numbers or stats or whatever, but I don't care. My ear tells me all I need to know. My phone flat out works better than my friends', who have other carriers. They sometimes drop out, have static, don't get reception some places...etc.

So I for one am more than willing to sacrifice cooler, newer phones for Verizon's quality.

What good is my friend's 400 dollar ultra high- tech phone that does everything if he asks me to use my phone to call someone cause his aint getting reception?

 

lol.... imagine that....

 

Sounds like Cali just plain stinks at phone coverage for everyone BUT Verizon...

Not the case on the east coast though...service is about the same with all the carriers(except Nextel).

 

would you take both?

would you take a cool new feature right 400 dollar phone and a great network?

If you will, go to sprint, pickup the sanyo vm4500...and prove me wrong?

But I have a feeling you refuse to believe this and you are determined to believe that the two cannot be found together in one carrier (ala Verizon)...but it can. Believe me (and millions of others). Try it.

And just so you know, Verizon phones don't defy physics. There is no way that a Verizon phone functions flawlessly in a challenged city like LA or NY. And I can prove it. I can post a public map of Verizon complaints....the facts.

 

you are quite possibly the worst salesman ever.

you belong on a used car lot

 

Sure I would like both, but all that gadgetry isn't my priority, and I don't think I will ever spend more than 150-200 on a phone. I just want the best in TELEPHONE technology. I could care less if it takes pictures, records video, or sucks mean dick.

I do believe that great service coverage and cool phones can both be had. It just isn't in my interest to change carriers, cause I'm very satisfied with Verizon at the moment.

And Ken, like I said, I only go by hearsay and opinions of friends and family. I know that Verizon phones aren't the 8th wonder of the world, and I know that they aren't perfect in big cities like LA, but they are the "lesser of the evils" if you know what I mean.

The consensus here in LA is that Verizon flat out works the best. People are always bitching about their reception, but whoever has Verizon seems satisifed most of the time.

By the way, I respect your opinions because you know waaaay more that me, but I can only tell you what I observe based on everyday usage and based on what my ear tells me.

 

I dont trust any of those color phones from Verizon after that crappy T720

 

I totally agree with you on LA. I think lots of carriers have problems in different parts, I know everytime I go to Anaheim Hills, my Sprint service is not the best. But you should know that over the years, the service goes thru improvement and since people are making decision daily, the impact can be profound. Chicago for me using Sprint use to be horrible, I can admit that. But that was in 2001. Today it's actually BETTER than Verizon.

I know the gadget aren't for everyone. Hopefully the next rev becomes the killer app. I remember when people said "the cellphone" isn't for me, but that was in 1988. Today everybody has one.

P.S. Our best phone or latest, that Sanyo, can be had for $379-$150 on deal. I think you find that despite it's gimmickry, the chipset and the speaker/mic techology and the antenna gain is STILL superior to anything Verizon has...even with their great network. Good luck with VZW.

 

how u figure?? what am i gonna beg him to stay???

 

hahaha...

 

Looks like the Audiovox 8900 is out today.
I guess I’ll have to go check it out.
It doesn’t look as nice as the LG4500, but who knows when that sucker will ever come out.
And the 9900 w/ video & other toys is probably MONTHS out.

The 8900 seems to do what I want and it has a basic camera to boot.