Magiawen’s Hideout II

So here’s an interesting one.  Yesterday the clerk at the grocery store gave me an extra $1.00 in change and refused to believe she had.

Now, today I have met a cellphone salesman who cannot do math….I wonder how his sales are because this is a huge HUGE selling point he’s missing.

Today we went to an unnamed cellular provider’s store. My daughter has a cellphone that her paternal grandmother set her up with and so far it has been lost in the lake while on….we retrieved it, took it apart and it worked much to all of our amazement.  Now, it has been dropped numerous times and is basically a P.O.S…so we thought we would stop by the cellular dealer and ask what the options are about getting another one.

In otherwords….”Hi. We know the warranty is void and there is not insurance on the phone, what are our options for a new phone?”

You would think this would be easy.  As far as I could tell before going into the store…common sense tells me that we have to buy one, wait for the contract to be up and get a new one for free, or buy one from someone else or online and bring it in to have it programmed or whatever….right?  That is what you would think..and you would think that a salesperson….who ah, makes a living (assuming) selling phones and phone plans would be a crackerjack at supplying us with the needed information.  Right?  Right? heh.

So, first we were ignored for about 3 minutes until I spoke up and gave him the rundown.  Then he said, “Let me look at the phone.”   This is how it went for a while…..

SalesGuy (SG): This phone has gotten wet.
Me (M): Yes, I told you that.  Like I said, we know the warranty is void, we want to know what our options are about replacing the phone.

SG: You can’t replace the phone. It got wet.
M: So you are telling me we can’t buy a replacement?

SG: Oh, you want to buy one? I dunno…let’s see your plan.
M: You mean to tell me we can’t buy another one unless we have a certain plan?
SG: No. See here, you have 127 days left on your plan, you can’t get a replacement.

M: So…she is stuck with a malfunctioning phone for 127 days? You won’t let her buy another one?
SG: Oh…you could buy another one.
**Silence**  (I had expected him to go into a sales pitch…but instead he looked at us blankly)

M: Okayyyy….can you sell us a phone? What are all of our options to buy a phone?
SG: Well, you’ll want to upgrade to a smart phone, they are $474.99.

M: Okay. You see we have a phone here that is like $130.00.  What does that tell you? Do we have to buy a new one or …what are our options?
SG: Well we don’t sell used ones.
M: Okay…can I buy a used one somewhere and bring it in and have you do whatever until we can upgrade and renew our plan in 77 days?

SG: Yeah.
M: Ok. Well what are our other options? Are there any?  So far we have buy a four hundred dollar phone or buy a $100.00 phone.  Are there any deals going on or what?
SG: Well if she gets that smart phone AND redoes her plan, that will be a savings of $40.00 each month with the same features plus  more and there are rebates on the phone.

**This is like pulling teeth.  I have never met a salesman who was so bent on not selling anything**

So he takes us over to the phone that is $474.99.  While he is talking about stuff I don’t care about I look at the little tag.  It says there is an instore instant rebate of $405.00 if you redo your plan and sign up for two years.  Then it says there is another $100.00 mail in rebate.   So… That is $69.99 the day of purchase and then a $100.00 rebate that comes in the mail.

NOW.  I am not an accountant or a financial wiz.  But I do know that $69.99 minus $100.00 is $30.01 in my pocket.

SO-o-o-o-o…I promptly said to my daughter that she needs to talk this over with her grandmother because we cannot just change a plan in her name…but I would recommend getting this phone because they basically pay you thirty bucks to get it plus the cell bill will be less.  This illicits another interesting conversation with the salesman.

SG: No no…you don’t understand the rebates.  One is a mail in rebate. You have to pay $69.99 right away, the other one you mail in.
M: Right, I said…and 405.00 plus 100.00 is 505.00….which means they pay us 30.01 for getting the phone.

SG: No… *smirks* you don’t understand.  I don’t get that money.
M: I didn’t say anything about you getting any money.  I said that we pay $69.99 and get 100.00 back in the mail…which means we get paid 30 bucks for getting the phone. How do you not see that?

SG: No, it doesn’t work that way.  You see…I don’t get the 405.00 and the 100.00 comes in the mail.
M: You have a problem with math, don’t you?  How can you not see on this ticket here that the rebates add up to more than the cost of the telephone???

**The salesguy just keeps smirking and keeps saying, you just don’t understand.**

So..I told the kid we were leaving and said, “I believe you don’t understand.  Four hundred and one hundred is five hundred…the phone is less than five hundred dollars.  So they pay you to take the phone.  You should really learn how all this works because it’s a great selling point and now that I know that…when we talk to grandmother about buying a phone we are going down the street to the other dealer because you are really bad at this…I just sold myself a cell phone – I just did your job…that’s poor.”