Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Spring or Sprint





So today's blog has got to be one of the best moments in man kind where we all stand back and say oh yes we did evolve from apes. Sure enough like all the blogs Ive posted in the past this one is %100 accurate and believe it or not this happens all the time. Again to Clarify to all who are to lazy to read the intro we are a Spring at&t authorized retailer. not Verizon, nor sprint,nor t-mobile. now with that being said i think you might know where I'm going with this :)

it was a great Friday afternoon birds singing and chirping. adults and kids laughing. I was at work but not working as usual. I had a customer come in. dun dun dun......

I begin to start talking to the customer. He then begins to ask some questions. customer " hey i bought my phone not to long ago i want to see if it is within the 30 days?" Me "OK sir what is your first name. sake of argument he said "bond James bond" "yes i know I'm a dork" I began to look his name up under retail iq " system that we ring out customer at pos" but I couldn't find his name in retail iq. I asked him for his number. He gave it to me and told me the number was from Kentucky. "instantly I thought ohhhh boy red neck. "this will be fun" as I try to pull his number up in at&t's system I start to ask for his zip code and then i ask for the last 4 of his ssn. Which neither of them worked. I begin to ask more question like is the account under your wife's name? Or perhaps your family members info? OK i know what your thinking wheres this going? but this is the kicker. James looks me straight in the eye and says "oh shit is this not sprint?" I look at him kind of in disbelief. ( OK now let me give you a background. As you walk into the store you see above the door " Spring at&t authorized dealer" as you walk through the door you little signs at&t authorized dealer" not only that you have to walk over a floor mat that says at&t authorized dealer. To top it all off as you come into the store you see a big @ss sign that has the at&t globe on it underneath that in big @ss letters at&t authorized retailer. Now I can sort of forgive the man. I mean we all can't read right? Its over rated anyways but the fact that our store is all orange and black aka at&t signature colors. So anyone who mistakes a yellow sprint store for a bright @ss att store I mean that is just so far beyond me.) Back to the story.... He tries to play it off. oh man just kidding I got att don't worry about. I then ask to see his phone simply because we can do a imei tracking on it to see where it was bought. but Mr.Bond refuses to show me his phone. saying oh its ok man don't worry about it I didn't need the help anyways and heads out the door. after this happened I stood there and was in deep thought just like David was in deep thought before he slayed Goliath. just like doc thought of how he could make the flux Capacitor work with out the fuel. just like Tony Hawk stood in thought before he attempted the 900....... as I turn away from the doors and start to walk in the back the wind blows in my hair and my clothes. The hero song plays slowly and softly trumpets start to play taps. because that is how I roll I'm on the front lines of the world most challenged people. I take the bullets of words and stupidity that sting my soul and heart. As you get to stay home reading these words in the comfort of your fire at home. drinking your hot chocolate with your soul mate. this Erik reporting out.......

So blog question of the day is, Have you ever gone into a store thinking it was a different store or location? and if so give a brief review of what happened and how you felt.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

What the......

As you all of you know by now i work for spring which is a retailer for att. And as you all know the generation of kids and adults these days aren't the sharpest kids on the block. Like I said in previous post I feel it is my duty to bring these stories to you as they happen with a fun side to them. working in the cell phone era and with the amount of people that have a cell phone is a good thing simply because it makes me money :). Now one thing that helps out with the fact that people need new phones is the fact that they have lost,broken or have even had the opportunity of having some one so desperate that they need to steel a phone. I know what your thinking. "oh yeah man i have had that happen to me before" most of the time it does. 1 out of 4 people will have there phone lost or have it broken this year. With further adue i bring you my first actually story that i will post.


( There will be no first names in stories)


I had the opportunity to work with a customer that gave me one of the best stories i have ever heard about a phone. Mr. Pribyl had come into my store about 6 months prior to today. Mr. Pribyl is a young guy maybe in his early 20s. seemed like a smart fella till he started talking. I had him interested in a few phones talking about how great they are and what he is wanting in a certain phone. I ended up getting Mr. Pribyl a LG phone. and assured him that it is Fairly durable since I have sold it to construction workers in the past and they have loved the phone since it has ben able to stand up to the beating which they have given it. Now at spring we offer a 3rd party insurance company called protect cell now it does exactly what it says. It's an insurance that will cover the phone from water damage,lost,stolen or any other type of damage. Now at spring it is part of our sales approach to offers this.I offered the protect cell to Mr.pribyl but he had turned it down and said he would not use it. " I know what your thinking" " Oh i know where this story is going" you see you might be right but i bet your not even close for this story....


Today as i was working and trying to figure out a good story to hit the blog with. In comes Mr. Pribyl. Now I recognized him and smiled and started talking with him "catching up" He then began to ask about that LG phone that i had sold him. Then it happened the story of the day. He pulled his phone and I looked at it. "wow you trashed that phone" Then he " yeah i know man isn't it great" He starts to chuckle " I dropped it out of my car on the freeway" Now let me take a second back up and read that again. He said " he dropped it out of his car while driving on the freeway"...... Now how does this work? first thing that went through my head was was he trying to see if it would bounce? or was he trying to get his phone some fresh air? and then i started thinking was he trying to dump trash and accidentally kicked out the phone with the door being open or something. See now i didn't know what to think. As he began to tell the story I stood there in total amazement not sure what to assume or think. He had told me that as he was driving to salt lake it was a good October evening nice and cool so he decided to roll the window down to save on gas from the ac. Now it has been proven that with both windows down the car uses as much gas as if they ac was on high simply because of the drag on the car that it takes from the air. As he was driving he had received a phone call " again my first thought was how could you hear the phone ring with the sound of of car driving with the window down? He then told me that he picked up and began talking. " now lets take a second he is driving on the freeway roughly around the speeds of 65-70mph with the window down. he hears his phone ring and picks it up to talk with the wind blowing hard and in his ear he still manages to talk on the phone and hold a full conversation with his girlfriend without rolling his window up. Then it Finlay happens. He began to tell me that as he was driving he had stuck his hand out the window to feel the air while he was still holding the phone. " what I would like to know is when this happened what made him think that this could ever possible be a good idea" while he was sticking his hand out the window the wind started to blow a little harder forcing his hand to drop the phone and slamming against the cold hard concrete and skidding across the highway for a few feet. He then stops on the far left lane where the emergency vehicles are only aloud. He gets out of his car and runs back to retrieve his phone. Now some how the phone did not break but did receive a ton of scratches scrapes and gouges. I tell you this story not to make fun of anyone but seriously a phone durable or not sticking it out the window on the freeway? Come on now. That is beyond me that is for sure.

So blog the question of the day is. What is the craziest thing that has ever happened to any of your electrical devices and how? Leave your comments below.
In the worlds of Ron Burgundy " good evening. I'm Ron Burgundy and here's what happening in your world of cell phones tonight......

Friday, January 8, 2010

Intraduction

OK. So here it is. Finally a blog where you can kick back and laugh it up. That's right a blog full of comedy and general thoughts of people in general. So here's the deal. I have never been a huge fan of blogs in fact I use to make fun of them and people who would make them. But then working one day it dawned on me. I work in a cell phone store and the amount of people that have no intelligence at all or common sinse like to come in and make my day worth while. Yeah you know what I'm talking about. Anyone who has ever worked in retail knows it. That crazy old lady who insist that you charged her to much for something and the she think the company is trying to make her bankrupt. Or the single mom who comes in with 3 little kids and cant control them so they destroy the store. Or my personal favorite foreign people who blame us " English only speakers" for the miss communication between us. Oh yes your thinking now wait how many stories do I really have. As you ponder you start to remember. well that is when i found out this will be a good idea. all those times with the once in a liftime occasions and only your co-workers to share them with. well now fans I bring these stories to you on a day to day basis or a weakly bassis. Stay Tuned for more and in the words of Ron Burgundy, "You stay classy San Diego.....