So there is a lawsuit over BYOD+ which is probably going to be class action. Basically illegal bait and switching. So if you’re a rep doing this instead of upgrading their phone traditionally you are illegally bait and switching. 0 usage reports are being reviewed at 30/60/90 days. Already heard about terminations of both reps and their managers. So if you want to protect your job make sure you are presenting a quote for standard upgrade as well and explaining the price difference. There’s a reason they stripper it down to just the google pixel abruptly. So tread lightly with Samsung being back part of it
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Our Director calls our managers every hour and just hammers them on why don’t we have more lines. It’s never good enough. It could be noon and we can have 8 phone lines out but there’s not enough BYOD. Or hey you have a ton of upgrades out and you’re not doing enough new lines. He’s checking out transactions and asking why we didn’t do BYOD instead and making them digital locker us. Our managers are so stressed out over a forced scam. People are getting written up and fired over not being able to sell their souls and scam customers. The promo is rarely a better deal but it is intended to use the line. Anyone who does get fired over this needs to get a lawyer. There’s a reckoning coming. Hopefully those that have sold their souls are who get purged not the people struggling to hit their numbers doing it the right way
Sell all of your stock. When this churn starts reporting at record levels when their free 3 years is up that no reps tell customers about. I imagine Danny boy doesn’t plan on being here that long and not looking like the failure he was at PayPal
So per our DM or director whatever their title is now. If it’s BYOD eligible we are not allowed to upgrade. Only present BYOD offer. Otherwise they have to go online. They’re giving imaginary targets that we shouldn’t be more than 2 to 1 upgrades to new lines. Which even if you do every Android you’re still 1 to 1. But 70% of what we sell is Apple. Once we’re at 3 to 1 we’re not allowed to do any more upgrades until we fix our ratio for the day. So basically cutting off what I can earn because of a bogus metric that isn’t even real. So I’m literally turning customers away. Even if they are good payable upgrades that don’t hurt quality of sale metrics. To the point if I’m trying close the upgrades my manager will get involved and shut it down. They’re taking money out of my pockets and if I raise a concern I get shut down and digital lockered. Something needs to be done
@OP leadership pushing tactics to hit imaginary kpis has been going on for almost 2 decades. Who remembers foamies to hit 3.0 ATR or the ol black book approach for MVA... Speak up about it or call ethics and you'll be in their black books, blacklisted , real shame no one does anything about the vp sd or any other leader acting like they don't know what's going on.
As a former Verizon employee I’m glad I’m gone because they’ve made it so difficult. As a T-Mobile employee I love it. At least 2 or 3 times a week I have someone come in that tried to upgrade and they were trying to force a new line down their throat. But besides that I’ve never had more Verizon customers switching due to negative interactions in store or over the phone. And man are they willing to give referrals to have others switch. Referrals are normally like pulling teeth but the last 6 months Verizon has been a cash cow for us. Maybe it’s just our local Verizon benefiting us but from what it sounds like here it’s everywhere. So keep it going Verizon!!
In my store we are not allowed to do an upgrade without positioning an add a line alternative. Which absolutely ticks people off. I have to check in with my manager on their objections. Which is always I don’t need another line and I have an offer on my account or I saw this deal online or on TV that they do qualify for but they want me to lie about it to just get the new line. Then I look like an id--t to my manager because I couldn’t close it. Customer thinks it’s weird cause it looks like I’m going to my pit boss and whispering stuff I can’t say out loud. It’s just a bad look overall. Half the time we lose the upgrade and we’re leaving money on the table. And I’m sure a lot are leaving us for other carriers
What people don’t get is first and foremost we are supposed to do what is right for the customer. Then what is right for Verizon. Then unfortunately what is best for me as a salesperson. Sometimes that su-ks. But the way everything is driven right now is it it’s sc--w the customer over at all costs to hit commissions and quality of sale. And if the customer doesn’t like it go ahead and switch to another carrier. We don’t care. It’s honestly embarrassing that I am being forced to sell this way. And I’m losing commissions on the upgrades I’m not doing
Our area president was in and a discussed my concerns over this. The uncomfortableness and inability to talk through about it was cringe. They may have had a little bit of a moral compass but ultimately couldn’t admit to it being problematic. And just kept discussing the value to customers to have an additional line. But not addressing the fact that most of these customers do not want or need this.
I’m glad someone brought this up here. Every day I have at least 1 customer come back from my coworkers selling this to question billing because they don’t give full disclosure and the billing doesn’t make sense. So I’m put into the position of trying to defend it where morally I shouldn’t or telling the customer full disclosure and how they could have had a lower bill just upgrading but then opening up a can of worms and making a customer more upset and then also getting beef with my coworkers and in trouble with my managers. We’ve done some slimy things over the years and this may be the worst. And it’s not just Verizon making a unilateral decision that sc--ws all customers. It’s enabling employers and encouraging them to deceive customers. And the ones that usually fall for it are the seniors which is even sadder that we are talking advantage of them. Not currently proud to where the Verizon name
Retail has been cesspool since it's inception. The idea that one could make an honest career out of drumming cell phones is laughable. The only ones making real money are fraudsters. The whole structure of retail management's plan is based on exercising a con. The toxicity of it is so extreme that there is no plausible way to fix it. We need to shed the whole operation while we can. Hopefully Dan addresses this over the coming months 🙏.
I absolutely hate it. Our DM comes in and starts hammering BYOD, or 3 to 4 or 2 to 4 lines. 95% of people have absolutely no use for the lines. But they make it sound like it’s easy and that’s what every other store is doing that is successful. They think we’re not trying or don’t care. Unfortunately I’m trying to do what’s best for the customer. I really hope they don’t bring Apple back in to BYOD like they did with Samsung. I just want to be able to do my job and not have to worry about stupid stuff like this that isn’t even profitable for the company
So my shady coworkers struggled when they pulled Samsung and Apple out of BYOD deals last month. Went front top performers to bottom performers. And absolutely su-ked for the start of March. They only know how to be shady. Don’t know how to close lines that are walking in. Don’t know how to ask discovery questions to find out needs. Managers don’t know how to develop employees. Always “successful” sales reps promoted to be super sales reps involved in every sale instead of managing. Which is also typically slamming. Verizon can’t develop people, their sales process they train isn’t realistic or how a human acts. They need a purge in retail getting rid of all the shady reps and managers. Make it a rebuilding year and get the right people in place. Cause in most places they aren’t the right people
This is going to go down as one of Verizon’s biggest errors. The short term pop is already drying up. You can only do it once on an account. Can’t offer to repeat customers. The amount of churn in about 2 years will be epic. Not to mention the massive amounts of calls into the call centers and customers returning to the store not knowing why their bills are going up because no one is disclosing that it’s only free for 3 years. People are already canceling online themselves and the AI doesn’t tell them they’ll lose the promos when they cancel. Honestly I’ll take the higher quota and deal with it if they get rid of BYOD+ altogether. Imagine if someone in the media gets ahold of this and runs with it
The company operating as such needs to establish plausible deniability. That is why they need to 3rd party retail locations.
This would be a great promo if it were as truly intended. You have a use for a second phone like a side gig or something or passing it down to a kid for a first phone. How often does that happen legit? If you’re lucky 1 maybe 2 a month. Instead we’re told reps have it baked into our quota and it should be 3 per rep per week. And expectation is 1 a day per rep. So that’s half my new line quota that’s baked in and 100% if I’m truly getting 1a day. Now I’m confident my managers are lying to me and their manager is lying to them. But who can prove?
Your friendly neighborhood compliance team has been blowing the whistle on this for a long time, all the way up to senior leaders...and all they've done is look the other way, shout them down or make up some insane rationalization that its a savvy customer working the best deal. Cleaelt they flat out don't care and just chasing what looks good in the short term. There is a reckoning coming one or another.
This is nothing new. The stores are outright dens of crime. I never use them anymore either use online or go to competition. I tell all family to stay away and never tell neighbors etc. I work here. It is an embarrassment.
I don’t understand why something that is not profitable at all for the company is such a focus. I know it’s about reporting growth numbers. But just give us some better promos and make it easier for us to close stuff. We’re our own worst enemy with these quality of sale targets. The sales lost to manage these targets far outweigh what we’re getting from these metrics. People at the top are so out of touch of what is really happening. People in the middle are sc-m bag degenerates with no souls that will ripoff their own mother and then fire someone for not doing the same. Then the frontline has to take the brunt of it. Do it or get in trouble. Or sell your souls for pennies.
Had an 80 year old veteran yesterday with a priority for a free phone. Manager would not allow me to offer it. Had to do the BYOD+ I was told to tell him he didn’t qualify for the trade. Straight up lied. If we upgraded guys bill wouldn’t have changed. Instead it went up almost $15 just so Verizon can report a number and not do the right thing. I feel dirty when I go home at night every day now
It’s the perfect scam. By the time they get their bill it’s past 30 days. So you can’t refund and if they cancel the line they lose their promo. It’s like we’re holding them hostage. And then we have to say to bad sad there’s nothing we can do. When my managers aren’t around to de escalate, which is usually all the time cause they’re typically forced to be on a call where there boss is telling them to slam BYOD, I give them executive relations number. Hasn’t done much good but hopefully one day
I’m not allowed by my managers to offer any upgrade promos. I have to huddle with a manager over every customer on how we’re going to convert this into a BYOD. We’re told to blatantly lie and say it’s cheaper even though it’s a lesser trade in deal and they’re going to pay tax on the line. It has become very toxic. The soulless people that can look people in the eye and flat out lie is sickening. And most of the time they’re taking advantage of the elderly. I’m ashamed to be a Verizon employee
Our district has 2 stores and multiple employees let go for this. Others under investigation. We keep getting calls that seem like lawyers trying to get info out of us pretending to be regular customers. Very fishy type questions that normal customers wouldn’t ask
Law firm gathering info to see if it’s worth it. Gotta imagine it’s over 200k customers at this point. They can press criminal charges versus the company, management in stores and the sales person. Since bait and switch is illegal in most states.
And imagine churn numbers we will be reporting starting in about 2 1/2 years. Stock together rewards will tank
And with this I give you the reason why Q4 net adds were positive. Smoke and mirrors & low quality ghost lines. VZ did NOT turn the corner on growth. it has been an ongoing sham that is going to catch up and bite them in the a-s. No one has been listening because they are desperate.
@OP question, class-action lawsuit against Verizon Communications, Incorporated?