Verizon

While shopping on Black Friday Greg and I stepped into a Verizon Wireless store.

I have been trying to talk Greg into going with Verizon for a while now. Although Virgin Mobile is a great deal, we are now in a time of our lives where our children need to be able to call us. There have been many times when our phones, for some unknown reason, would not work. We couldn't receive or send texts or there have been times when we were out of minutes so no one could call us. I felt it was time to move on to a bigger service to insure safe communication between all of us if needed.

This was a big step for us financially because it was double the cost for us monthly.

Friday we walked into this store to "ask" about their plans and phones. Little did I know we would be in there for over 2 hours. Once we entered the store Greg went into "sales" mode. I was unaware of this because I was still under the impression he did not like Verizon and there would be no way we would purchase anything that moment.

These ladies showed Greg every phone in the store. The ones he liked needed a data plan added to the monthly bill and Greg was not interested in adding to our bill. He felt it was stupid people are FORCED to purchase a data plan if they want a certain phone, I agreed. I knew exactly which phone I would like to get for myself and both kids.... the EnV3. Greg said he didn't care for that phone and wanted to see what else they had with a touch screen WITHOUT a data package.

They showed him the Chocolate, which he liked, but it was 129.00 with the rebate. He didn't want to pay that much because she was giving us the EnV3 for free so he wanted to work a deal. Greg proceeded to go into "good cop/bad cop" without informing me. Doesn't the good cop need to know if the other cop is going to be playing bad cop???

They were not coming down in price on the Chocolate but Greg continued to work it. I was a nervous wreck because I just thought he was being difficult. He found something "wrong" with EVERY phone they brought out to him.... "this hinge is too weak.... I would snap that off in a heartbeat.... I don't like the size on this one.......Yea, but this one doesn't have as good of a camera as that one".....ugggggg! All this and we hadn't even started talking about plans yet. The only decision I struggled with was red or blue for the kids...... seriously???

Isn't it supposed to be the other way around??? Aren't women the undecided ones???

After Greg saw they were not going to budge anymore on the price of the Chocolate he turns to me and says "Well, just give me the EnV3..... I'll just deal with it. I will suck it up for my family." I look at him and say "No, I am not going to go with a plan you do not like with a phone you dislike even more." He says "No, seriously, lets just do it.... I will be fine."

We continue to talk about plans and activation fees (which they said they would cover).

As we were getting ready to check out she nonchalantly mentions to us this particular store may be closing so once we get our first bill we will need to call her and then she will pay for our activation fees. Greg said "oh no.... that isn't going to fly. I can't take your word for it, this is $100.00 we are talking about.... I want this transaction completed here tonight before I leave."

She proceeds to tell us this is how they do it for all their customers and it works just fine. Greg says "I am not all your other customers and this is just good business so I would like this taken care of before I leave."

This woman starts to get all flustered and nervous... she offers to write him a check, or give him 100.00 cash out of her purse. Greg says "No, no, there is no need for that. Please don't take this personally, it has nothing to do with not trusting YOU, it is just good business on my part to do it this way." Greg never raised his voice and he was polite during the entire 2 hours, he was very business like and he is good at what he does. It just makes me nervous is all; he just happened to be dealing with his wife, who never enjoys "working deals" and two other ladies who obviously shouldn't be in sales. Customers working deals made them flustered.

Greg asks her to take 100.00 off the cost of the phones...(The phones were free, but we had to pay 50.00 for each phone up front and then send in the rebate) He wanted her to charge us 100.00 for the phones tonight instead of 200.00 and that would off set the activation fees on our first bill. This was an absolute nightmare trying to get this in action. Between the four of us trying to explain how this plan would work for everyone we were all confused by the time we were done.

2 1/2 hours later we walked out of the store with 4 EnV3 phones.

We get in the van and Greg looks at me and says "Wow, we got a great deal don't you think?" I looked at him and said " I don't even want the stupid phones anymore... I don't care if I EVER use a cell phone again." He looks at me like I was crazy...."What do you mean?" he says. I said " I feel like I talked you into a plan you were not comfortable with and now you have a phone that you hate." He smiles and starts laughing at me and says "Honey, I love my phone, I was just trying to get the Chocolate for free.... I am excited about this plan... I was just trying to get the best deal we could get."

I didn't see the humor in all of it. I said rather loudly..... "Well, you could have let me in on it, I thought you were really upset and that you REALLY didn't like anything...... for TWO HOURS."

He laughed and laughed.

We had to go back to the store because they forgot to print out our rebate information. I wouldn't go in....so Greg had to. :) He walked in and I saw the two of them start talking. I thought to myself.... .oh no, here they go again. He came back out and said that she told him she and her mom sat down and talked about the deal they put together and it really did benefit everyone. No one got screwed and it was all good. He thanked them for their patience and they thanked him for our business. Jeeeesh.... can put that all behind us now?

They couldn't postpone activating our phones so we had to give the kids an early Christmas present. They loved it.






Everyone loves their new phones... especially me since I am the one who has wanted one for well over a year now. The verdict is still out on whether or not I feel they are worth the 2 hours in the Verizon store which I will never get back. :)

Moral of the story.....if you want a great deal.... take Greg shopping with you but make sure you talk about the game plan BEFORE going into the store. :)