Complaint Review: 2B Wirelese - tempe Arizona

I have been  in the cellular industry for over 10 years and I can explain exactly what and why the sales rep took you the direction that he did.  You have to understand how these guys get paid to better understand what their motives are.  If you are ready to get a new phone, read this for you will know where they are coming from and how to negotiate with them.

1)  Corporate vs. Indirect dealer.  Best place to buy a wireless phone is from a corporate store.  If you are a sprint customer, you are pretty much out of luck, because they have little to none corporate stores around anymore.  If it has another name besides the cell compnay (like 2B Wireless) than it is definately NOT a corporate store.  If there is no name on the company, than it is a greater chance that it is a corporate store. 

HERE IS HOW TO CHECK IF IT IS A CORPORATE STORE OR NOT.  When you go in, do not say you want to buy a phone.  If you do, they may lie and tell you are a corporate store even if they are not, because they want to make money.  What you do is TELL THEM YOU CALLED CUSTOMER SERVICE AND THEY SAID THAT YOU HAD TO GO TO A CORPORATE STORE IN ORDER TO WARRANTY YOUR PHONE.   Non corporate store cannot do that, and they do not want to have to worry about swapping out phones under warranty, because they will make no money and waste their time.  So they will be very honest with you and say they are not a corporate store.  They will probably direct you to the nearest one becasue they dont want you to be bothering them with technical issues.

If they are a corporate store, just tell them that you are wanting to do an upgrade ( or get a phone).  They will take care of you and warranty everything they give you.  They have to by policy.  (unless its Cricket or Metro or some smaller company)  Verizon, T-mobile, Sprimt and ATT  will take care of you.

HERE IS THE REASON YOU DONT WANT TO UPGRADE OR BUY YOUR PHONE FROM AN INDIRECT DEALER:  They will not get you as good of a deal (unless it is costco or best buy or wal mart or radio shack) because the cell company wont allow them to.  That is right.  The cell company rips them off and wont let them provide you as good of a deal as they can.  the dealer only makes money on signing you up for a contract.  If you buy a phone from them outright, the cell company actually charges them more money for the phone than the retail price! If they have a 'slightly used' phone, than it is in their best interest to use that on your plan than the new phone, because they don't have to pay as much.  However, thanks to the cell company, once a used phone has been given to anyone else than they person who originally bought it, they will no longer honor the warrranty.  All these things are done so the corporate stores will ALWAYS have the upper hand with their indirect dealers.

Another thing to be aware of:  If you go to an indirect dealer, you will be stuck with 2 CANCELLATION fees if you cancel your service.  This is becasue the indirect dealer gets hit hard if you cancel in the first 6 months.  He will lose the commission he would have got for the sale (around $800 plus he loses all the money he gave you in the discount of the phones, which could be up to $500 or so!)  So for the dealer to even survive he has to charge another cancellation. 

So here is an example of how a dealer gets paid:  You sign up on the most expensive contract and the most expensive phone.  They make $900 on the plan. However you bought the Samsung Galaxy 3 for $200.  The dealer's cost on that phone is $700, so they lost $500 on the device.  That means their total profits is $400.  now if they can get you to buy one of their 'slightly used' phones that they probably got from another customer who just dropped it off or they bought it for way cheap, then they are going to make $800 to $900 from the deal!  Much better for them, but not so good for you.  

So bottom line:  AVOID DEALER STORES LIKE THE PLAGUE.  Not their fault that they are such rip offs, becasue the phone companies make them be that way in order to compete.  go to the corporate store.  If there is none in your area and you have to go to a dealer store, (better to go online but anyways) always get the new phone and be aware of teh double cancellation fee you will get from them if you cancel in the first 6 to9 months or so.

Good luck!

By the way, the salesman probably did something against his company's policy by making you do a cash transaction.  That means if you called his boss and bosses boss, they would probably get you a better phone, or if you call and complained to t mobile about it.