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The Off topic thread about cell phones tirred up a memory of something that happened back when I worked at SPCS. Back then you had two choices for a phone a SPCS netowrk only phone that became a paperweight if you went off the network or a dual band phone that would rape you with roaming charges if you went off the network.
We had this lady buy a single band (network only) phone from us. She lived and worked at the fringe of the network so the salesman tried to get her to go with a dual band. She didnt want the roaming charges and stuck with a single band phone. Make note of who she worked for: The blah county department of children services.
So she is out on a home visit one day which went very very badly and tried to call 911. Guess what she was off the network. So she had a nice little paperweight.
She lived through it (dang) and came in the next day making sure to tell everyone in the store how nasty and evil we where and had tried to get her killed because of who she was and what she did for a living and of course no one had ever told her that the single band phone wouldnt work everywhere.
Now sidebar here Tbone would call me out to the front introducing me as the Tech to help explain anything technical to people if he couldnt get it through to them. Somehow having a tech tell you the exact smae thing the salesman told you makes it sink in for some people. I told her that if she got into an off network area that she would not be able to make or recieve calls and would have a pretty paperweight in her hands. That talking into her shoe would have been just as good as trying to use the phone. We even showed her the coverage map in that area that we keep that showed her home was right on the border of our coverage area. She signed the contract and bought the phone anyhow saying she didnt need that roaming stuff.
She wanted to cancel the contract without the penalty fee, return the phone and get her money back and i think she wanted an apology from the salesman. Well that wasnt going to happen from Tbone. He told her to bugger off and not let the door hit her on the butt on the way out. SO she left leaving her phone on the counter.
When the manager came in the next day we asked her what to do. She said "She's screwed, mail her phone back to her and let contract resolution deal with her." And that was that. AFAIK.
We had this lady buy a single band (network only) phone from us. She lived and worked at the fringe of the network so the salesman tried to get her to go with a dual band. She didnt want the roaming charges and stuck with a single band phone. Make note of who she worked for: The blah county department of children services.
So she is out on a home visit one day which went very very badly and tried to call 911. Guess what she was off the network. So she had a nice little paperweight.
She lived through it (dang) and came in the next day making sure to tell everyone in the store how nasty and evil we where and had tried to get her killed because of who she was and what she did for a living and of course no one had ever told her that the single band phone wouldnt work everywhere.
Now sidebar here Tbone would call me out to the front introducing me as the Tech to help explain anything technical to people if he couldnt get it through to them. Somehow having a tech tell you the exact smae thing the salesman told you makes it sink in for some people. I told her that if she got into an off network area that she would not be able to make or recieve calls and would have a pretty paperweight in her hands. That talking into her shoe would have been just as good as trying to use the phone. We even showed her the coverage map in that area that we keep that showed her home was right on the border of our coverage area. She signed the contract and bought the phone anyhow saying she didnt need that roaming stuff.
She wanted to cancel the contract without the penalty fee, return the phone and get her money back and i think she wanted an apology from the salesman. Well that wasnt going to happen from Tbone. He told her to bugger off and not let the door hit her on the butt on the way out. SO she left leaving her phone on the counter.
When the manager came in the next day we asked her what to do. She said "She's screwed, mail her phone back to her and let contract resolution deal with her." And that was that. AFAIK.