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Exclusive Dealer - Agent for 12 years and Got the 60 Day Terminate Notice 11/01/2005

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Posted by: PeakCelln

I posted this in another forum and didnt get one reply from an Agent/Dealer that knew of this. They all seemed to be from Arkansas or Texas, which I believe were Orange States before the buyout.I'm not sure if that matters. They actually got angry with me for posting it.

Anyway, last monday the entire state of Colorado, and any other State Infinity Marketiing was a Master Agent for, got a letter stating we were being terminated without cause in 60 days.
I was ready to believe it was an Infinity problem as these other agents in this other forum were telling me, but now i read on this forum that similiar letters were sent out in Georgia and many other states.
I started out as a Master Agent in 1994 for Cellular One, then AT&T. At the end of 2003, when the buyout was just a rumour, AT&T made me get rid of my Master dealership and join forces with this nationwide Master Dealer, Infinity Marketing of America. I was not doing the required 75 lines/mo anymore. However, I had been the top dealer for them in my city for years and even took the state title a few times. One month I even took regional(Dec. 1997- 845 lines/mo); and I did this with only 3 stores and 3 full time employees(2 part time) with me as a rover. I learned to live with the loss of my Master Dealer contract and proceeded to still sell AT&T exclusively.
When Cingular took over last year I was still an exclusive and remain one to this day. So what some of the posts here are claiming as far as this termination and it being for non exclusives is not true. Cingular is only keeping Two premiere Agent Dealers in the whole state. The one in my southern half of the state only has 3 stores, and they are not allowed sub-agents. The cingular corporates have three. This a total of 6 for half a state where there were well over 150. I understand weeding out the indirects. Hell, Ive been screaming about it for years. but not the loyal dealers such as myself. Give us an avenue to stay in business. We dont want to sell anyone else. I know this system and have over 17000 customer activations to show for it; with the lowest churn in the state. But that doesnt matter; Its basically "what have you done for me lately". I was only one of three in the entire state(all exclusives through Infinity) who scored a perfect 100 in the Secret Shopper BS. I help and have a close relationship with the closest Corporate Retail store. They send me agitated customers they can not migrate who lost their phone or need a repair and I give them a discount. I tell countless hundreds of customers a month that the system theyre on is the best gsm system; Despite Cingular management, Alleviating and calming their frustration, frustration born out of a rash of one-sided stupid decisions Cingular has handed down in the last year. But this doesnt matter to this company; loyalty doesnt matter; honesty doesnt matter; the pencil pushers are making all the decisions; and are subsequently throwing out the baby with the bath water. As I termed it in the late 90's wit AT&T, its "Corporate Conceipt" at its worst. AT&T did it then and lost half its market share. As I said elsewhere, and you old timers will understand this reference, this Cingular CEO could go down as one of the worst CEO's in American Business history. The problem is do we put him above or below AT&T's own C. Michael Armstrong.

P.S. Oh and by-the-way Radio Shack averaged 3.4 acts/mo/store nationally. I guess they'll be "written up" on a monthly basis,also. Good luck to all, and I hope this guy goes down in the worst way.


Posted by: PeakCelln

ok...I know... Conceipt in "Corporate Conceipt" should have been "Conceit"...shoulda used spell check.


Posted by: NukuCamui

good god, 845 activations in one month. That was back when Cingular was a baby tho. Im sure that you can get a job with a corp store in Colorado since theyre adding more towers to blow the verizon and cricket market there. I know Cingular is trying to drop a lot of indirects, but it seems to adversly affect people who know the business and do their jobs.


Posted by: PeakCelln

845 activations in 1 month-December 1997, 3 stores,w/ three employees and 2 part timers. I bet everyone from the local manager to regional exec i could break 500. It got me on the field[U] for a monday night Broncos/Raiders game(the next season), tickets to every Avalanche play off game(they won the Stanley cup that year) and dinner at Mortons for myself, my wife and every employee and signifigant other(i told each employee to order the double porter house and the 3-4lb lobster,lol) bonusses were ridiculous too. I took care of my employees and they worked hard for me. They all got a weeks pay as their normal bonus, plus an average for lines activated. I Never gave bonuses on individual merit.If ya didnt sell you didnt stay on the team. But I taught them all my way; none of them had prior sales experience. Anyway my General Manager ended up with another $4500.00 at the end of that month; all the way down to the new girl who had only been on a month...she got $2500.00. And by the way...1997 was the last year AT&T showed any kind of real profit; before all the EBITA and all the other now accepted accounting tricks used to show a profit. I personally knew reps in stores making $50-60k and more! But they were good reps...none of which are around anymore. Now youre lucky to find a good one...me and two other dealers are the last of that era. One is closing tomorrow and the other probably with me 12/31/2005.


Posted by: SuxBeingU

These rumors have been out there for some time now adn they have already terminated 2 very large dealers, The Mobile Solutions(Nationwide) and on that covered FLA Georgia and Alabama. They had 111 stores, in that area. December 1 is drop dead day in Cali. They started axing dealers in NY already also
You know you're going to have a hell of time getting that last monthes commissions don't you. They will hold your December commissions to cover chargebacks and you won't see that check until June/July, mark my words.


Good Luck


Posted by: mulletwireless

I asked about them dropping the Mobile Solution and they told me it was really a conartist group a lot of fraud and crooked people working for them. I secert shopped them a lot and I was never impressed.


Posted by: JDScott302

I feel your pain man. Same thing happened to me. My company sold phones for 11 years also starting out as cell one. Atleast they gave you a 60 day notice, we got ****ing three days. Time to move on.


Posted by: PeakCelln

Thanx for that heads up Sux, That means this is really the last month. I'll try and sign up as much BAC(I think the COR's call them IRU's)as possible in November. There is a small chance something may happen at the end of next week. There is a 4 day regional manager meeting coming up and one of the items being discussed is what to do with all the Sub-Agents that remained loyal and exclusive; there is only 3 or 4 in my whole state. Because I have been doing this so long, and as with anyone else who has, you have a personal relationship with some of the top executives who started out as your dealer manager. So lets just say I have this on good authority. So anyone else out there who also got "The Letter" hang in there. Its a long shot; but at least its something. But belive me, I'm not holding my breath. In fact, I'm preparing to close in January. It'll take that long because I have 4 stores worth of stuff packed up in the back. Probably time I pick through it any way.


Posted by: anubis9278

For once, can somebody post a full story? Correctly, please. Seems to be a lot left open for speculation.


Posted by: SuxBeingU

Quote:
Originally Posted by anubis9278
For once, can somebody post a full story? Correctly, please. Seems to be a lot left open for speculation.


posted some answer in ther other thread.


Posted by: eatmydave

Quote:
Originally Posted by SuxBeingU
These rumors have been out there for some time now adn they have already terminated 2 very large dealers, The Mobile Solutions(Nationwide) and on that covered FLA Georgia and Alabama. They had 111 stores, in that area.


= PCS Division


Posted by: eatmydave

From what I heard, both got caught number flipping.


Posted by: theclarks1

Quote:
Originally Posted by JDScott302
I feel your pain man. Same thing happened to me. My company sold phones for 11 years also starting out as cell one. Atleast they gave you a 60 day notice, we got ****ing three days. Time to move on.


How much of this crap is it going to take for us as professionals and veterans in the business to come to terms with Cingular as a whole being money hungry thievs, as compared to at&t who were still the same but did take care of there customers up until the past 3 years or so? I would say at least %50 of the people that walk through the door talk trash about what is going on or how they have been affected by this merger. Truthfully we were better off with the lesser of the 2 evils, AT&T.


Posted by: theclarks1

Quote:
Originally Posted by PeakCelln
I posted this in another forum and didnt get one reply from an Agent/Dealer that knew of this. They all seemed to be from Arkansas or Texas, which I believe were Orange States before the buyout.I'm not sure if that matters. They actually got angry with me for posting it.

Anyway, last monday the entire state of Colorado, and any other State Infinity Marketiing was a Master Agent for, got a letter stating we were being terminated without cause in 60 days.
I was ready to believe it was an Infinity problem as these other agents in this other forum were telling me, but now i read on this forum that similiar letters were sent out in Georgia and many other states.
I started out as a Master Agent in 1994 for Cellular One, then AT&T. At the end of 2003, when the buyout was just a rumour, AT&T made me get rid of my Master dealership and join forces with this nationwide Master Dealer, Infinity Marketing of America. I was not doing the required 75 lines/mo anymore. However, I had been the top dealer for them in my city for years and even took the state title a few times. One month I even took regional(Dec. 1997- 845 lines/mo); and I did this with only 3 stores and 3 full time employees(2 part time) with me as a rover. I learned to live with the loss of my Master Dealer contract and proceeded to still sell AT&T exclusively.
When Cingular took over last year I was still an exclusive and remain one to this day. So what some of the posts here are claiming as far as this termination and it being for non exclusives is not true. Cingular is only keeping Two premiere Agent Dealers in the whole state. The one in my southern half of the state only has 3 stores, and they are not allowed sub-agents. The cingular corporates have three. This a total of 6 for half a state where there were well over 150. I understand weeding out the indirects. Hell, Ive been screaming about it for years. but not the loyal dealers such as myself. Give us an avenue to stay in business. We dont want to sell anyone else. I know this system and have over 17000 customer activations to show for it; with the lowest churn in the state. But that doesnt matter; Its basically "what have you done for me lately". I was only one of three in the entire state(all exclusives through Infinity) who scored a perfect 100 in the Secret Shopper BS. I help and have a close relationship with the closest Corporate Retail store. They send me agitated customers they can not migrate who lost their phone or need a repair and I give them a discount. I tell countless hundreds of customers a month that the system theyre on is the best gsm system; Despite Cingular management, Alleviating and calming their frustration, frustration born out of a rash of one-sided stupid decisions Cingular has handed down in the last year. But this doesnt matter to this company; loyalty doesnt matter; honesty doesnt matter; the pencil pushers are making all the decisions; and are subsequently throwing out the baby with the bath water. As I termed it in the late 90's wit AT&T, its "Corporate Conceipt" at its worst. AT&T did it then and lost half its market share. As I said elsewhere, and you old timers will understand this reference, this Cingular CEO could go down as one of the worst CEO's in American Business history. The problem is do we put him above or below AT&T's own C. Michael Armstrong.

P.S. Oh and by-the-way Radio Shack averaged 3.4 acts/mo/store nationally. I guess they'll be "written up" on a monthly basis,also. Good luck to all, and I hope this guy goes down in the worst way.


Man that sucks for guys like you. Why not with the expirence that you have say heck with Cingular and go for kicking there but and doing like we do, sell multiple carriers and get the customers that you have taken care of over the years to switch. You know the perks and how things work, so why let them bend you over. Im sure that you wont even have to contact lots of your customers they would be willing to switch without even asking.


Posted by: JDScott302

Quote:
Originally Posted by theclarks1
How much of this crap is it going to take for us as professionals and veterans in the business to come to terms with Cingular as a whole being money hungry thievs, as compared to at&t who were still the same but did take care of there customers up until the past 3 years or so? I would say at least %50 of the people that walk through the door talk trash about what is going on or how they have been affected by this merger. Truthfully we were better off with the lesser of the 2 evils, AT&T.


Well it is already affecting them. Verizon did a million more new subs last quarter than cingular. Unbelievable numbers. Cingular was under a million new subs. They have already hurt themselves and wont be number one much longer if this keeps up. I have customers that are going to switch to whatever we start selling as soon as we get it. They came to us for our customer service and they will come to us no matter what carrier we start to sell.


Posted by: theclarks1

Well it is already affecting them. Verizon did a million more new subs last quarter than cingular. Unbelievable numbers. Cingular was under a million new subs. They have already hurt themselves and wont be number one much longer if this keeps up. I have customers that are going to switch to whatever we start selling as soon as we get it. They came to us for our customer service and they will come to us no matter what carrier we start to sell.

Woo Hoo go Cingular!!! lol But really I would think they would have to come out with something. Seeing that in my area we already have 2 carriers (CDMA though) that have much better coverage in the state. Places that Cingular say they will never cover and one GSM Carrier that mirrors cingulars coverage in the state except for 2 cities. So go figure.


Posted by: PeakCelln

Quote:
Originally Posted by anubis9278
For once, can somebody post a full story? Correctly, please. Seems to be a lot left open for speculation.


I dont know what you are refering to. I thought I had explained everything. The only thing I dont know is the outcome of that Regional Managers National meeting next week.
Anyway, in a different area I did compare what Cingular is doing now to what AT&T did in the late 90's with their Corporate Conciet; and we all know how that ended up; market share went from 60% to 20%. Its almost the same thing; history seems to be repeating itself.




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