vB Easy Archive - Cingular inside Best Buy?

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Cingular inside Best Buy?
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Posted by: aj99000

I have been doing some reading and found out a Cingular Store or at least a booth is inside Best Buy. Much like any other tech store that is getting a cellphone company inside.

Anyways I was doing some reading on Retailworker and someone mentioned if you work inside the Cingular Store in best buy they do not pay commission. It is just hourly pay. Is this true? If thats the case would this not be a good starting point for someone?

Sounds like less stress since your not being hounded to make a comission. Also how do you go about applying for a job inside one of these stores so you can work the booth? On the Cingular site I only see Corp stores listed and no retail stores. I am guessing I got to go inside best buy and speak to the people at the booth or something inless Best Buy itself deals with the staffing of that booth. Thanks for any feedback.

Posted by: brealmp3

you'll actually be a best buy employee, not a cingular.

Posted by: aj99000

I thought so since it is considerd a Retail version of Cingular and not a Corp store. I just gotta figure out if they are hiring for that area or not. Seems like it would be intresting to work in without having to worry about a commission performance. Of course pay is probably around $7.50 or $8 an hour. Which is not really bad for me.

Posted by: Ink Noise

Well, the way it works is that you are a Best Buy employee working in the Wireless/MP3 department. You sell Cingular along side Verizon Wireless, Sprint, Amp'd Mobile (Verizon MVNO), and soon, Helio (Sprint MVNO). It is non-comissioned sales and you'd probably be annoyed at how much Best Buy as a retailer makes whcih is why you'd probably want to move to a corporate store (280-370) per new activation. Plus, most stores features very small selection of phones. Pay depends on your region of the country, but on the west coast, it's usually about $8.50-9.00 to start. If you're young and just starting out, I'd suppose it might be a good place to start, but I can tell you it's not a place where you're going to gain much knowledge that would translate well for comissioned sales since there is not much motivation or a directed push towards any one carrier (selling four carriers doesn't make much sense for customer retention or lowering churn for Cingular).

Meh.

Posted by: Infornography

As an ex-BB Wireless Dept employee, all I have to say is: NO. NO.

Don't do it. It's the devil's playpen. Just work for corporate, the money is alot better and to be honest, if you were thinking about working for Cingular corporate sometime in the future ( because they pay ALOT better ) then working for BB is pointless as BB doesn't give you ANY real sales experience. In commissioned sales at any place you have to try and work for that sale, whereas in BB the prices are already competitive and you don't work squat. Seriously, do yourself a favor and make more money by working at corporate.

Posted by: Carl G35c

hehe... I used to be one of the "Wireless Experts" at my BB store. Made decent money. Starts around $9, but wouldve rather worked at an actual corporate store

Posted by: MWPhoneGuy

Best Buy is a horrible company to work for. I put in my time there and am very happy I'm no longer employed there.

Posted by: ivwshane

Buy hey! you get an employee discount, right?

Posted by: aj99000

Well I figured since I never really worked cellphone sales before. Best Buy is the place to start without jumping in and being all stressed out and ripping my hair out. I have been in sales before but have sold computer services. Ranging from Computer repair, upgrades, custom built computers, and computer accessories. So I am used to walking up to a customer and selling computers. And it's not hard to do at all once you know what they want it to do you can place them in the right area and get them the upgrades they need. So I am guessing Cellphone sales can not be that hard of a sell either.... Find out what technology they want out of the phone. How much they yack. Convince them insurance is good. etc etc. Along with the goodness of having a handsfree headset....the list goes on. I would imagine your only competition in a Corp store is your fellow employees. Beating them to the customer standing in line in hopes that you will make the BIG $$ with them before they get a shot.

Posted by: Lambert

Quote:

Originally Posted by aj99000

Well I figured since I never really worked cellphone sales before. Best Buy is the place to start without jumping in and being all stressed out and ripping my hair out. I have been in sales before but have sold computer services. Ranging from Computer repair, upgrades, custom built computers, and computer accessories. So I am used to walking up to a customer and selling computers. And it's not hard to do at all once you know what they want it to do you can place them in the right area and get them the upgrades they need. So I am guessing Cellphone sales can not be that hard of a sell either.... Find out what technology they want out of the phone. How much they yack. Convince them insurance is good. etc etc. Along with the goodness of having a handsfree headset....the list goes on. I would imagine your only competition in a Corp store is your fellow employees. Beating them to the customer standing in line in hopes that you will make the BIG $$ with them before they get a shot.

In our store, when a customer walks in the reps pick up the phone and pretend to be busy

Chances are they are there for customer service and not to buy anything. I can't blame them, when the agent down the street is cutting deals left and right.

Posted by: ivwshane

Quote:

Originally Posted by aj99000

I went from selling computers to selling cellphones and the transistion was pretty easy.

Posted by: MWPhoneGuy

Just a warning for you with Best Buy. You won't be selling just cellphones. You'll probably be selling Ipods, mp3 players, and corded phones. You could also be selling digital cameras depending on the store. Also, you won't be convincing anyone to buy insurance...you'll be convincing them to buy Best Buy's service plans.

Any yeah, the discount is nice. But I wouldn't say it makes up for the rest of the crap you'll have to put up with.

Posted by: PsychoLes

Quote:

Originally Posted by MWPhoneGuy

Best Buy is a horrible company to work for. I put in my time there and am very happy I'm no longer employed there.

AMEN BROTHA!!

Posted by: Infornography

Sigh, ahhh Best Buy, god. Black Friday, the shoppers aren't human on that day, they're ANTS. I remember taking the lift just to look down on the people. I saw women stealing from other people's shopping carts. God.

Anyway, you won't learn JACK from Best Buy. Work at corporate. Make more money. Don't work for an agent or dealer UNLESS they show you that their pay and benefits are better ( usually they won't ).

Posted by: Ink Noise

Quote:

Originally Posted by MWPhoneGuy

Best Buy is a horrible company to work for. I put in my time there and am very happy I'm no longer employed there.

What's so horrible about it?

Posted by: Faceless Rebel

Besides everything?

I worked for a summer at Best Buy. That place sucked so bad. The employee discount sucked too.

Posted by: RF9

I've been to the Best Buy sales counter when the employee has actually said "You're better off going across the parking lot to the Cingular corporate store."
Nice.

Posted by: Carl G35c

Retail isnt meant for many people. You get tired of all the BS from customers(I definately am). People are cheap and always want deals on products.
Cust:"Whats the price of the iPOD?"
Me:$299.99
Cust:"What if I pay in cash"
Me: Its $299.99
What if I buy a case?
Then your ipod wont get scratched the hell up

. but its still $299

The worst about working in the cellphone dept is that people want to do updrades there. BUT BBY has different pricing on new activations and upgrades. It sucks. People ususally have to pay $50-100 more than new activation prices./rant

But its not bad at all if you have cool customers.

Posted by: mulletwireless

Quote:

Originally Posted by Carl G35c

hehe... I used to be one of the "Wireless Experts" at my BB store. Made decent money. Starts around $9, but wouldve rather worked at an actual corporate store

when each company used to have service reps inside the Best Buys. I am the expert on that since I used to oversea a few BBY accounts with AWE and then Cingular. Cingular does not hire reps for best buy anymore, they have IAR Indirect Account Reps from the indirect side of the company go in weekly for sales and account building.

Sprint....AWE.TMO.......vwz.... and Cingular used to have them. Then came the wireless retail inc mess and they sucked worse then a cheap hooker in vegas. They lost a 3 or 4 million dollar contract in less then 3 or 4 months.

Only reps I have seen in bby now are Sprint PCS and VWZ. They rest is done but smurfs only.

Commission will never be has high as they were in the golden age when an indirect rep could make $3,500 commission checks from a BBY. It will never happen again. If they did I'd go back working with the Indirect side of things since it was fun and I made a mint low 100's for what I did.

Posted by: Ink Noise

Quote:

Originally Posted by taylorh

I've been to the Best Buy sales counter when the employee has actually said "You're better off going across the parking lot to the Cingular corporate store."
Nice.

Were you inquiring about an upgrade? In that case, you were done a favor.

Posted by: MWPhoneGuy

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ink Noise

What's so horrible about it?

www.bestbuysux.org is a great site to see what things are like at best buy. i can honestly say that i have personally seen a lot of what is written there.

Posted by: Carl G35c

Quote:

Originally Posted by MWPhoneGuy

www.bestbuysux.org is a great site to see what things are like at best buy. i can honestly say that i have personally seen a lot of what is written there.

yep, there is a lot of trhuth in that site

Posted by: CA

Here is a good one for ya. In another thread I discussed local Empires and how many of them there are. So I have to tell you that if you go into our local BB and ask about phones there is a really good chance you will be handed the business card of a Cingular rep at the Corp store in the same shopping center, and told how he can explain the benefits of the merger with at&t.

So now the customer gets the benefits of two networks with no dropped calls compared to Verizon's one network. And if i'm not wrong the BB employee gets his hourly plus a commission split with the Cingular rep.

Posted by: Ink Noise

Quote:

Originally Posted by MWPhoneGuy

www.bestbuysux.org is a great site to see what things are like at best buy. i can honestly say that i have personally seen a lot of what is written there.

Wow, I worked for them for a year and I honestly can say it wasn't horrible at all. I was paid a very decent wage, made customers happy by clearly presenting all information to them about any services they wished and made the company happy by having great sales numbers because I was direct and honest with every customer. So, maybe everyone else just worked at the store from hell or something?

Posted by: aj99000

Well I applied for a Cingular Rep online. Got a quick denial as soon as the application was processed. Took about 30seconds from the time I sent it in to the time I got the email. A basic we decided to go with another person yadda yadda. But the Call Center is still an option I gotta call them today to book an appointment. But will also be calling best buy and circuit city back. I am not really tired of the people in retail. Just the staff. Some of the staff can really make new people feel like crap. Others make you feel welcome. And hell some become your friend fast and look forword to seeing you. So meh well see how it goes. It has to be better then Target.