Pros
A sales job at ABC Phones (also known as A Wireless) could serve alright for a part-time college student with few expenses. Little prior experience is needed if you can speak well to customers and know/can quickly learn how to use smartphones. The benefit package is okay. Except for that narrow demographic this is a bad company to work for. Customers get very few advantages from shopping at A Wireless stores instead of Verizon corporate stores. But here are the few they might get: - Stores are less busy than the big corporate stores and do have chairs for customers to sit in. Sometimes this means employees will spend more time helping each customer with questions/problems than corporate stores would. But management is increasingly discouraging lengthy customer service, so this is disappearing. - A Wireless offers a type of insurance which replaces your phone in store, instead of it being shipped. - Of course, any given A Wireless store may be in a more convenient location for you.
Cons
A Wireless advertises $32,000-$40,000 as average pay for a first year sales rep. Perhaps that was true 2 years ago! Average is more like $24,000 a year, combining a wage of 7.50 an hour and commission. No one takes accountability for this lie. Pay structure changes all the time and it's very hard to move up within the organization. The emphasis now is on selling Verizon's tertiary products (read: Verizon's lower quality and unnecessary products) which means salespeople are in fear for their jobs if they don't sell Verizon's home phones or wireless internet cards which most customers aren't interested in. It's hard to believe A Wireless offers a better service to customers than corporate stores when, unlike corporate stores, you will find: - $3 fee for customers to pay bill with cash, $10 fee to transfer contacts - fewer live phone models on display, less variety of any phones or accessories - often higher prices. Brand New: A Wireless does not allow Iphone sales without $75 in accessories. Already bought a case and car charger for your Iphone? Too bad, you still have to buy $75 extra in accessories if you want to get that "free" Iphone 4 upgrade you saw on TV. - can't look at monthly bill details, approve early upgrades, or apply phone purchases to bill - Unlike corporate stores, A Wireless salespersons are paid varying amounts according to the models of phone they sell. This results in salespersons pushing what is most profitable to them, not what the customer wants.