Know what's going on with Best Buy & Pro?

[maurer171]

Some terrific points bwhite. I too appreciate the ability to do exactly what you describe, and your commitment to your local economy is rare and admirable. Personally, I can't afford the $130 difference right now, but my problems are miniscule compared to most others. Thank you for the
free perspective and Merry Christmas (or alternate holiday of your choosing) to all. : )

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[MattB85]

Boils down to this. Retailers such as Best Buy, Wirefly, Amazon, etc... all get cutbacks for getting people to sign up for another 2 years. They are purchasing large quantities of these phones in order to reduce price on their end, and are relying solely on the cut backs, and not profit from the phone. They also rely on selling a large enough quantity to justify slashing the prices of these phones, and they can do this because they have little to no overhead.

Best Buy Mobile is simply occupying space in a retail chain that specializes in electronics. Even if the mobile dept wasn't there, Best Buy still would be. So overhead is relatively low.

This is especially true when it comes to online retailers that don't have to even have a physical store location. Even less overhead, a couple of packing/shipping guys, a warehouse, and a webmaster and all of their overhead is covered.

Now let's go to the VZW corporate stores. Those employees, and those buildings, are paid by profits made on their equipment/accessories sales. The overhead in these stores are a lot higher. Not to mention, some of them have a good service dept that can actually either fix/swap phones right there on the spot. Their salaries also come from phone/accessories sales. These stores also setup working units of all of their phones they have for sale, so the customer can physically hold the phone and play with it, and even make test calls on it before deciding to purchase it.

So, if you guys want to continue to go to the big box stores, or internet sales, eventually you can kiss the VZW stores goodbye. I already see a trend of VZW steering customers more and more to their website, and I don't like it (online price cheaper than in-store prices, instant rebates, etc...). Whenever a new device comes out, I love the fact that I can drive right down the road and sit in the store and play with the phone for an hour if I want to, before I decide whether or not I'm going to buy it. A two-year commitment (not that I ever keep one that long) is a lot to be stuck with a device you are not happy with.

I understand VZW's decision to team up with Best Buy, Wirefly, Amazon, etc... They almost have to if they want to compete with the other names out there. Kinda one of those, everybody else is doing it, things. I just think it's the slow decay of local community business. I'm a big internet junkie, but all of my new purchases of goods comes solely through my local economy, so as long as VZW still has a store in my town, continues to pay their taxes into my community, and employs 30-40 people, I will continue to purchase items from that store.

That's a very good point. And there is something to be said for the higher level of support you'll get buying through the VZW outlet. I bought my last two phones through VZW and have generally been happy with them. In this case the price swing between VZW and Best Buy is just really high. If VZW offered the Droid Pro refurbished (and I'm sure they will in the next few months as some of the early ones get returned) I would buy one from them (I personally have no issue with refurbished equipment if it carries a warranty).

 

[andrewket]

I've noticed that most retailers don't have the ability to add a new phone/line to an existing account. You can do this online at vzw. I would have purchased at amazon if they could have handled this case.

A

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[maurer171]

I've noticed that most retailers don't have the ability to add a new phone/line to an existing account. You can do this online at vzw. I would have purchased at amazon if they could have handled this case.

A

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Hey Andrew, what do you mean by retailers not being about to add a new line to an existing account? Do you mean that they were never set up for that or that you've noticed it happening just recently with retailers who could do it previously? I hope that question made sense.

 

[maurer171]

Well it's been 5 days and still no official explanation ...

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[MO3iusONE]

I remember when I was in Afghanistan and had Sprint, I had renewed my contract and paid $350 for the Touch Pro 2 (what the hell was I thinking) but hey, it was a world phone, I'd be able to use it while deployed and use it when I got back. That phone was horrible, it had windows mobile, nuff said lol.

phones nowadays aren't all that bad. 150 or 200 dollars for a phone isn't bad especially when you look at what their capable of. I mean fast browsing, awesome apps, etc. etc.

I could understand if you were buying one of those dumb phones that are only capable of call of text but these phones are capable of so much and the price makes sense..