Working as a rep for a wireless firm might sound like a fun job, especially for phone enthusiasts. But if you ever walk into a retail store owned by one of the top carriers in the U.S., you’ll soon understand that most of the people you end up speaking to aren’t really “into” phones. Sure, you could chat them up about the features of the
iPhone 16 Pro or the
Galaxy S24 Ultra, but if you think that you’ll be able to have a casual chat about the
OnePlus 13, forget it.
Why did this top-performing Verizon rep leave the carrier?
Most reps are knowledgeable about the devices they sell and don’t have time or the desire to care about phones that they aren’t selling. They probably don’t even know about the ultra-slim
iPhone 17 Air rumored to debut in place of an
iPhone 17 Plus model next year. This isn’t an indictment on the reps. They have a job to do and it is to sell you products and services offered by their company. Depending on the company they work for, reps must also meet certain metrics goals in order to keep their jobs.
After leaving Verizon, the former rep took his business to T-Mobile. | Image credit-T-Mobile
Recently, a self-proclaimed “top-performing employee in
Verizon Corporate for the North Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin district”
wrote a post on social media in which he explained his reasons for leaving his job and the post goes through some of the personal issues a rep might struggle with while on the job. For example, this former
Verizon rep says that he left his job because he has morals. This dovetails with a warning he writes to
Verizon customers.
“So, the next time you walk into a Verizon—or any phone store, really—check your account carefully. I had tons of customers come in from different stores complaining about extra products or services being snuck onto their account,” this former Verizon rep writes. Despite being a top producer, Verizon seemed to be on his back constantly asking him whether he tried to squeeze that last penny out of a customer.
“Even if you’re number one, it’s never enough. Did you sell that college student with no money on VHDP? Did you only pitch VMP as the “only” protection option? What about pushing tablets and watches? Or the LTE VHI to that family of five (with its blazing 25mbps speeds)? If you didn’t hit every one of these metrics on every single customer who qualified, it hurt your numbers. And that’s all upper management cares about.”-Reddit subscriber ExtremeJetBomber1
The outspoken ex-Verizon employee didn’t leave his job because of his co-workers, or even because of store management. Actually, the post says that he loved everyone at store level. He says, “But my issue was with anyone above the store level—district managers, directors—they don’t care about you. All that matters to them is how much money you make them each month.”
Verizon gets revenge on its former employee
Verizon must not have been happy with losing a top performer. After leaving his job at
Verizon, he took all of his personal wireless accounts to
T-Mobile resulting in
Verizon locking his accounts “for security reasons.”
“So now I can’t even access my Verizon account? It’s beyond frustrating. I get it—I’m on a new network. But does that mean I’m completely cut off from my old provider? I can’t even access my old bills or data history, which I need to give to T-Mobile to pay off my phones…Shame on you, Verizon, ” typed the former Verizon rep. “For being the most expensive carrier, you’re behind in the 5G race, the handling of the recent outage, and now you’re planning to push all customer service outbound? Shame on you…”
The complaints made in the social media post are similar to complaints we hear from reps who work at
Verizon‘s rivals. The pressure from corporate demanding that reps get consumers buying a new phone to add additional lines, cases, insurance, and chargers have really put these salespeople in a tough situation and explains why we often hear about
questionable sales tactics in the industry.
Another post on the same social media page was written by a former rep who said, “I worked for
AT&T back in the day. Can confirm same corporate mentality. This is why I do everything I can online now.” That last sentence makes a great PSA for consumers who normally purchase their devices from a rep inside a retail store.
