I've been to 2 corporate stores in Lincoln, NE so far with no success in trying to utilize the device payment plan.
The first store I visited was Thursday May 23 to pick up the newly launched Galaxy S4. When I finally convinced the sales rep (Technology Specialist is what his business card says) that I knew the device installment plan existed and that I did, in fact, know what I was talking about, he started the process to get me checked out. When the time came for the purchase agreement to show up for me to sign, the system would error out and force him to re-do the transaction. We tried this 5 times with the same result. He put in a trouble ticket, took my info, and said he'd get back to me. He suggested also maybe trying to stop in over the weekend when it wasn't so busy from a new phone launch.
As of writing this, I have not heard from him yet. I've texted him (he gave me his card) and still have yet to receive a reply. I was inclined to finalize my sale with him in the end as I know there is a commission involved, but I'm not sure that's relevant anymore.
The second store I visited was Saturday May 25, again to pick up the S4 on the device installment plan. This time, I had to convince the sales rep that I knew I was going to end up paying full price for the phone and that I didn't care that I could save a few bucks at the end of 2 years if I just renewed my contract. He started the process to get me going with the payment plan. This time, the screen for the purchase agreement came up, I signed his iPad, and he clicked next. The following screen showed that I was eligible for the payment plan, but the "amount due today" still showed up as the full retail price of the phone, plus tax, plus the installment fee. THIS time it was suggested I call *611 and attempt to do the purchase over the phone because he thought maybe he couldn't process the installment plan on the local inventory in the store.
Both of the above stores were corporate stores. Not resellers like Z-Wireless or anything like that.
I called *611 that afternoon and the girl was very nice and helped me the best she could. She informed me that, as long as it was a corporate store, the inventory is considered the same whether its over the phone or in store. So she took my account info and pulled it up on her end and verified that she cannot process any purchases with the device installment plan and that it has to be in person. She suggested maybe there wasn't proper training on the plan at my local stores and that they may not be aware of the proper procedure to utilize the installment plan. I asked if there was anything she could do, and she suggested going back into the store to try again and if they have problems, get a manager involved. I reluctantly informed her that it was in fact a manager that ended up helping me at the 2nd store with no luck. She then suggested having them call "sales support" (not sure what she meant by that. i assume it is some internal support line) to get help with the transaction.
Has ANYONE been successful in purchasing the S4 with the Device Installment Plan? Is the local sales staff really not being trained in how to use their own purchasing system? I don't want to go back into the same store with the same problem because no one knows exactly how the plan works.
