So what's the deal with these authorized dealers?
Less than an hour later, my wife left with her new phone. So we left, I got my pancakes, and then we went to the real Verizon store. Something didn't seem right, but it wasn't until we left the store that I realized that Verizon didn't warranty the phones, it was AppleCare+ that provided that service.Īs it turned out, this "fake" Verizon store didn't currently stock the 128GB rose gold iPhone SE my wife had her heart set on. He was all about selling us a monthly plan, because otherwise Verizon wouldn't warranty the phone.
We wanted to buy the phone outright, and just move the provisioning from my wife's old 6s Plus to the SE, so I could inherit the 6s Plus as a spare 4K camera. Still, I could feel the hairs raise on the back of my neck. The slightly sweaty guy in a button-down shirt wasn't wearing the typical Verizon logo, but that was it. All the point-of-sale displays were Verizon-branded. Inside, the store looked exactly like a Verizon retailer. Small lettering under the Verizon logo said it was an "authorized reseller." But when we got close, we noticed that there was, literally, subtext. After all, there was a giant sign that said Verizon on the building. Except.įrom all outward indications, this store appeared to be a Verizon store. In my eyes, a Verizon store that shares a parking lot with a pancake house is always going to be better than a Verizon store not accompanied by a stack of harvest grain and nut happiness. But recently, a Verizon store opened next to our local pancake house. We have a Verizon store in the next town over that we've used regularly. She was more comfortable walking into the local Verizon store, and letting them make it all happen. She didn't want to order it from Apple and wait for it to arrive. So today, given that Apple recently refreshed the iPhone SE, we went out to get her a cute little 128GB iPhone SE.
While my Plus phone is perfect for my bear-like man hands, her Plus phone takes up too much space in her purse, and is too bulky and heavy for her pants pockets. The problem was, she also wasn't thrilled with her iPhone 6s Plus. I rely on it for work, and my wife just wasn't all that enamored of the features in the iPhone 7. I'm uncomfortable giving up my headphone jack. They had it working in under 30 minutes.Įven though the iPhone 7 has been out for half a year, neither my wife or I upgraded. But when the Apple Store ( after hours and hours), just couldn't get it properly provisioned, I stopped into my local Verizon. When I bought my iPhone 6s Plus, I bought it at an Apple Store. Also, setting up and provisioning phones is often so complicated that it's nice to have someone in the store do it for you. People still want to touch the phones they're going to buy. One category of brick-and-mortar that's still thriving is the mobile phone retailer.
Many vendors were used to giving up a 60-70 percent cut.
That's why, for many old-school software vendors, the fact that Apple takes a 30 percent cut was actually a win. In the world of computer software and hardware, the traditional cost of distribution was often 60 percent or more that is, the original maker got 40 percent, or less, of what the customer had to spend. Retailers, who bought from wholesalers, also got their cut. Marketers worried about protecting the integrity of the channel, which meant that wholesalers who bought from manufacturers got their cut.
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