photo by JonJon2k8
I have read snippets of several studies that show that people tend to buy more when given fewer choices. It seems so counter intuitive in our culture. Aren’t lots of choices better?
Let me tell you, if you had seen me in the Verizon store looking at new cell phones, you would have known that this is the truth. I kid you not, I showed Eric one of those old cell phones that flips open and does nothing but phone calls and said, “We should just get these.” (I’m a texter who has grown to love a QWERTY keyboard though, so I couldn’t really do it unless I absolutely had to.)
A guy came over to give us the spiel, although he left after just barely talking to us when he found out we weren’t picking out our phones that night. (That was before he made a joke when we said we don’t like our current cell phones because they sometimes turn off on their own. Thanks for standing by your product, Verizon guy.) When someone else was going to come help us, that same guy quickly told him in a quiet voice, “They’re just looking. They’re not going to buy tonight.” As you can imagine, the second guy didn’t come to see if we had any questions.
Instead, Eric and I just bounced around for wall to wall in the Verizon store like pinballs saying things like, “This phone is $200, plus we’d have to pay an extra $30 per month?” and “I don’t want to try to look at the Internet on a two inch screen.” Oh, and there was a lot of me saying, “I just don’t know.”
Finally, there was me saying, “Really – I don’t know, but let’s leave.”
photo by K!T
I’d like to have some snappy ending to this post, but it’s making me feel a little jittery just thinking about the trip to into the cell phone store. All I know is that if I don’t come to some kind of decision eventually, you might just have to reach me via tin can attached to a rope, okay?
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Will you be a return customer then? Wonder what the manager of this store would say about his employee’s behavior. It makes me sick that NOBODY offers good old fashion customer service anymore.
I totally understand your frustration though. Looking at the Sprint store with Zane a few weeks ago was torture! He finally found a phone he wanted, but our “representitive” for the company could not tell us much about how to use the data plan to our advantage. We signed up for the data plan, but because I didn’t use it to its potential, because of lack on knowledge I am sure, I cancelled the data plan less than a month later.
Good luck finding a phone you can live with!!
I TOTALLY get it. In fact, last time I needed a new cell phone, I made my husband go get it for me. I couldn’t stand the thought of walking into the store!! Anyway, glad I found your blog!
I love this! I think it’s so true. I used to spend a lot of time when posting my crafts saying “or you can substitute with ribbon, or a strip of paper, or a piece of yarn, or you can just…” and honestly, I think people just want to be told “USE RIBBON”. You know? My parents got me a new cell phone for my birthday. It was really nice not to choose it myself
Great post!
We JUST went through this. Its not that we didnt want a good phone, and not that we werent prepared to make the payments, but were so overwhelmed with the choices and so leary of the contracts that we ended up with prepaid. Maybe next year.