Verizon is not pushing this Phone

[TommyMac]

I just got back from 2 Verizon Stores that I visited in my travels today and in both cases , the reps mumbled about the Fascinate. Two reps told me straight out that the Fascinate is a step down from the Incredible and the X.
Very odd.

 

[irish]

Wow......My wife and I both had the Inc. I liked the phone, but saying the Fascinate is a "step down"....hummm. They probably just dont know enough about the device yet. I love the Fascinate and it is no step down from the Inc. My wife will be getting into a Fascinate this week. She has been into mine for the last day and loves it....

 

[iPenguin]

I went to check out the Fascinate in a corporate Verizon store because I'm getting ready to jump from my Incredible, and I asked the greeter if she had any Fascinates in. Without even looking up at me from whatever was more important she told me ''It's in the back charging with the manager. Check out an X''... And there was a dead, uncharged Droid X in the corner.

So I drove to a privately-owned store and asked if they had any available and he went to the back and pulled a box just so I could see it. He couldn't stop raving and said he sold 5 of the 6 he had gotten in.

Anyway, long story short I'm wondering if corporate stores aren't pushing the phone very hard? I think they're slightly bitter that Samsung turned down their Droid branding.

 

[burningembers]

Samsung turned down the Droid branding?

And yeah, of the three places I've been only one seemed even remotely excited (or even knew what it was).

 

[tonyb81]

Funny, when I went to my Verizon store the day it launched one of the salesmen said to me. "You come to check out the Fascinate?". I said "yeah", he said "It's right over there, we call it BA...for Bad Ass."

 

[Vihzel]

This is a fantastic phone that easily competes with the Droid X and Droid Incredible. I think that Verizon already has a lot of Droid phones currently on their lineup and Samsung wanted to be a bit different perhaps?

 

[iPenguin]

Samsung turned down the Droid branding?

And yeah, of the three places I've been only one seemed even remotely excited (or even knew what it was).

I read some conspiracy-theory Phandroid or Engadget article a while back that mentioned it as a possibility, but my comment was more backlash at my Verizon's terrible customer service. Every time...

 

[saps]

Well, don't judge anything off what the kids in the corporate retail stores know/think/believe. I knew 10X more about the SF than anyone working there did on launch day

 

[TommyMac]

Well, I can tell you I was steered away from the Fascinate and towards the Droid Incredible and the X( I already have the Incredible) but was just checking phones out.
I'd be very concerned if you bought this phone when it comes to Verizon support; I'm not sure how much you can expect.

 

[substring]

I just got back from 2 Verizon Stores that I visited in my travels today and in both cases , the reps mumbled about the Fascinate. Two reps told me straight out that the Fascinate is a step down from the Incredible and the X.
Very odd.

I don't know which store you went to (and I think Verizon might like to know too). I went to two different Verizon stores and they both praised the Fascinate. As a matter of fact, it was the store manager who told me a few weeks ago to wait for the Fascinate instead of buying the X or the DInc back then.

Samsung turned down the Droid branding?

I am so glad they turned it down. The Droid name might turn on some hard-core techie guys , but it will turn off many female buyers. Samsung is positioning itself in the middle-of-the-road to accommodate both women and men.

 

[pw-man]

Funny... I was in a corporate store (with a 35-40 minute wait to see anyone), and was playing with the SF on Friday and Saturday...

On Friday, the SF up front was being used, and the one in the back was battery drained... Thought it might have frozen, so I pulled the back cover off and set off the tamper alarm...

On Saturday, I got to play for about 20 minutes ... the sales guy was talking to some Indian folks about droid phones and was heavily pushing the X over the SF. Bigger screen, blah, blah... Sounded like name brand versus generic discussion... If I would have had more time I would have given him some samsung smack...

lol

 

[xliderider]

Wow......My wife and I both had the Inc. I liked the phone, but saying the Fascinate is a "step down"....hummm. They probably just dont know enough about the device yet. I love the Fascinate and it is no step down from the Inc. My wife will be getting into a Fascinate this week. She has been into mine for the last day and loves it....

I hope you are going to use the BOGO deal to get the second Fascinate free.

Well, they will charge you $100 for it, then you have to send in the MIR for a $100 VISA card.

I agree, the Verizon stores aren't pushing or promoting the Fascinate at all. Its a good thing they have the BOGO(A) promotion going on, or I don't think many Fascinates would be sold. Kinda like the lackluster sales of the recently released D2.

 

[TheAlmightyDrew]

It definitely varies from store to store. It seems that Verizon is really pushing for the Droid X and not even the Incredible. At my Verizon store (which is the only corporate Verizon store in dozens of miles, they have three Droid Xs on display. They had one Fascinate on display a few phones to the right of the Droid X. Their Droid Incredible was in the FAR corner and it wasn't even near any of the other Droids or even the smartphones. It was near the crappy basic rugged work flip phones. The funny thing is that it wasn't even working. It was pretty much broken. The screen was very unresponsive. You would think they would try to get a model that was working properly on the show floor, but it didn't seem like they cared.

Maybe they put it in the corner because it wasn't working properly. Maybe they'll change around the display when they get a working model and put the Incredible next to the Droids.

 

[CTMouse511]

I would agree it varies from store to store. I went to our local Wireless Zone yesterday - 3 days after launch to look at the fascinate. We searched the entire store and did not see it anywhere - so we had to ask one of the sales guys if they had any and he said "Yeah - we have them in the back....we just got them yesterday (Sept 10th)." - He pulled one right out of the box and I ask them if they had sold any yet and he said "nope - not one" - well I said "How could you if they are in the back" - as you can imagine the rest of the conversation went down hill from there.....

On the other side of town - there is a VW store/kiosk inside our BJ's Wholesale club and we stopped to check out the D2 & DX last Monday 9/6 before I knew anything about the Fascinate. The lady behind the counter showed us the X and said - "Hey did you guys know that VW is launching the Samsung Fascinate on Thursday and its going to be BOGO? " - Then she preceeded to hand one to my wife and she instantly loved the look/feel etc of the phone. The lady was pretty amped up about it and said she couldnt wait for Thursday for release day.

So just within a 5 mile radius - I am getting to different outlooks on the Fascinate.

 

[Don S]

In-store, not much push for this phone as stated. But I am starting to see more and more TV ads - all over - for this ..

 

[meek_reese]

When my girlfriend and I went to a corporate store to get her a fascinate, the saleswoman mentioned that it was the first fascinate that she sold. I don't think that she ever even played with it, she was in awe of the screen. She called over the other 4-5 salespeople (it was a very busy afternoon) to have them marvel at the screen. The other customers were getting annoyed, but I was loving the attention that this phone brought. At least 2 of the salespeople mentioned that they were going to use their corporate early upgrade to get the fascinate.

 

[jroc]

They are in my area. Commercials anyway. I live in DC. In the last 3 days I have seen more Fascinate (and EVO) commercials than I have Droid 2 and X commercials.

Yea they're marketing this more as a multimedia phone. It does have nice multimedia features...I love that "Fascination" commercial....lol (Its an 80's song.)

Its either that car chase, motocycle movie, the futuristic movie, the musical Fascination one...(been seeing this one alot lately)

*I was just getting ready to post a thread saying how much I've been seeing Fascinate and EVO commercials lately.

 

[Geeb]

This phone is definety a GEM amongst the Verizon phones. Its nice to see that verizons droid marketing has brain washed less "informed" consumers into ONLY wanting the droid branded phones and completely over looking the fascinate. For the short time ive had this phone Ive been nothing short of blown away by its speed and image quality. However, I am an ex-blackberry user and so its pretty easy to impress most of us haha.

 

[jroc]

^I think thats why Verizon has been pushing that Fascination commercial alot lately.

At the end of the commercial it has that new Verizon "Rule The Air" slogan. Thats a Verizon commercial.

I think the commercials by Samsung dont have that at the end?

 

[hanano17]

I don't think they aren't pushing the phone. My store has fliers outside the store in the parking lot for it, and the reps talked about it a bit. Also, it's the only Galaxy S phone I know of that has more than one commercial. There's the Samsung one for it, then one from Verizon themselves.

Also, I don't think Samsung turned down the Droid moniker...I don't think it was ever offered. Droid phones are exclusive, Galaxy S phones aren't. Why "flagship" a phone that has a version on every carrier?

 

[burningembers]

Droid phones are exclusive, Galaxy S phones aren't. Why "flagship" a phone that has a version on every carrier?

That's an excellent point.


My local Verizon store has no signage, no accessories, and only one display tucked away in the corner basically.

However, I drove about 20 minutes out to another store (because my local one has lines nearing a 2 hour wait). And was able to walk in, play with one, look at accessories, and buy one within ~10-15 minutes.

Maybe it just depends on the store? Or the store's location...

Oh well, I hope this phone is at least successful enough for them to push some updates and jump on getting it Froyo sooner than later

 

[iPenguin]

Just saw the MOST ironic commercial yet for the Fascinate. Gave me a good chuckle- "Find your way to the VMA's with the Samsung Fascinate''. And a trio, one dressed up as a spaceman?, are lost while searching for the VMA location. They whip out their Fascinate and find their way.

 

[substring]

Just saw the MOST ironic commercial yet for the Fascinate. Gave me a good chuckle- "Find your way to the VMA's with the Samsung Fascinate''. And a trio, one dressed up as a spaceman?, are lost while searching for the VMA location. They whip out their Fascinate and find their way.

I saw that commercial too on the MTV Video Music Award. It looks kind of stupid.

You know, Verizon had made a huge business mistake by not taking the iPhone when Apple came to them first. Now they might be making another huge business mistake by not pushing the Fascinate. I begin to doubt the intelligence of the Verizon executives.

 

[iPenguin]

I saw that commercial too on the MTV Video Music Award. It looks kind of stupid.

You know, Verizon had made a huge business mistake by not taking the iPhone when Apple came to them first. Now they might be making another huge business mistake by not pushing the Fascinate. I begin to doubt the intelligence of the Verizon executives.

I agree about the commercial being stupid. If I had been a completely uneducated buyer and had seen the Droid 2 commercial and then the Fascinate, I would have gone with the former.

As far as a bad business move, I don't think so. Where would Android be now had Verizon taken up Apple's offer? On T-mobile? It didn't happen, so we make do with the now, and even though I love the Galaxy S line of phones despite their issues, in all reality even if Verizon doesn't push it they have the Droid branding. I do, however, think that the Incredible and Fascinate target the ''iPhone'' demographic more so than any other and could have taken more customers from ATT. But then we'd have iPhone fanboys on our phones.

 

[xliderider]

Also, I don't think Samsung turned down the Droid moniker...I don't think it was ever offered. Droid phones are exclusive, Galaxy S phones aren't. Why "flagship" a phone that has a version on every carrier?

Well your theory is flawed. The Droid Eris was the last HTC Hero phone released on a U.S. carrier, like the Fascinate is the last Galaxy S phone released on U.S. carriers.