Shopping Discussion

Do you expect Rogers, Bell, Telus store employees to set up & transfer data to your new phone?

  • Last Updated:
  • Feb 21st, 2020 6:16 pm
Newbie
Jan 4, 2020
1 posts
3 upvotes

Do you expect Rogers, Bell, Telus store employees to set up & transfer data to your new phone?

When you get a new phone -- whether it be walking in-store after having it shipped to you from buying online/over the phone, or getting the new phone directly from the store/kiosk -- do you expect an employee to set up your new phone and transfer all data from your old phone to the new one?

I'm asking this from the perspective of a retail associate who works for a telecom company. For a variety of reasons, and to keep things short, I would kindly disagree if your answer is yes. I'd say it's not our responsibility and that it's separate from the cellular network access + device subsidy which you pay for monthly. If it's Samsung or Apple, they make it very straight forward on their setup screens for transferring data. It's a matter of following and reading instructions. Additionally, this goes for all of us, don't worry, but that old phone has likely gotten quite dirty over the 2+ years... and probably goes with you in the washroom. Lastly and most importantly for us: we depend on making a living via commission from sales, so this often hinders our time & opportunity to do so.
Last edited by wolfiec on Feb 6th, 2020 11:08 pm, edited 2 times in total.
39 replies
Deal Addict
Nov 1, 2009
2211 posts
1356 upvotes
Um.. no thanks I can do that myself.
Deal Fanatic
Jan 31, 2007
6365 posts
6726 upvotes
Center of Canada
No, but I saw people at WoW ask them to do it, and he kindly did it.
To me, I was like: really? You can't just don't at home?

Part of it is because I am the next waiting to be served. I was there, this customer before me have have tons of questions on each phone etc so the wow sales ask me to come back. I went shopping in the mall for almost 2 hrs, came back and they are in the middle of setup/transfer for her.
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Deal Addict
Feb 22, 2016
4745 posts
4409 upvotes
Of course not. When I buy a new computer do I expect the retailer to transfer all my data and settings from my old one for me? When I buy a new home theatre system do I expect the retailer to come in to hook it up and test all my devices for me? Same thing.

(if you want to pay somebody to do those things, that's your choice. But it's not a service I expect for free from the retailer).

However I can understand why mobile salesmen might do it if asked. They want to preserve the commission on the sale... and after the phone's been used enough (x number of minutes of use or y megs of data transferred, I don't recall the numbers) the sale is final and you can't return it. So wasting time to transfer data and play with settings stops you from "buyer's remorse" and screwing him out of his commission.
Deal Expert
Dec 5, 2006
16787 posts
12570 upvotes
Markham
There is legal risk for employees doing this: for example if employees setup phone but somehow deleted information or pictures or whatever, who should be responsible for this.
Deal Addict
Jun 18, 2018
1982 posts
1453 upvotes
Toronto
No, I don't want them to touch anything.
Deal Addict
User avatar
May 23, 2008
2417 posts
3847 upvotes
Toronto, Ontario
Back in the day one of my first retail jobs was working at a TELUS corporate store in the Beaches neighbourhood in Toronto. Chill staff, nice location, but some of the most entitled people you ever met in your life. This was 2008 - 2010, so people still had CDMA flip phones and the like. We did have a little dongle and software that transferred phone numbers from one device to another (provided we had the USB cable for it) but it was rarely used as we were supposed to charge $10 for the service, and customers would flip out and threaten to call head office on us over the price.

I remember there was a little old man that I felt bad for because he lived with his daughter and son-in-law and they were always such jerks to him whenever they brought him in to buy prepaid top-up cards. He broke his little LG phone and I couldn't even transfer the phone book because the charging port was messed up. I told him to go home and I'd take care of it and call his daughter when the phone was ready. I transferred each contact one by one via Bluetooth in between helping customers. 213 contacts later, they came back and picked up the phone. He was super happy and slipped me $20 when his daughter wasn't looking.

It turned out that his daughter knew the regional manager, and she emailed him. He emailed the district manager, who then emailed my manager. Why did she email him, you ask? To thank me for going above and beyond for her father? No, of course not: she did it to complain that my pants were "shabby looking".

No good deed goes unpunished.
Deal Addict
Dec 18, 2017
1659 posts
1227 upvotes
London, On
I've been told this isn't allowed by several phone stores now for privacy reasons. I did have it done when I went from my iPhone 4S to 5S, so however many years ago that was when the 5S was new. I knew the guy at Tbooth, and he transferred the data. After that, I found it was just as easy to use the iTunes on my computer to do it.
Deal Fanatic
Jun 24, 2015
8520 posts
2941 upvotes
0 downvotes
hell no. i would not expect it, but when i went to the costco wireless store late last year, the man said he would serve us "next" but had to finish transferring the data for the lady infront of us. he was struggling to do it, and the stupid lady did not know any of her passwords so he could not install any of the data transfer apps. after waiting nearly 30 mins, he finally told the lady "look, this isn't working, you didnt come prepared and dont know your passwords and i have people waiting desperately in line to be served" she finally took hint but also appeared pist off that he could not do it for her, she was mouthing off when walking away about not getting her pictures transferred over etc, the nerve of some people.
Supermarket worker at Fortino's
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Drive an Escalade
Deal Fanatic
User avatar
Sep 23, 2009
7081 posts
5209 upvotes
As a retail store employee how much do you want the customer to pay you?

If the company is only paying you per hour would you be willing to do this versus if they paid you based on sales?
Newbie
Feb 2, 2020
50 posts
89 upvotes
Toronto
Used to work for big three. Back then, the older customers always look to the person who sold them the phone to help them with any problems...much like a parent asking their child to help with phone problems. I don't think customers are expecting it but they definitely want it if they've never had a smartphone before. Luckily Samsung and Apple make it ridiculously easy now.
Deal Fanatic
May 31, 2006
6364 posts
776 upvotes
Toronto
I do it myself. It takes time so I'd rather do it myself and take my time to ensure that everything is covered.
Penalty Box
User avatar
Nov 13, 2010
7814 posts
1867 upvotes
Scarborough
Its easier if people simply dont, or avoid having tons of data stored on the phones.
All these apps and other things mine data secretly. Any photos worth keeping are printed and put in albums. Keep a phone diary at home and write all important phone numbers etc in that. If get new phone simply take 10-15 mins to reenter contacts in new phone. Really simple.
If i lose my phone today I’d not be worried at all unlike so many people whose entire life is on a mobile phone.
No stress. Simple life
Deal Fanatic
Jun 24, 2015
8520 posts
2941 upvotes
0 downvotes
contacts are now a days stored on the cloud of your email mailbox, so you dont even need to enter them, mine get synced every time i re-add my email to my phone,
Supermarket worker at Fortino's
I'm Not a Wise Guy but more of a Good Fella~!
Drive an Escalade
Member
User avatar
Dec 17, 2010
418 posts
214 upvotes
Nope. I would never expect them to do it for me. I used to work in one, but we do offer to the customer as a courtesy because it builds a lasting relationship as we are going above and beyond for them and we make sure that the customers are satisfied when leaving the store. Definitely pick and choose your battle when doing this as if you do see it being busy at your store, tell the customer to leave their phone there so you can do it when you have time or give them a ridiculous number like it will take 3-4 hours to transfer and ask if they have enough time to do it today, if not come back another time. I would say 1/3 people expect us to do it as they don't know how to transfer or they expect us to have the tools and means to do it much easily. I like transferring my own stuff with Samsung smart switch.
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Jun 3, 2010
1358 posts
1000 upvotes
Richmond Hill
Personally I will do it all myself. I have no problems doing that...but that said, if I wasn't around, my wife would have no clue how to do these things and so she would have to find someone who can do this new setup and transfer for her. I guess she can try and find a friend who knows...but in the grand scheme of things, the person who sold them the phone would be an easier ask. And she would probably make sure to ask if they can help before the purchase. If they cannot, she will go to another store and ask there.

I understand the frustration of this...I started working in customer support as my first job and I hated when the person would try and get me to fix and answer ALL their questions. It is not fair to me, even though I knew the answer and could help, it is not my job and I have other customers waiting on the queue that could actually use my help...but depending on how the customer treated me on the phone, I may or may not go a little further for them. To me, it is a mutual respect thing. If they really don't know and are at a loss...why shouldn't I help? But if they treated me like dirt and with no respect throughout the interaction...forget it.

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