How can US carrier employees be so misinformed?

[Lift Bar]

I went into one of my local carriers and looked at the iPhone 15 a couple days ago. I was looking to upgrade from my iPhone 12 and wanted to see if the hardware features were worth the effort. The first thing that gave me pause was that a store employee told me “the back of the iPhone 15 is metal so you don’t need a case”. I tried to argue that having a metal case would interfere with radio communications.. I even asked him if he knew how a faraday cage worked. He said I didn’t know what I was talking about, “metal conducts electricity”, he said.

Aren’t those people supposed to know what they’re doing?

Anyway, after going back home and doing some research I returned to that store and upgraded to an iPhone 15. I’ll have to admit, I didn’t think the Dynamic Island would be all that useful but it’s growing on me. I don’t think I’ll be putting as much faith into the statements that carrier employees make going forward.

There were misunderstandings on both sides. The metal back of the iPhone won’t interfere with signals or act as a Faraday cage. Modern phones are designed to avoid these issues.

 

[n-evo]

“the back of the iPhone 15 is metal so you don’t need a case”. I tried to argue that having a metal case would interfere with radio communications.. I even asked him if he knew how a faraday cage worked. He said I didn’t know what I was talking about, “metal conducts electricity”, he said.

So basically a discussion between two people who both have poor knowledge on the subject. With one of the two actually going to an online forum to ridicule the other. Amazing.

 

[ninecows]

I went into one of my local carriers and looked at the iPhone 15 a couple days ago. I was looking to upgrade from my iPhone 12 and wanted to see if the hardware features were worth the effort. The first thing that gave me pause was that a store employee told me “the back of the iPhone 15 is metal so you don’t need a case”. I tried to argue that having a metal case would interfere with radio communications.. I even asked him if he knew how a faraday cage worked. He said I didn’t know what I was talking about, “metal conducts electricity”, he said.

Aren’t those people supposed to know what they’re doing?

Methinks that if he knew what a faraday cage did he didn’t need to work in that place 😉

Second: how on earth does my MacBook Pro then receive any wifi signal when it’s full metal? 😂

 

[Sippincider]

I was looking to upgrade from my iPhone 12 and wanted to see if the hardware features were worth the effort.

The salesperson clearly had no training because the standard answer is "Yes and you need to upgrade NOW!!".

“the back of the iPhone 15 is metal so you don’t need a case”

Surprised they didn't push a case along with whatever other accessories they had. Oh and the in-house extended warranty, the one where if you decline it the device will certainly fail and you'll never find happiness...

 

[scorpio vega]

It’s like going to McDonald’s and complaining about service. Like make it make sense.

They get paid little to do the bare minimum and know the bare minimum

 

[zee11]

I went into one of my local carriers and looked at the iPhone 15 a couple days ago. I was looking to upgrade from my iPhone 12 and wanted to see if the hardware features were worth the effort. The first thing that gave me pause was that a store employee told me “the back of the iPhone 15 is metal so you don’t need a case”. I tried to argue that having a metal case would interfere with radio communications.. I even asked him if he knew how a faraday cage worked. He said I didn’t know what I was talking about, “metal conducts electricity”, he said.

Aren’t those people supposed to know what they’re doing?

Anyway, after going back home and doing some research I returned to that store and upgraded to an iPhone 15. I’ll have to admit, I didn’t think the Dynamic Island would be all that useful but it’s growing on me. I don’t think I’ll be putting as much faith into the statements that carrier employees make going forward.

I went into one of my local carriers and looked at the iPhone 15 a couple days ago. I was looking to upgrade from my iPhone 12 and wanted to see if the hardware features were worth the effort. The first thing that gave me pause was that a store employee told me “the back of the iPhone 15 is metal so you don’t need a case”. I tried to argue that having a metal case would interfere with radio communications.. I even asked him if he knew how a faraday cage worked. He said I didn’t know what I was talking about, “metal conducts electricity”, he said.

Aren’t those people supposed to know what they’re doing?

Anyway, after going back home and doing some research I returned to that store and upgraded to an iPhone 15. I’ll have to admit, I didn’t think the Dynamic Island would be all that useful but it’s growing on me. I don’t think I’ll be putting as much faith into the statements that carrier employees make going forward.

These are just normal minimum wage people. They just sign you up and send you off. They don’t need to understand how the phone works.

I’m sure even at Apple Retail, while they know 99% of the details of the phone, they likely don’t know how the antennas would work or how photo sensors work. That isn’t their job description.

 

[Iwavvns]

They also couldn’t tell you that iPhone 16 is coming in few months and you should wait for that to get 15 cheaper 🙃 They sure are misinformed.

Oh, that was on me.. I always stay a model behind the current release. I learned my lesson with the butterfly keyboard, had to get that keyboard repaired twice.. i’m not going down that rabbit hole again.

 

[Iwavvns]

So you just abused some poor soul making minimum wage by selling devices, his employer doesn’t even manufacture. You won’t get any different answers in Walmart hardware section about stuff they sell. It’s not a customer experience center to learn about products, these are sales folks who want to sell and make a living.

No, I didn’t “abuse” anyone. When I saw that my efforts weren’t working, I told him to have a good day and I walked away. You need to be careful with your accusations.

 

[Jimmy Bubbles]

I went into one of my local carriers and looked at the iPhone 15 a couple days ago. I was looking to upgrade from my iPhone 12 and wanted to see if the hardware features were worth the effort. The first thing that gave me pause was that a store employee told me “the back of the iPhone 15 is metal so you don’t need a case”. I tried to argue that having a metal case would interfere with radio communications.. I even asked him if he knew how a faraday cage worked. He said I didn’t know what I was talking about, “metal conducts electricity”, he said.

Aren’t those people supposed to know what they’re doing?

Anyway, after going back home and doing some research I returned to that store and upgraded to an iPhone 15. I’ll have to admit, I didn’t think the Dynamic Island would be all that useful but it’s growing on me. I don’t think I’ll be putting as much faith into the statements that carrier employees make going forward.

I’ll bite. My theory for the carrier store employees being in the dark is, they have 30+ other smart phones that they are selling as well. Also, I’d venture to guess they don’t make as much commission, if any, from iPhone.

When I worked it Apple, we sold 1 phone, or a few variations of iPhone. It was easier to know and see the differences in material and even most of the features.

 

[antiprotest]

If that gets you worked up, you haven't seen anything yet. Also, Apple's retail employees are often just as impolite and ignorant. They used to be noticeably better, jarringly better, but that hasn't been the case for years now. Now they are just randos hired off the street that morning. Several times I was taken aback that they knew far less than I did about their own products and services, and I'm no expert myself. Sure, there are good and bad ones, so you can't get a statistic out of anecdotal evidence either way -- just adding this to preempt the customary reply "Well, my experience has been perfect every time."

 

[RSmith2023]

I don’t want to just have an iPhone, I want to know how it works.. I even studied transistors down to the point of knowing how electrons flow from source to drain through a gate. I never buy or use anything without knowing exactly how and why it works the way it does. I grew up like that, I thought everyone was like that. I just don’t understand how someone can be happy just barely sliding by through life.

Fairly bad assumption you made there. Most people do not go into that detail on obsessing over how something, everything works. They just want it to work and, if it doesn't, where to go to get it fixed.

Relax this obsession and you'll reduce your stress level a bit.

Remember that these sales reps are tasked with selling a fair number of devices in addition to the device you may want information about. They couldn't realistically be expected to hold all the detailed build info you seem to be looking for.

 

[Iwavvns]

Fairly bad assumption you made there. Most people do not go into that detail on obsessing over how something, everything works. They just want it to work and, if it doesn't, where to go to get it fixed.

If you know how something works, you are better qualified to troubleshoot it yourself and possibly repair it if you can. knowledge can keep you from getting ripped off when a repair place says you need $500 worth of parts or services that you actually don’t need. I see people all the time getting ripped off and then play the victim card never realizing that their circumstances would have been different had they spent less time in front of the TV and more time learning. Knowledge is power, my friend.

 

[ThailandToo]

They make minimum wage and are only given information that Apple gives them. If you want more informed sales people that are more educated than they need to be paid more, simple as that.

But the back is still not metal. It’s glass! It’s bad information. But metal also acts as an antenna so the OP isn’t quite right on many statements also.

 

[TechnoMonk]

No, I didn’t “abuse” anyone. When I saw that my efforts weren’t working, I told him to have a good day and I walked away. You need to be careful with your accusations.

For some one who expects to know everything, where did I say you were rude or abused the employee in person. Learn the context of “poor soul”. And after your OP, talking about transistors and your assumption of an employee getting by life sounds abusive, though online. You need to be careful on making assumptions.
Life is too short for bickering with out knowing the said sales employee in person. They don’t get paid enough to have a PhD on iPhones.

 

[splifingate]

Aren’t those people supposed to know what they’re doing?

The expectation on our part is "Yes"

In actuality, this is not the case.

I recently went the round-around with GrubHub support as to the veracity of the two POS kiosks I retrieved from the dump . . .

. . . the few responses I received were what I would imagine the response I would get from asking a random stranger if it were possible that we are all travelers on an n-dimensional singularity, destined to travel-back in time to where were were, previously, without actually knowing.

It's like I had just invented 'fire'.

Temper you enthusiasm, and do your own research [edit: please, Mods, refrain from dinging me on the DYOR angle; it's really good advice, and needs to be said] 🤷‍♂️

 

[seek3r]

I went into one of my local carriers and looked at the iPhone 15 a couple days ago. I was looking to upgrade from my iPhone 12 and wanted to see if the hardware features were worth the effort. The first thing that gave me pause was that a store employee told me “the back of the iPhone 15 is metal so you don’t need a case”. I tried to argue that having a metal case would interfere with radio communications.. I even asked him if he knew how a faraday cage worked. He said I didn’t know what I was talking about, “metal conducts electricity”, he said.

Aren’t those people supposed to know what they’re doing?

Anyway, after going back home and doing some research I returned to that store and upgraded to an iPhone 15. I’ll have to admit, I didn’t think the Dynamic Island would be all that useful but it’s growing on me. I don’t think I’ll be putting as much faith into the statements that carrier employees make going forward.

Worth pointing out that the first iphone had a metal back, and the back of the 5 and 6 were metal too

Edit: was wrong about the 3g/3gs, fixed

 

[splifingate]

If that gets you worked up, you haven't seen anything yet.

Ha!

Pure-awesomeness

 

[nathansz]

Why should a low wage retail worker be bothered to inform themselves about the stuff they are selling?

If they can get through their shift without some prick treating them like garbage then they’ve succeeded

 

[Iwavvns]

Why should a low wage retail worker be bothered to inform themselves about the stuff they are selling?

If they can get through their shift without some prick treating them like garbage then they’ve succeeded

See that’s the thing; I don’t look forward to going to work because I’m making money, rather I look forward to going to work because there is the potential to help another human being with something.

Also, people treat me badly all the time. I never take it personally because their opinion has no power to change my value and/or identity as a person. If you spend time worrying about what people think of you then you’re only doing as good as people are treating you, and that is a sad way to spend your life.

 

[bousozoku]

You don’t have to understand it, people live their lives differently. Also not knowing what the back of a phone is made of isn’t exactly ”sliding through life”. Maybe they have a lot of expertise in something they’re more passionate about and simply view this as a job to pay the bills. You can’t expect everyone to have the same interests as you, and what a boring world that would be if everyone had the same interests.

I would expect that people would want to do their best at whatever they're doing, not sliding through life.

I worked for over 20 years in software development. Some of my co-workers were sliding through life, unfortunately. I've worked in retail recently and I'm sad to say that the 18-20 year old crowd and their parents probably didn't get much attention from their parents.

It doesn't matter that a worker has didn't interests. They should be at their best.

 

[seek3r]

Why should a low wage retail worker be bothered to inform themselves about the stuff they are selling?

If they can get through their shift without some prick OP treating them like garbage then they’ve succeeded - unfortunately op was there

FTFY (for this thread anyway)

 

[seek3r]

I would expect that people would want to do their best at whatever they're doing, not sliding through life.

I worked for over 20 years in software development. Some of my co-workers were sliding through life, unfortunately. I've worked in retail recently and I'm sad to say that the 18-20 year old crowd and their parents probably didn't get much attention from their parents.

It doesn't matter that a worker has didn't interests. They should be at their best.

I’m a software developer too, I get paid well for my effort, the retail employees at a phone store? Not so much

They dont get paid well, they may be scheduled *just* low enough to not even get medical benefits, they get treated like crap, and the company has no loyalty to them and will fire them in a heartbeat if it raises the stock price a penny. Why would they invest that effort?

 

[dmr727]

Also, people treat me badly all the time. I never take it personally because their opinion has no power to change my value and/or identity as a person. If you spend time worrying about what people think of you then you’re only doing as good as people are treating you, and that is a sad way to spend your life.

What is it that you do where people treat you badly all the time? Sounds terrible.

 

[nathansz]

I don’t look forward to going to work because I’m making money, rather I look forward to going to work because there is the potential to help another human being with something.

Well in that case I hope you at least realize how privileged you are

 

[bousozoku]

They don't make minimum wage. Cell phone sales aren't high-skill jobs, but they aren't that low on the list. Here, an average cellphone rep in a cell store makes around $32k, starting, which is a little over $15/hr. The minnimum wage is $7.25.

Hell, even McDonalds and Whitecastle start at double the minimum wage here, and I live in the middle of nowhere midwest...

Some are knowledgable, most aren't. Same as many professions.

Phone sales people here generally make $16.50-$17.00 for third party stores with the carrier stores set from $17.00-$22.00. Minimum wage here is $16.00/hour.

Some are helpful and some are knowledgeable. Most are struggling.