Well, at least that’s what I was told. I have been reading a lot of rumors about Verizon Wireless (VZW) getting the Nexus One later this month and that staff is being trained on the phone currently. So I decided to find out how true this was. I live in the Minneapolis area and called 5 different Verizon stores to find out what I could. The results were anything but consistent.
I started each conversation by telling the VZW rep. that I was a T-Mobile customer with a G1 phone and that my contract would be ending soon. I didn’t want to pay a large Early Termination Fee so I couldn’t get the phone for another 6 – 8 weeks. I did this so that they would be open to letting me know about anything coming down the line and not spend the whole call trying to sell me something on today’s shelf.
The only thing that was consistent in the answers was that they all believe the Droid is the best Android phone on the market. Since I wanted to know if VZW was going to get the Nexus in the next couple of week, I asked directly. The first rep. told me “No, but the HTC Droid Eris is basically the same phone, same size, no physical keyboard and just as fast. I had trouble steering the SUV due to my laughter. When pressed further about the Nexus One it became apparent that he was clueless as to it coming or not.
- Verizon Droid Eris
The reps. at stores 2 and 3 were much more knowledgable. They both were aware of the Nexus One and were both adamant that this phone would not be sold in VZW stores and would only be available thru Google. Paraphrasing, they said The Nexus One will not be available at Verizon stores EVER. Both of them were upbeat about the Motorola Devour coming soon.
It is interesting to note that I talked with 4 male reps and one female rep and all of male reps immeditately knew what I was talking about when I called it the Megan Fox phone. But the female rep had no clue what I was talking about. That female rep. was from store number 4. According to this rep, the Droid was too masculine and the Devour was prettier. Not that I asked! When I did ask about the Nexus One, this rep was very sure that it would be coming in the summer or fall, for sure! They were just waiting for the manufacturer to have adequate quantities.
Store Number 5 made me laugh as well. This gentlemen was all Droid, Droid, Droid! The Nexus One is never coming to the stores and you don’t want it anyway! The Droid is a far better phone and the Nexus One is way overpriced, you will never get a subsidy from Verizon for it anyway.
Now my purpose for these calls was not to argue if the Nexus One is a better phone than the Droid, it was to determine how true rumors about it being in the stores were true. What I can tell from my experiences today, is that if the Nexus One is coming to the Verizon Wireless in the Minneapolis market, then this is not common knowledge to their staff.
No one that I talked to appeared to have enough knowledge about the Nexus one to have been trained for support or even to have read a brochure. However, they could have just been playing dumb about the whole thing. My bet is on them being absolutely and completely clueless and that the rumors do not apply to my area 
Photos: Motorola, Google, HTC
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March 11th, 2010 → 5:56 am - Written By Gary LaTraille
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