Best Buy to start pre-selling the Blackberry Storm
Well, the rumors were true! Want to reserve a Blackberry Storm and guarantee yourself one of hottest phones to hit Verizon? Don’t call a Verizon Wireless store and put yourself on some waiting list that the manager may or may not even bother to look at the day the Storm hits the stores. Head on over to Best Buy where, for a $50 refundable deposit, you can reserve yourself a brand new Blackberry Storm. It will be sitting pretty waiting for you on launch day! This pre-sale is effective immediately, so you best be getting yourself over to Best Buy asap. Now that we got you all excited, the email does confirm that as of November 3rd, there is no set release date or pricing. Don’t let your hopes be dashed too much as it does reveal that the Storm is expected to launch in November and will be priced between $199.99 and $299.99 for a two-year new activation. Last but not least, Best Buy will receive adequate inventory to cover the number of pre-sold Storms. So if you pre-order, you’re in like flint come launch day! Hit the jump for the text of the email.
Thanks, anonymous (you know who you are!)
Start pre-selling the Storm!
Unique Opportunity to Pre-sell Blackberry Storm!
Effective immediately, customers may pay a portion of the purchase price to reserve a Blackberry Storm handset. This is a huge, exclusive opportunity for Best Buy Mobile - no one else is doing it - and something we haven’t done in this area of the business before. Many customers who may not have considered Best Buy as a Storm source will arrive in our stores to be guaranteed a handset!
As of Nov. 3, the sales price and official launch date for the Storm have not been set - despite blog rumors to the contrary. It is safe to assume the handset will be priced between $199.99 and $299.99 for a two-year new activation and will launch sometime in mid-November. Stay tuned to Employee News where we will announce the price once it is set.
Your store will receive inventory to cover the quantity of pre-sold Storms plus other sellable inventory for launch day. The pre-sell SKU must be rung up to ensure inventory arrives at store.
Please review the process below which is critical to execution of the customer experience for this new process:
Pre-selling the Blackberry Storm: The Process
* Customer pays $50 in store prior to launch date
* Employee scans the UPC on the Storm presell flyer and processes in POS
* Scanning this SKU is critical to ensure your store will receive adequate inventory to cover your presell quantities
* Click here to access the pre-sale form
* Click here for the “Coming Soon, Reserve Yours Today” flyer
* Employee makes a copy of the completed Storm pre-sell flyer
* Employee staples the original copy of the Storm pre-sell flyer to the customer’s receipt
* Employee files the copy of the Storm pre-sell flyer in a specially created Storm pre-sell folder in the 1-31 file
* Customer sets an appointment with the Best Buy Mobile employee to come in and pick up their reserved Storm
* Customers who purchase a pre-sell prior to the release date will not be able to set their appointment yet. Best Buy Mobile employees will need to contact customers at a later date with the information on the pre-sell form copy to set the appointment with these customers.
* Stores will need to maintain a master appointment form or file to keep track of all customer appointments.
* Employee attaches copy of pre-sell form to inventory when it arrives in store and sets it aside as reserved.
* Customer returns at their appointment time to pick up their handset
* Employee process an activation on the Storm
* Employee process an exchange transaction
* The presell SKU is returned on this transaction
* The Storm product and activation SKU are then added to the transaction
* The net of the transaction of the Storm less the pre-sale amount
* Customer leaves happy
* If the customer does not return for their appointment time, contact the customer to reschedule an appointment.
* Hold the product for 48 hours from the appointment time for your customer before putting it back into inventory
* The $50 deposit is 100% refundable if the customer chooses not to or cannot purchase the Storm.
Tags: Best Buy, BlackBerry, presale, storm, verizon wireless
So does this reserve guarantee a Storm on the day it is released, or the day that Best Buy has them available in stores? (assuming they are different days as some are speculating)
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i think i’ll still go to my local vz store, but i like the “mid-november” thing. Gives me hope this will come out sooner rather than later this month.
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Kudos to BestBuy. Smarter if VZW stores could pull this off.
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* Customer leaves happy
best line of the whole thing.
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What if we’re upgrading on new every two?
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So they are basically screwing us NE2 existing BB customers? It says new 2 year activation. Any indication that they will honor the same rebates, discounts and plan changes as a vzw store for current customers?
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Why on earth wouldn’t the VZW stores make this offer?
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is there a difference getting the phone at best buy then from a vzw store?
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A “verizon” rep at my Best Buy said inside talk is that 11/16 is the release date…we’ll see.
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which stores with do this all best buys?
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Getting closer…
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Verizon kiosk worker told me 11/16 will be release date for the storm as well
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JUST LAUNCH THE DAMN THING ALREADY!!
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Well, in my meeting with RIM today, they mentioned the device is not ready for that 16th release date and have not confirmed a release date or price as of yet, and also VZW has been signing up customers and taking down names to call them once the storm is released, they have been VERY proactive about this and are taking it very seriously as well.
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The offical launch date is 11-16-2008. Mark your calendars!
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Obviously those verizon reps were lying because best buy just made an official statement that there isnt a set release date yet…so nothing is official yet so dont let any verizon rep who thinks they know that they r talking about fool u into thinking its coming out on a certain date…their guess is as good as yours
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So I am truly a BB addict and I am trying to recruit all my friends to get on the bandwagon!!!!…anyway, after reading this post I went to my local Best Buy and asked if I could put one on hold. However, they don’t allow early upgrade at the 1 year price like if you were to do it over the phone or at a corporate store. So, I was unable to do so there, but she did confirm that the release date at Best Buy was 11/16 so we could safely say that is the release date for Best Buy…to my understanding corp stores release a day or two early…I’m hoping and praying, because I will be there first thing!!!
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Online it says the BB storm has a free 8 GB SanDisk Micro SD card preinstalled.
That makes the price a steal.
FWIW…
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So after going to the corporate store today a friend there told me their release will be Friday Nov 14. This is the day that VZ is changing data plans for the Storm. He wasn’t able to say what the price would be for a 2yr would be. But next Friday I’m first in line.
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If you are eligible for an annual upgrade then yes you can do that at Best Buy. You need to be clear that your eligible for an annual upgrade but you will have to pay the one year price, whatever that may be.
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One more thing…
Nov. 16th is a Sunday.
No way an exciting New BB product will be released on a day of rest for Gods, Goddesses, and Boy Geniuses.
UPS doesn’t ship on Saturdays and Sundays.
Maybe it will be that Tuesday like Whimpy on Popeye. ‘I will gladly pay you next Tuesday for a Hamburger today.’
There will probably be Shinkage (Seinfeld) and Slippage on the release schedule into Turkey Time. Seem to recall the Pearl on AT&T was released on Black Friday in Nov. 2006.
Adios MF
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I just did the prepaid (receipt in hand) and although there isn’t a “published” release date Stormfanatic, they did confirm that 11/16, Sunday is the release date. Even the manager of Best Buy did, and they know because they have the paperwork that lets them know when they are having their releases. They said that all of their releases of items like this always falls on a Sunday. They didn’t say I think, they said our paperwork says it’s 11/16.
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Oh and the storm hunt ends on the 15th….
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It’s actually MORE likely to launch on a Sunday as VZW usually launches new phones on Sunday to take advantage of Sunday paper advertising. Or so I’ve been told.
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I would rather be “In like Flynn” as I am not too sure what “in like flint” means!
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