By Reports have flown in regarding the disappearance of the Motorola DROID Pro and the Motorola DROID 2 Global – two phones that are being heavily marketed toward business users for the holiday season – from Best Buy’s store shelves. Sold out? Nope. Manufacturing or software defect? Nuh uh. Rumor has it that Verizon’s a bit angry with Best Buy because of one heinous, treacherous act: they’ve priced the phones too low. Agreements for price floors are often made between manufacturers and retailers, and in the case of Verizon, their agreement is intended to keep the corporate locations hustling and bustling.
With Best Buy setting the prices of their phones so low, no one has a reason to go into a Verizon store: that means Verizon won’t be able to shove extra services down your throat and they won’t be able to go for the hard sale on accessories you’d otherwise buy. They make a lot of profit from those. Whatever the case is, you won’t be able to find these phones at Best Buy until whatever’s going on gets situated, if ever. [via Engadget]
this is true, we were adding a line for my brother last night and he wanted teh droid 2 global and the mobile manager came over and told the store rep that we could not sell it and an error came on there system to pull all the droid globals and the pro.
What a shame, shows these cell companies are all about making a buck. Too bad there are still many other sites where you can get the phones super cheap I still dont think it will bring many more people into verizon stores. Personally I hate getting pestered to pay for their over priced accessories that I dont want when I go into a verizon store
Wow…that sucks. Big red needs to start dumbing their prices down anyway. Happy Sprint customer over here…unlimited everyting baby, $70.
I’m a Sup. at Best Buy Mobile, and what has been told to me is that there is a problem activating those phones and that we were to “quarantine” them as not to accidentally sell any.
>> What a shame, shows these cell companies are all about making a buck.
Of course they’re all about “making a buck.” They aren’t charities. They aren’t the public library. They certainly aren’t the red cross.
The whole point of running a business is to MAKE MONEY. If verizon controls the distribution and sale price of a device then its in their best business interest to pull the plug on a partner that is not living up to the agreed-upon terms.
Best Buy: Yes we have the Droid Pro for 149.99 after instant rebate. Will also offer cases for 20 bucks and sd cards for 35.
Verizon: Yes we have the Droid Pro for 249.99 after a 49.99 mail in rebate. That may or may not arrive in 6 – 8 weeks and will be in the form of some gift card. We also offer cases for 40 bucks and sd cards for 55 bucks. Did we also mention the insurance options for 14.99 a month, and vcast for 9.99, and telenav for 9.99, don’t for get tethering for 14.99.
And Verizon wonders why they would go to Best Buy over their coporate stores.
Lol! You must be a Verizon employee.
This is the reason I left verizon. I’m much happier with T-Mobile.
The only reason Verizon is on top is their network. They have like the worst customers service I have seen.
@tad
obviously they want to make money but you can still go to a variety of other web sites and get the phones way cheaper than verizon. Maybe verizon needs to learn that nobody wants their shitty phones/accessories from them that are over priced when they can get the same thing much cheaper somewhere else
Ya but best buy is about making money too, it’s the whole point of their business. Verizon needs best buy because they are a huge retail channel, but now all of a sudden they don’t like the deal so they want to change the rules. They’re a bunch of assholes. These are shit phones so who cares.
@Rob Schoenfeld, either you have no idea what Verizon actually offers or you are just making s*&# up
If Verizon was a man, he’d cut my arm to steal my watch… if nobody was around, that is…
@mindo
I agree verizon needs to come out with something better or they may lose customers to sprint and now tmobile with the nexus S. Its like they released all the droids in a short time frame and now just are sitting back with nothing else to compete with the newest phones coming out.
I always buy direct from Verizon, because I get a discount through my employer, but I recently bought my Galaxy Tab from Best Buy, because of their 18 month no interest plan.
Ended up having to exchange the tab, which turned out to be a lemon. Best Buy was very kool about it all, while I have had nothing but trouble from Verizon about everything with them.
@tear
verizon always hassled me when i had issues with my phones it was never easy and they always took forever to help me
Some idiot I have been the verizon store recently the droid pro is 170 after mail in rebate so get ur facts straight idiot
So if you do not sell this product for this price we are pulling your right to sell. hmm what that sound like? That right price fixing.
Screw em both…you’re going to find the best deals on amazon, anyway. The Global is going for $39.99 and the Pro is a penny.
i really liked verizon…until it got too expensive to maintain. i was a former sprint customer, but ever since i moved to a brand new community, i’ve lost good signal on my palm centro (the term “black hole” comes to mind).
anyway, i switched to verizon, got several of their phones (with a heavy price tag on each of them), and everything was swell until i got to my last 2 phones (a bb storm and the original droid)…with 3 lines i’m paying close to $300, even with my 22% employer discount!
i switched back to sprint, knowing that i’m still living in a black hole…but they offered me something they never offered before…an alternative cellular line access connected via my fios service. whenever i’m within about 100 feet of the said device, my signal routes through it and i can make/receive unlimited phone calls to anyone within the US! on top of it, the device is free and the service free for 2 years (hopefully by then sprint has established new cell towers within the vicinity).
oh, and i’m paying $150 monthly for all three lines (4, if you count the mini cell tower), with my 22% employer discount.
sprint doesn’t have the best signal or speed quality out there, but i get the most bang for my buck.
I am selling a brand-new in the box Droid 2 (Star Wars model, makes R2D2 sound). Never used. I won it in a promotion. Requires plan from Verizon $40 for calls plus $15 monthly for data package=$55 a month (this is minimum plan).
Make me a reasonable offer now and its yours. Matthew [email protected]
Does anyone know what the prices were before? Is #6 right, or just making stuff up as 10 says?
Nobody sells accesseries with a bigger markup than Best Buy. It’s OK to buy your phone there but they rape you on the accessories.
Not surprised. After my experience buying my new phone on Amazon for a PENNY, I’ll happily hunt around and never go into the store unless I have a problem. Also, the Verizon attitude towards their customers is terrible and is why I’m a very happy T-Mobile customer now.
@bestbuyguy – According to the message everyone received, Verizon blocked activation for all Best Buy dealers. There was no problem activating them, Verizon just deliberately blocked it.
All the reports of a pricing issue is, for now, 100% rumor. There has not been one official source confirming this.
@ash
what the hell are you talking about you make no sense maybe learn how to create a full sentence so people can understand what you are saying
It sounds like lots of oyu have no idea what you are talking about. Verizon dumps more money into their company than any other company and are you even aware of what Verizon has done for community such as when Hurrican Katrina hit, what they have done for the firefighters that are working with the fires in multiple areas and what they did to help out Blue Cross Blue shield during the flooding in ND. Maybe you should do your reasearch and see how much Verizon does that they do not advertise. They just do it and why don’t you see what Sprint and T mobile do for your community and then come back and talk crap since you don’t know wha tyou are talking about idiots!
It’s not just Droid 2 Global. I checked three different BBs and the regular droid 2 has been pulled as well. This one was also priced at $99 when the verizon stores are selling them for $149.
this is a simple buisness matter Verizon pays best buy a commission every time they activate one of there phones,just like they do the reps in the stores. But best buy has tremendous buying power so when they order a phone they can get it cheaper than verizon who belive it or not doesnt acctually make the phones they sell the service only and dont make squat on the hardware. Thats why you sign a contract. So if they buy it cheaper and Verizon is also giving them money they can corner the market and undercut everyone. From Big reds stand point why would they pay someone to do somthing that is going to cost them money. If you acctually went into a store and aksed if they would match the price to start up an account most of them are more than willing to do so. As far as shoveing acc down peoples throat last I checked its a free world just say no and move on, cause best buy is known for the mark up on their acc. tha car charger that u might pay $20-$30 really cost them $5 tops so get over it and be an adult.
lol @ myself for having worked at BBY for 3 years and now at VZ for 6 months.