Best Buy kicks off Motorola Devour pre-sale, no rebate required
By Donald Melanson 
posted February 16th 2010 3:16PM
posted February 16th 2010 3:16PM
You'll still have to wait until February 25th to actually get your hands on one, but those not wanting to take any chances on missing out on the Motorola Devour can now head down to their local Best Buy or Best Buy Mobile store and reserve one starting today. The only catch is that you'll have to buy a $50 Best Buy gift card to hold your spot for the phone, but the good news is that you won't have to deal with any of those pesky mail-in rebates -- just a simple instant discount at the check-out. Curiously though, while Best Buy will gladly sell you a $50 gift card, it's still not saying exactly much the phone itself will actually cost -- here''s hoping we hear more about that before you actually wind up in the check-out line.
Somehow they are going to rip you off, lets see if I can figure out the scam.
I bet the phone will be $93 or $193 in hopes that you forget about the $50 you put down so they can pocket the $7.00 or so
Thats my bet
@Hydra
I actually work at a Best Buy Mobile store, and we do everything we can to let the customers use the $50 card they bought. Up to and including, voiding the previous one they bought, and getting them a new one. We copy their pre-sale document which has all their contact info, then when the phones come in, we immediately set aside the reserved units and call the customer. a pretty painless process actually.
@Leejin But some how best buy is making money off the cards. Why not just accept cash for pre order instead? I know that bestbuy is well known for making money on gift cards.
I am guessing some how money will be left over on the card, that bestbuy will keep, right?
@Hydra
No, not at all. They are penny for penny exact same as cash. We don't make anything extra on them at all. But the statistics they show us are that nationally, customers spend 300% more than the money on a Gift Card. They are insanely smart for a retail location to offer. You're not going to just spend $49.50 of the $50 gift card.. You're going to spend $150...
@Hydra Did you take a second to read what you wrote? Why would they keep the extra have you had a gift card before?
@Leejin Stores make money on GCs by hoping that you lose the card. People don't usually lose a $50 bill but they are far more likely to lose a GC. Somehow the marketing geniuses out there figured out that people would feel ok about receiving GCs, even to the point of making you think that cash is guady as a present. But they will honour the few that they receive at full value...
Never feel guilty about giving me straight cash though...
@shogunmaster Actually, stores that sell gift cards are making money on the fact that you HAVE to spend that money in their stores and that most likely you'll spend more than what the gift card is worth.
I worked for Best Buy for 3 years, up until last year, and gift cards contribute to a lot of income for stores, but not as much as credit cards/financing services they offer. They also make a mint on selling needless services like "PC optimization", "Customization", "Mac optimization", "extended warranties, aka Black Tie Protection, aka rip off because 7 out of 10 times, you won't get your money's worth out of that deal". I worked in Geek Squad, it was "more important" that we attached all that we could, get a credit card app, and sold these needless services so that corporate could make fat bank while we did "repairs", "diagnostics", "optimizations", and so forth before we even touched systems for "repair", all for $11.00 an hour.
If you noticed a lot of quotes above, it's because most the time, at least in my store, it wasn't actually anything to do with repair work or ensuring everything was set up properly, it was about hitting certain goals before leaving for the day so you could keep your job. And all those computers that had issues? Yeah, I was the lucky bastard that had to diagnose and fix them, which consisted of running a few low level tests and then shipping it to "Geek City" in KY for them to do repairs as per the training our "Supervisor" put forth (who came from appliances or home theater and had no service or repair experience in the PC industry). Needless to say, I went back to work at Quanta, doing repairs on HP and Compaq laptops, you know, actual honest to goodness PC repair.
@etrnldrk
I don't know about Best Buy specifically, but I run a movie theatre complex, arcade, restaurant etc. But we never get more than 30% of our GCs brought back.
@Leejin Aren't you not supposed to talk about any data you learn from Learning Lounge? I believe it is in the Terms and Conditions for the training courses.
@Elaith No, it's what management tells you during those morning meetings. So it's cool to talk about.
I'm curious how expensive this phone will actually be when it comes out. I'm looking for an upgrade pretty soon, and this looks to be a good middle-of-the road kind of phone I'm looking for.
@Prevacator
Its not the initial cost. Its the 30 dollar a month data fee that you will be paying for.
@JXCGunrunna
Your point?
The price of the phone is independent of what you pay in service fees.
@BigJayDogg3 I'm thankful for my $20 a month T-Mobile employee plan that I have on my Nexus 1. 2000 minutes, unlimited text, unlimited web, 5 faves (tied to my Google Voice account), and a kick ass rep here at RadioShack (booo! hiss!).
Yeah, I work 2 jobs... But damn do I love a tiny phone bill for doing so.
@etrnldrk
That's kinda what I'm saying though. I honestly don't think I could go back to a feature phone. I'm going to be paying for a data plan /anyway/. That's not going to influence my purchase. The actual price of the phone will though.
You wouldn't pay for a data plan you wouldn't use, right? And I'm fairly certain the vast majority of the people on this site use smartphones (that would be a good poll). Especially with the coverage Engadget affords changes in carrier policy, I'm sure a large portion of its readership is aware that any smartphone will require a data plan.
@BigJayDogg3 i wouldn't pay for anything I couldn't get without a contract. This is the reason I like T-Mobile, cheaper plans for using your own phone with no penalties for cancellation, plus a speedy 3G network (where available).
But yeah, I definitely would not be using data if I were on Verizon, but then I wouldn't be using a smart phone either, since the big V is so damn expensive on everything they offer.
I don't like this phone; the screen is too small and it's a bit too bulky for my tastes. Considering this though, the price on this better be low....it may fit well for people who want a mid-range android handset with a good UI.
Looks like a nice phone to get normal people addicted to (and used to) using the Android OS.
+1!
Why can't more phones (By that I mean awesome ones like Nexus One, etc) be sold unlocked in stores? Is there some kind of law forbidding it?
@Teslanaut
Best Buy mobile will eventually start being able to Unlock phones for customers. I've worked in one for almost 2 years, and they've been talking about it the whole time. Best Buy Mobile is the US model of Carphone Wharehouse.. We're trying to bring the superior shopping experience of Europe to the states. :) You can imagine the legal loopholes we'd have to jump through to make this possible.
@Teslanaut
No law, just the way that carriers have set up phones in the US. You can get an unlocked phone on Amazon and use that (sometimes saving a bundle on your data rate if you either don't want one or use a dumbphone plan - which is what I'm doing), but hardly anyone sells phones like that in the states because carriers want you to fixate on the bottom line (and for the most part, we do).
T-mobile has started offering a plan that is cheaper if you use a non-subsidized (unlocked) phone. I'm waiting for people to figure that out and create a pricewar for unlocked phones but it doesn't look like it's going to happen in the near future. If Bestbuy actually kicked that off I might actually shop there. Last time I was there I didn't even see the unlocked section anymore.
@Teslanaut
Yes, the Law of the Jobs, AT&T and Verizon et al.
Seriously though, this is one area where I'm glad I live in Europe. Even the Jobs cannot keep the JesusPhone locked up - it's actually a law out here that the phone must be unlockable by the user if the user has paid up the network provider. Most just unlock on demand now, so long as you're contract is still in place (or if you've loaded €100 on the prepaid account).
@Leejin Not to mention to charge way too much in other areas in the store for offsetting those low priced phones..
Yeah, I am sure there are going to be HUGE lines at BB to get this phone on the day it's released, that's why we should all run and pre order it. :rolleyes:
I am still waiting on one - just ONE - Android phone with a GOOD keyboard and a decent shape.
Is the $50 card refundable if you dont get the phone?
@Aokusman: Refund... a gift card? That's crazy talk.
@Aokusman
it is
@Shadyman I ask because of I change my mind I would want my money back and not the gift card.
@Aokusman
I meant it is refudable
@TheCeez Best Buy doesn't refund gift cards, unless you live in California.
@card storm
Riding the spam-train today? I hear the bridge is out.
Still not liking Motoblur. I really hope Moto makes more phones like the Droid with the Google skin.
i really wanna know how much this phone is, my old phone shit the bed and didnt have much loot at the time and forced to buy a enV touch, this phone looks decent if its not super expensive i'd get one on hold to upgrade from my crappy enV Touch
I'm thinking this will be $99 on a 2 year contract when Verizon starts selling it through its direct contract. Probably $199 on a 1 year.
"The only catch..."
...is that it'll be running Android 1.6?
@meta 1.0
I swear that phone looks like a toy. I just don't like the keyboard at all.
Screw this, just get a frickin Droid!
@Caprice Dates: Don't know about that. At least the keyboard on this one looks 100 times better than the Droid's.
@aubreyq
The keyboard on some "freebie" phone looks better than the one on the Droid.
The droid's keyboard takes some getting used to but its functinal and does the job, so does the onscreen one.
So will it also be available at the Verizon store on February 25th? Please let it be so! I bought a Palm Pixi on February 1, but I've been looking to trade it in. I can't quite afford the Droid at the moment. I almost traded it in for the Droid Eris but since I hadn't sent in the rebate, I had to pay the difference, which was $80 bucks. Luckily I didn't have any cash in hand at the time. If this thing is available at the store before month's end, it will be my next phone!
can someone outline the differences b/w the Devour and the Droid?