Some of you may have seen an earlier post about me looking for a temporary cell phone because my carrier lost me somewhere in some sort of account transition and they can't fix it.

Well it's not looking good so over the last few days my wife and I have been visiting cell phone stores.
Of the several stores we visited over the weekend, one had someone who could speak perfect English, most spoke broken English. It was hard to understand some of them but if you listened close you could understand them. One we had to ask to repeat most of what he said and still it was difficult to understand him.

This morning while out running errands I stopped at a store. Only one person working in the store. When she was done with the customer she was helping she came over to me, said good morning. I processed to tell her what I was looking for.
She then takes out her phone, dials it, and holds it in the air. Next thing I know there is some on on speaker phone trying to translate for her.
I ask a question about phone plans, she points at a poster on the wall and gives me a brochure. I ask about phones she points to display phones but can't tell me anything about the phones.
I say thank you and leave.

I give her credit for trying but if I wanted to open an account I would have to give a translator, a person I have no idea who they are my personal information let alone making sure the account was opened correctly.

If your internet provider is Spectrum they offer a really good add-on deal for cell phone service. They use Verizon towers, which give me great coverage. Their customer service is pretty decent, and for the most part, the people in their stores are good, too.

Website is mobile.spectrum.com

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
If your internet provider is Spectrum they offer a really good add-on deal for cell phone service. They use Verizon towers, which give me great coverage. Their customer service is pretty decent, and for the most part, the people in their stores are good, too.

Website is mobile.spectrum.com

Thanks
We have internet through them so I gave them a call today. They have some good deals on phones and the service is, one line you pay for and the second line is free the first year.
You can buy the phones outright or pay with no interest over three years.
Sounds like a good deal.
I have also been leaning toward Mint Mobile, my wife likes T Mobile.

Don't feel too bad.

These is a Barberitos (Watkinsville, Ga?) that now has a Spanish only preparer. ->Zero<- English.

I ask for lettuce on my burrito and she grabs the salsa. 'No! No! The green stuff!' point point point 'green stuff'.

Kinda sad to watch an establishment go downhill after all these years, but I haven't been back since.

Perhaps you've become an English speaking minority in your area?

quote:

Originally posted by jed7s9b:
Perhaps you've become an English speaking minority in your area?

At time it can feel that way. The area I live is has seen an explosive amount of growth not only from the north eastern United States but from around the world.

You weren’t in Hialeah, were you?

quote:

Originally posted by .38supersig:
Don't feel too bad.

These is a Barberitos (Watkinsville, Ga?) that now has a Spanish only preparer. ->Zero<- English.

I ask for lettuce on my burrito and she grabs the salsa. 'No! No! The green stuff!' point point point 'green stuff'.

Kinda sad to watch an establishment go downhill after all these years, but I haven't been back since.

Lettuce = lechuga

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
You weren’t in Hialeah, were you?

West and south west of Disney.

The America you grew up in is dying. You’re in a dead spot.

quote:

Originally posted by Voshterkoff:
The America you grew up in is dying. You’re in a dead spot.

Man I hope not I am not that old, well maybe I am. I was borne in the 60s, grew up in the 70s and early 80s.
Times are definitely different now then they were back then.

My wife and I have a piece of property on the side of a mountain in Tennessee we hope to some day move to. Till then I guess I will have to deal with it.
I just do not understand how a business owner can staff a store with some one who does not speak at least some English.

Paying imigrants minimum wage with little to no benefits. ....... Maybe it is not a legit business but just a store front to launder illgotten monies ............. I would take my business somewhere else ......... drill sgt.

Setting aside the current border crisis we are a nation of immigrants. My grandparents were trying to learn English and the urban neigborhood in Chcago you heard foreign language daily. The South is different.

My mother was the first one of the family that was born here in the U.S.A. She lived in a "ghetto" of Eastern European immigrants in Brooklyn NY, and did not know a word of English until she started school.
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Later in life she worked in a large hotel in NYC, where she was able to interact with guests in English, German, Polish, Russian, and Yiddish.

One of my regrets is that she only spoke English to me. I wish that I had learned some of the other languages that she was fluent in.

I lived in Far East Dallas, which became majority Mexican/Mexican-American shockingly fast. I got really frustrated with trying to call in a take out order at local restaurants. If they answered “Bueno” or some-such and you started speaking English, saying you wanted to place a take-out order they would just hang up on you.

You are not their target demographic

I've had surprisingly good service from the vendor for Cell service in Costco, they have multiple providers, AT&T, T-Mobile, and new lines get Costco gift cards per line, $100, $200 etc.. Depends on the promotion that is active.

You can get the same deal online from the providers less the Costco gift card, if that doesn't interest you.

BTW on the Spectrum phone deal, if you don't use much data, they have a low data plan that is $15 a month, we moved my 85 year old father from the $45 plan as 90% of his data is when he's at home on wifi.

Woot has deals on refurb Android and Iphones all the time, you can get deals there if you need a newer phone.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:

BTW on the Spectrum phone deal, if you don't use much data, they have a low data plan that is $15 a month

We have three phones on this service; it's actually $14, not $15, and that includes all taxes and junk fees! No ups, no extras. Honest advertising; when they quote the price, it's the TOTAL price for unlimited talk and text, and 1 Gb data per phone. Data allotment is consolidated in a pool, shared among all phones on the plan, so we have 3 Gb in our three-phone data pool. We exceeded it once in maybe five years, that month we paid an extra fourteen bucks for up to 1 G additional data. There is no roll-over for unused data.

More good news, they ride on the Verizon network, which gives great coverage.

One possible "gotcha" -- service from Spectrum Mobile is available at these prices ONLY if you have Spectrum internet service (residential or business).

Thanks for all the replies everyone.

I just found it odd that this store that was in no particular area would have only one person working and they did not speak any English at all.

My wife and I live in an area that has over the years become populated even more with people who's primary languages are either Spanish and a small population of people who speak Haitian Creole, however everyone would speak some English, now it seams less and less.

We visit a Spanish grocery store that has a really good hot food/cafeteria style restaurant and most everyone there speaks some English.They also own a very good fish market in the next plaza over.

This grocery store is in an older part of town that is populated by mostly people who speak Spanish. In this part of town I would expect most people to not speak much English. At one time this area was populated by migrant farm workers when the area was mostly orange groves however most of the groves are now occupied by houses.

The cell phone store is in an area that is part of the tourist corridor around Disney. I would expect them to speak enough English to be able to communicate with customers.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
I've had surprisingly good service from the vendor for Cell service in Costco, they have multiple providers, AT&T, T-Mobile, and new lines get Costco gift cards per line, $100, $200 etc.. Depends on the promotion that is active.

You can get the same deal online from the providers less the Costco gift card, if that doesn't interest you.

BTW on the Spectrum phone deal, if you don't use much data, they have a low data plan that is $15 a month, we moved my 85 year old father from the $45 plan as 90% of his data is when he's at home on wifi.

Woot has deals on refurb Android and Iphones all the time, you can get deals there if you need a newer phone.

Thanks.
We are members of Bjs wholesale club. They have ATT. We have not talked to them yet.