Tag: Wireless

Free Disney Parks app now available exclusively through Verizon

Posted by Rick Laney – August 19, 2011

Knoxville, Tenn. – Looking for an easier way to find your favorite Disney characters while visiting a Disney Park?  Wouldn’t it be nice to know how long the line and wait is for that ride on the other side of the park? Thanks to a new app from Disney and Verizon Wireless, visitors will be provided valuable information like this to help enhance their experience in Disney Parks.  This new FREE app, called “Mobile Magic,” is now available and is compatible with most Cellular Sales smartphones.

The GPS-powered Mobile Magic app exclusively for Verizon phones

Mobile Magic is the only official Disney Parks app, using GPS technology to identify park visitors’ locations while providing them with important information such as attraction wait times, as well as FASTPASS return times for the park they are currently visiting.  With GPS-enabled maps, park visitors can easily find nearby characters, attractions, dining options, or even the nearest restroom.

Upon arrival to the park, guests may enter their parking location to keep it stored for when they return at the end of the day.  They may also use the app to find information on transportation options, including the monorail and shuttles.

Additional information provided by the Mobile Magic app includes a list of daily park events, weather information for each of the parks, show information and even live, competitive trivia games.

Cellular Sales, the nation’s largest Verizon premium wireless retailer, is an 18-year-old privately held company founded and headquartered in Knoxville, Tenn. The company operates more than 400 stores across the United States. For the past three years, Inc. Magazine has named Cellular Sales one of the nation’s fastest growing retail companies. For more information about Cellular Sales, visit www.CellularSales.com.

###

Media Contact
Rick Laney
(865) 584-0550
rlaney@ackermannpr.com

Cellular Sales Verizon Wireless gives U.S. troops FREE talk time

Posted by Rick Laney – May 3, 2010

Knoxville, Tenn. – Cellular Sales, the nation’s largest Verizon Wireless retailer, has joined forces with Cell Phones for Soldiers at many of its stores throughout the United States.  Cell Phones for Soldiers is a worldwide nonprofit group that distributes free telephone calling cards to U.S. troops serving overseas.

Dane Scism, founder and CEO of Cellular Sales, said, “We are excited to be able to give back to the soldiers that serve this country.  With so many troops in active service, we believe we can make a positive impact by partnering with Cell Phones for Soldiers.”

Used cell phones can be dropped at most Cellular Sales locations.

Cell Phones for Soldiers turned old cell phones into more than 14 million minutes of prepaid calling cards for U.S. service men and women in 2009.  To do so, Cell Phones for Soldiers collected approximately 50,000 cell phones each month through a network of more than 6,000 collection sites across the country.

The phones are sent to a company that pays Cell Phones for Soldiers for each donated phone.  Every phone donated to Cell Phones for Soldiers generates about an hour of talk time for a soldier abroad.  Americans replace an estimated 130 million cell phones each year.

Cell Phones for Soldiers was founded in 2004 by teenagers Robbie and Brittany Bergquist from Norwell, Mass.  Between them, the two teens had a total of $21 to start the organization.  Since that time, the organization has raised well over $2 million in donations and distributed more than 500,000 prepaid calling cards to soldiers serving overseas.

“Cell Phones for Soldiers started as a small way to show our family’s appreciation for the men and women who have sacrificed the day-to-day contact with their own families to serve in the U.S. armed forces,” said the teens’ father, Bob Bergquist.  “Over the past few years, we have been overwhelmed by the generosity of others – but we have also seen the need to support our troops continue to grow as more troops are sent overseas for longer assignments.”

Through increased fundraising efforts, the Bergquist family hopes to raise more than $9 million in the next five years to fund new programs including providing video phones with prepaid service to allow soldiers abroad to see their families on a regular basis.

Cellular Sales, the nation’s largest retailer of Verizon Wireless, is a 16-year old privately held company headquartered in Knoxville, Tenn.  The company currently operates throughout the United States.  By year end, Cellular Sales – which attributes its rapid growth to unparalleled customer service – will open 50 new stores, bringing the company’s total number of locations to approximately 350.  For the past two years, Inc. magazine named Cellular Sales one of the nation’s fastest growing retail companies in the country.

According to Scism, the company will roll the Cell Phones for Soldiers program – which is already successful at many of his company’s more than 300 locations – out at all of the company’s stores throughout the United States in coming months.

For more information about Cellular Sales and the Cell Phones for Soldiers program, or to find a Cellular Sales used cell phone drop-off location near you, visit the company’s web site at www.cellularsales.com.

###

Media Contact
Rick Laney
(865) 584-0550
rlainey@ackermannpr.com

Cellular Sales goes from a single cell phone store to the nation’s largest retailer of Verizon Wireless

Posted by Rick Laney – April 22, 2010

Dane Scism

Dane Scism at the opening of Cellular Sales' 300th store.

Knoxville, Tenn. – Like most 20-year-olds, Dane Scism held a number of part-time, low paying jobs while working his way through college at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tenn.  Eventually, Scism ended up selling cell phones at a small cell phone store a few miles from campus.  It was during this time that Scism realized he possessed a real talent for sales.

After college, Scism struck a deal with his boss and ended up buying the solitary cell phone store in the run-down building on Kingston Pike in Knoxville.  Now, 16 years later, Scism owns that store and 298 others from Maine to Florida to Texas – and everywhere in between.  His company, Verizon Wireless Retailer, Cellular Sales, is the nation’s largest retailer of Verizon Wireless products and services.  This week, the company celebrated its 300th store opening in Maryville, Tenn., just a few miles from Scism’s very first store.

In recent years, Inc. Magazine has named his company one of the nation’s fastest growing retailers, and in spite of the tough economy, Cellular Sales continues to open 30 to 50 new stores every quarter.  That one location in a strip center has turned into a more than $300 million annual business that maintains an annual growth rate of more than 150 percent and has 2,000 sales consultants across the country.

Dane Scism Cellular Sales

Cellular Sales founder and CEO Dane Scism talks to the media.

“Cellular Sales is a testimony to customer service,” said Scism, founder and CEO of Cellular Sales.  “Our business model is based on treating every customer as if they were our only customer.  People notice it when you take care of them.

“How many people are there that know exactly who to call – by name – when they have a question about their cell phone or their service plan?  Our customers have a name and contact number for their own personal wireless consultant, a real person they can talk to right there in their own community.  We’re proud of the way we take care of customers, and we know it is the reason we are growing.”

For the past 16 years, Cellular Sales has consistently outperformed the rest of its industry, and is now the nation’s largest retailer of Verizon Wireless.  By year end, Cellular Sales plans to open 50 to 75 additional stores, bringing the company’s total number of locations to nearly 400.

“When the economy is booming, growth is expected,” Scism said.  “But companies that are growing in spite of the economy – like Cellular Sales – have to be doing something different.  I’m most proud of those things that make us different.”

For more information about Cellular Sales Verizon Wireless, visit the company’s website at www.cellularsales.com or call (865) 588-3855.

###

Media Contact
Rick Laney
(865) 584-0550
rlaney@ackermannpr.com

Cellular Sales, nation’s largest Verizon Wireless retailer, is in top 200 for fastest-growing retailers

Posted by Rick Laney – September 2, 2009

Cellular Sales LogoKnoxville, Tenn. –  Inc. magazine ranked Cellular Sales No. 183 on the “Inc. 5,000” list of the nation’s fastest-growing privately held retail companies.  Cellular Sales was ranked No. 2,069 on the third annual overall list of the fastest growing companies.  The Inc. 5,000 represents a comprehensive look at America’s independent-minded entrepreneurs.

Growth for Cellular Sales, which was also named on the 2008 list, was reported at 153.9 percent according to Inc. magazine.  The magazine reported that Cellular Sales’ 2005 revenue of $81.7 million had grown to $207.3 million in 2008.

“Cellular Sales’ ranking on this year’s Inc. 5,000 list is a testimony to customer service,” said Dane Scism, founder and CEO of Cellular Sales.  “Our business model is based on treating every customer as if they were our only customer.  People notice it when you take care of them.

Inc50002“How many people are there that know exactly who to call – by name – when they have a question about their cell phone or their service plan?  Our customers have a name and contact number for their own personal wireless consultant, a real person they can talk to right there in their own community.  We’re proud of the way we take care of customers, and we know it is the reason we are growing.”

For the past 15 years, Cellular Sales has consistently outperformed the rest of its industry, and is now the nation’s largest retailer of Verizon Wireless.  By year end, Knoxville, Tenn.-based Cellular Sales will open 50 new stores, bringing the company’s total number of locations to over 300. 

“When the economy is booming, growth is expected,” Scism said.  “But companies that are growing in spite of the economy – like Cellular Sales – have to be doing something different.” 

For more information about Cellular Sales Verizon Wireless, visit the company’s web site at www.cellularsales.com.

Media Contact
Rick Laney
(865) 584-0550
rlaney@ackermannpr.com