Carphone Warehouse are hosting a Christmas Press Show next Tuesday. It’s a preview of their hottest handsets and product announcements that we can expect to see hit their shops toward Christmas.
And we’ll be there, with bells on. Unfortunately there’s no filming allowed — so we can’t produce a MIR Show from the event — but we’re allowed cameras. So expect some news next week plus a segment in the following week’s MIR Show about it.
After reading Ewan’s article on the iPhone it reminded me of my trip I took to my local high-street on Friday. Now, being a contributor on SMS Text News, I only thought it was my duty to pop into the o2 store, and the Carphone Warehouse.
Firstly I stepped into the o2 store, and I was greeted by one of the sales assistants in there, but I wasn’t going to buy anything, I wanted to know one simple thing.
“Do you have any iPhone 16GB’s in stock?”
Now, if you’ve been reading over the past three or so weeks, you’ll probably be aware that the iPhone 16GB is something of a rarity. So I suppose none of you would be surprised when the o2 sales-person replied back with “ehh, no”.
I then asked whether he knew when he was going to get any in, the response this time was a “Hmm, I don’t know”.
Helpful, wouldn’t you say?
The Carphone Warehouse which is next door to the o2 store had a a sign in the window “iPhone 3G 8 and 16GB in stock!” – And so I ask, and the sign is correct.
How is it possible for the actual network shops to be out of stock, when a general mobile retailer can?
I’ll be popping down later in the week, so I’ll see if they have anything in then; although I seriously doubt it.
If you get the SMS Text News newsletter you’ll have already read this rant from our friend Alex Meisl at Sponge, but we thought we’d post it again for the rest of the masses. Over to Alex!
—
I’ve been a happy user of a E61i for getting on for a year now and like
the fact that it is not a Blackberry and that my large digits can type
with relative ease. However, as I am the only person at Sponge who has not
got up close and personal with an iPhone, the friendly SMS from CPW…”Dear
Alex, you are now due a fantastic phone upgrade. Call Carphone Warehouse
bla bla…..”. Idiot. I fell for it.
Last Monday, I called CPW and upgraded to Steve Jobs’ new creation – it
was to be delivered to my office in Central London the next day between 9
– 5. NOT. At 5.30, I rang and was reassured that it would be with me by
6. NOT. I rang on the Wednesday morning and was told that they tried to
deliver it to the wrong address but it would definitely be with me the
same day as it was on the van. NOT. When I rang Wednesday late afternoon,
I was told that Mr Nixon from my office had refused to accept it. Now, I
know I am getting on a bit and have been known to be forgetful (That’s why
I volunteered to be Chairman), but I am delighted that I can recite the
names of all 30-odd staff and we don’t have a Mr. Nixon working for us.
Cue first sign of Meisl grumps. As I was leaving on holiday for 2 weeks
the next afternoon at 2, CPW swore blind the iPhone would be with me by
10.30 on the Thursday. NOT.
This is when things took a turn for the worse. O2 made the fatal error of
assuming that I had received my iPhone by now and so started the porting
process and cut off my old SIM. I am now 4 hours away from going on
holiday and my bloody phone does not work and my iPhone finds me so
abhorrent that it doesn’t appear to want to make my acquaintance. I spent
two and a quarter hours (on my last day at work….nice) first speaking to
CPW then pulling in some favours with contacts at O2…..joy…..by 5pm (on
way to catch ferry) my SIM is magically working again, I ring O2 again and
they assure me that everything has been resolved….I can soon relax with
some French booze and the shouting matches with CPW/O2 can wait until I
get home. NOT.
The next morning with a full day’s driving ahead (and planning to speak to
a number of clients whilst my wife shares some of the driving), I notice I
have no network coverage. This persists for the whole day. Late Friday
night I finally have network coverage again. HOWEVER it is only over the
weekend that I discover that the port has taken place again and I am now
the unwilling and unwitting owner of a new number. Even worse (and now my
blood pressure starts rising…) my old number is now unavailable to anyone
who tries to call me (sorry SF, SH and SL).
Today I spent a comical 40 minutes on a conference call with CPW and O2.
The first person I spoke to at CPW said “brilliant” 3 times whilst I was
recounting my woes (response: “no it is not f**king brilliant”). I
eventually ended up speaking to someone sympathetic and helpful (step
forward James McSweeney at CPW). This went downhill again when he patched
in O2 to the call and I was told by Linzi that I can’t get my number
working again on my current SIM until I return to the UK (no matter how
high I escalate the matter in O2). Linzi from O2 had not considered a
simple solution which I proposed of making my number live again and
diverting it to my temporary new number. James then blotted his copybook
by explaining that they could reactivate my number by setting up a new
contract but I would then have to “terminate” it by writing to them and
giving one month’s notice.
I now have to wait a further 2 days before my 15 year old phone number is
awoken from its slumbers and is instructed to divert itself to a rubbish
temporary number (assuming CPW and O2’s systems all work together in
harmony)
We keep hearing that manufacturing is dead in the UK but that we should
feel proud as our service industry is so strong…..but that (to use the
exact French word) is simply COUILLONS.
If anyone at CPW or O2 is reading this, I am looking forward to returning
from my holiday where I will be out for blood. You can expect my call and
a claim for wasted time, phone calls and medication on August 12th. A
bientot.
I couldn’t be arsed waiting for a 16GB device. Instead, I ordered an 8GB.
And I bought it from Carphone Warehouse.
The three stage purchasing process was, as they say in France, a piece of piz. Click. Click. Done.
I’ve never bought from Carphone online before. I hadn’t been that impressed, previously, at trying out the order process only to find an expired but not yet removed warning message last weekend.
Anyway. Kudos to Carphone. I ordered my device in less than 90 seconds.
Now, I’m keen to see when it will arrive.
If you, er, order an iPhone from Carphone Warehouse’s site, you’ll see this rather concerning delivery note (in bright red) at the order page:
Bear in mind it’s Sunday evening on the 27th of July and the ordering system here is promising to have my new iPhone delivered to me by Friday 25th.
Doesn’t fill you full of confidence, does it?
With special guest Alfie Dennen from Moblog the team discuss the new Moblog platform, Three’s hoodie-hating store, Christmas in July, the iPhone (heard of it?) app store, O2’s continuing epic-fail to provide Dan a service, an update on everyone’s favourite toy – the personal mobile network – and a special follow-up feature on James’s brand evangelism post this week with some tips for Carphone Warehouse (no carphones, not a warehouse)…. As ever it’s all wrapped up with the regular ‘things of the week’.
Listen now using the player below or see the links below for other options:
Episode link and feeds:
[Link] Direct link to this episode’s MP3 to download
[iTunes] Subscribe or listen in iTunes
[RSS] Subscribe via your feed reader or another podcatcher
—-
The contributors:
Ewan MacLeod is turning off Motorola RAZRs and burning phone holsters he is SMS Text News.
James Whatley’s blog is here. He works for SpinVox doing clever social media stuff and their blog.
Dan Lane’s blog is at http://invalid.name. He’s CTO at Howler Tech.
Alfie Dennen is from Moblog… the original mobile blogging platform. So that’s Mr Dennen to you m’kay?
Sites mentioned in the podcast:
Ewan’s post on the Three store hoodie ban
Have O2 goofed MMS security?
James’s ‘Carephone Warehouse’ post
Things of the week:
Agfa Bluetooth photo frame
James’s midnite flit to York aided by Textperts
AGPS and Nokia Maps
iPhone Apps: Grafitio and Urban Spoon
We’re really keen to get your feedback on the podcast – please let us know in the comments or tell Ewan – ewan@smstextnews.com.
I popped into the Carphone Warehouse this weekend — Sunday afternoon, to be exact — to check on the status of their iPhone stock.
They were completely sold out. The chap couldn’t tell me how many they’d sold as he wasn’t working that day and I’m left wondering whether it was 5 or 500.
Either way, rumour has it — from this chappy, that if you’d like to get hold of an iPhone, you can do so from Wednesday onwards at the Carphone Warehouse in Marylebone…
