Terrence, a regular SMS Text News reader (and Scrabble regional finalist) , decided to test the UK mobile retail market from the point of view of a standard customer wanting to buy a pay as you go handset. Fascinating results. Have a read…
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With all the talk of contract, tariffs, mobile browsing and cool new services, we often forget that the high street shop is the main point of interaction that customers have with their phone company.
So, I set myself a simple challenge. Go and buy a Sony Ericsson K800i on prepay from each of the major operators – Orange, O2, T-Mobile, Three and Vodafone.
So, what’s the buying experience like at the sharp end of phone retailing? Given that CarphoneWarehouse and Phones4U limit the number of handsets you can buy in one transaction, I decided to try the networks’ own stores in Central London…
Orange
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The two sales people were engaged with customers and chatting (fairly accurately) about the phones on offer. After five minutes of pointed browsing and trying to catch someone’s eye, I got bored and left.
Score: 0/10 maybe I’d have had better luck in a bigger store.
Three
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Took a quick peek in their store. Was pounced on by an eager sales assistant’s, “Can I help you?”
“I’d like a K800i on prepay please.”
“Yes sir!”
…
…
Fifteen. Fricking. Minutes. Later…. It took four sales assistants to work the till. They kept trying to charge me £300 for a phone that
cost £129.99, they couldn’t register my details, they were confused by shiny objects floating in the air.
Score: 3/10 I got my phone but it was like pulling teeth.
T-Mobile
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A busy store, but I managed to grab a salesman. He whisked himself away to the basement to fetch my phone. And never returned.
ell – he did several minutes later. Only to be distracted by customers trying to complain to him. When he finally extracted himself he sauntered over with a cheery “None in stock, mate.” No effort to cross sell, no indication as to where I could buy one. He was obviously more interested in a contract commission than a prepay sale.
Score: 1/10 not the way I expect to be treated as a potential customer.
O2– – –
I was promptly greeted as I entered the store. On informing them I wanted a prepay phone, I was shuttered off to Brian The Trainee. I’m not sure whether Brian The Trainee was mute or just sullen about not selling any iPhones. The whole transaction proceeded in silence, no small talk, no cross sell, nothing. Service was slow, but I’ll make allowances as he was only learning the ropes.
core: 7/10 good competent service.
Phones4U
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I’d vowed never to set foot in a P4U after they sold me a second hand phone with someone else’s details still on it. Still, that was 7 years ago – so maybe it was time to give them a second chance.
Sales assistant was brisk, efficient and chatty. No pressure to buy insurance or anything like that – the total antithesis of P4U’s reputation.
He did have to spend some time on hold to Orange to register the handset – apparently Oranges online system was offline – but he kept me informed the whole way through what was happening.
Score 8/10 a good sales experience marred by Orange’s systems.
CarphoneWarehouse
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The greeter snootily dismissed me to one side of the shop as soon as the word “Prepay” passed my lips. The sales assistant vanished into the basement to fetch the T-Mobile SIM and K800i. In the meantime, I was treated to two sales assistants complaining about their boss, their customers and their lives in general.
he sales assistant reappeared, took a puzzled look at the order screen and scurried away again. I was left listening to his colleagues try and get their head office on the phone to resolve a customer complaint.
hen the sales assistant reappeared, he had an unbranded phone with him.
“Will that work with T-Mobile T-Zones?” I asked.
“Ummmmm…. dunnno… should do.”
“Should do or will do?”
“I’ll get the manager.”
The manager explained how to get the settings on the unbranded phone – visit the website, type in your phone number.
“D’ya won a memikid?” said the sales assistant.
“Excuse me?” I said
“Do. You. Want. A. Mem. Ory. Card?” He said with barely concealed contempt.
“No thanks”.
Overall score: 5/10 I got my phone but it was not a pleasant sales experience.
Vodafone
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I’ve not written about my experience in a Vodafone store. I work for Big Red (they pay my bills but they don’t pay me to blog) so I don’t think it would be appropriate to comment. Besides, I’d be accused of being biased. But I’d be interested in hearing what you think.
On returning home I got a phone call from my credit card company. They’d detected an unusual purchasing pattern on my card and had blocked my account!
Conclusions
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Customer service is dead. It has ceased to be. Bereft of life….. you get the picture. At times I felt like I was in Royston Vasey – in a local shop for local people.
If I was treated this way in any other type of shop, I wouldn’t return in a hurry. But I guess that’s what most shops bank on – they sell
once and don’t see you for another 18 months, if ever.
Prepay customers are second class citizens – the sales staff are really only interested in making a big commission on a contract and will turf you to a trainee if you’re not going to make them any cold hard cash..
In any other store picking a box off the shelf, swiping it through the till and taking payment would take less than a minute. In the world of mobile you’ll be lucky to be out of there within ten minutes.
Oh, and don’t buy a bunch of prepay phones on credit card. The police will probably think you’re a terrorist….
Am I alone in receiving such appalling service in store – or are all stores this bad?
Two things:
1) When did the Big red start paying your bills?! (did I miss that memo/post?)
2) If only you and I could feasibly monetise the phone guidance/sales line service we chucked around recently…
I recently went round the operators stores to get SIM only packs, with a view to test signal strengths at my house in order to change my contract away from Orange, so got a good overview of how I think some of them treat their customers…..
O2 – The shop was too busy with ‘hoodies’ playing with the iPhone. I got ignored. Loitered around for a few minutes trying to attract attention, but failed. Walked out.
T-Mobile – Dealt with promptly, but sales rep lost immediate interest when I asked for SIM only.
Three – Ignored.
Vodafone – What a surprise! Was treated like a VIP from the minute I walked in, to when I walked out. I only spent 5 quid on a pre-paid SIM, but I could have quite easily just blown £500 on an E90 or something, by the way I felt I got treated.
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My, that sounds almost as bad as it is in the states.
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I’d be interested to know what the ARPU over say, a year is for a prepaid customer vs a postpaid. I would *imagine* that it’s more, seeing as how their minutes cost more overall, and oftentimes, at least in the U.S., they’re going prepaid because they don’t have the credit rating for postpaid.
That being asked, having spent several years in retail, I can confess to doing the same to people looking for a prepaid phone. Why?
Commission. I made $5 per prepaid phone, and, specifically around back to school/holidays, ALOT of them got returned. On the other hand, with a postpaid, the customer is mentally committed to a contract (regardless of the return policy) and the smallest amount I could make was $20 for the transaction.
Granted, prepaid doesn’t take that long to sell and have the customer out the door, but I’d also need to sell 4 prepaid handsets to make up for one post-paid. It certainly doesn’t take 4 times as long to sell a postpaid than a prepaid, either.
The $$ incentive simply isn’t there, and for commissioned-employees, that’s the magic number.
It’s sad, but true. Same reason if you bought your phone somewhere else and came to me to get help, I’d send you back where you bought it (with several factors depending). If I’m going to stand at work for 8 hours, I’m going to maxminize those hours.
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1) September 2003 🙂
2) There’s no money in Customer Service. Most call centres are rated on how long the call goes on – not how happy the customer is. Vodafone do (random) call backs where you can discuss how good/bad you thought the service was.
Shops are caught in a bit of a bind. They need to be able to treat PAYT and accessories as a supermarket treats FMCG – but they also need to be able to provide support, advice and troubleshooting. Two quite different goals.
T
Terence,
ditto your experience. I’ve bought a lot of pre-pay phones and SIMs over the last couple of years, and it’s always the same. My trick is to go when I know the store is going to be quiet. Don’t try weekends, lunchtimes or just after school closes. Also, I find the out of town CPW stores to be the best experience – lower footfall so the sales assistants are generally less busy and have time to spend.
I’ve got to the point where I dread going into mobile phone shops, and heaven forbid I might actually want some advice. Not one shop in a ten mile radius of my where I live actually knows what their roaming charges are – try asking how much to call a French mobile while roaming in Germany 😉
Sadly I’ve just come to expect that if I go into a phone shop someone is going to talk rubbish to me and probably argue with what I know to be right through my own research.
Funny though, that I’ve never dealt with Vodafone, but when my father-in-law needed a new contract I told him to go to them. I’m happy enough with 3UK, but I wouldn’t send someone I care about to try and deal with them on their own!!!