Carphone Warehouse clings to buoyant fondleslab, avoids submerging Lower handset subsidies and a lack of choice in the low end caused high-street business to drop more than 5 per cent in Europe according to Carphone Warehouse, though the retailer still managed to maintain profits within its own predictions. The drop in retail was offset by a decent performance in Virgin Mobile France, which …
Walked into my local CPW 3 weeks ago.
Me: "I know the S3 is out at the end of the month, and I want one. I've seen your web ads - will one be here in this shop next week if I come back?"
Sales guy: "You don't want that mate - just hang on a bit longer and you can get an iPhone 5"
Me: "Will the S3 be here?".
Sales guy actually pulls out a post-it: and mumbles "Well, you're the first to ask actually - give me your number and I'll call you."
So I did out of politeness & left. Loser fanbois shall be getting my custom, not.
Which brings me to the question - where else can I get a SIM free blue 32G one? Online is ok.
I wandered into one of their stores, and said I wanted a handset for under £200, to go on an existing contract (so SIM free or Voda Pay&Go). They recommended an iPhone.
This would be one of the mythical iPhones you can get for £200. Or perhaps they were going to sell me an iPhone 1?
Finally was shown the Androids, and wandered off.
From my researching, the Androids I like the look of don't seem to be getting ICS updates, so I eventually settled on Windows Mobile. Went back in, said I'd like a Nokia Lumia 710. Was asked if I wanted a Galaxy SII. It's 3 times the price. Then told they couldn't sell me anything that day, as they were unable to activate SIM cards. Finally got one for £130, which is £30 less than I saw anywhere else. So don't know if it's them or Nokia discounting to dump stock.
"I once bought a phone from CPW -- almost every week I received unsolicited phone calls to the new phone number I got with the phone, offering me mobile phone insurance and various other 'deals'. Might turn out to be a mistake giving CPW your phone number...."
That's OK. I was with Orange in the middle of the last decade. So my number has already been sold/given/lost to every phone-scam artist going. Mostly in Manchester for some weird reason...
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"Which brings me to the question - where else can I get a SIM free blue 32G one? Online is ok."
Amazon can be pretty good for SIM free mobiles (often cheaper than CPW sans pay as you go bundle) but I've never had any real issue with CPW though my attempts to buy a £99 Lumia 710 were frustrated because they had no pre paid Micro SIMs in stock.
I'm surprised the networks don't regard the whole network subsidy of unlocked PAYG phones as a problem though.
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Two weeks ago when into several different CW and P4U and asked if they would be stocking the new Nokia Pureview. Every time they'd ask another salesperson and then the manager who would ask me what it was. They then checked their website and told me that they didn't have it (eventually after apologising several times about how slow their computer was in accessing the internet).
One time I went into a 3 shop and started looking at the N8 and the E7. Sales person came over and told me I didn't want one of those, the iphone 4s was just in and much better and refused to answer any of my questions about the Nokias. Didn't waste any more of my time. Suspect that's true of sales people in general (pushing customers towards products that get them the most commission/meet target) rather than being a problem with one particular shop or network.
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