Phones for US? YES! (Phones 4U)

Member Name: SusanLesley

Product:	Phones 4U
Date:	10/07/03 (348 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good prices, Helpful staff, No hard sell

Disadvantages: None for us

This is an unusual category in which to find me writing but I was so impressed with the service in this place I had to put pen to paper - or rather fingers to keyboard!

To start at the beginning, Dave needed a new mobile phone for work. He had been told that he must buy one himself and that the company would pay for all his business calls, which is fair enough.

Our first step was to do some investigation and information gathering. We worked out that the 1,000 minutes per month package would be the one to go for and Dave narrowed his choice down to two phones, using leaflets from the local shops and members' opinions on Dooyoo.

Initially he was intending to go to the Vodaphone shop in town last Friday and buy the Vodaphone mobile - there was an offer of 2,000 Nectar points if we did, but circumstances prevented us from going into the shop - luckily for us as we have since discovered.

So it came to pass that we headed into Llandudno on Saturday morning to purchase Dave's new mobile phone. We found a parking space outside Phones 4 U as luck would have it and outside the shop they always have a table with lists of the current tariffs stuck to the top of it and leaflets available for you to take away.

We paused here whilst Dave showed me the different tariffs, together with his choice of the two phones and with my accountant's hat on I gave him my opinion.

He decided that the O2 package would be the best value and that the mobile for him was to be the Sony Ericsson T610. Since it wasn't to be Vodaphone after all Dave pointed out that the phone would be cheaper in Phones 4 U (little did he know!) so in we went.

The shop is quite small, but very well laid out. The phones are all on show together with details of all the many different pre payment and Pay as You Go tariffs available. The phone Dave had chosen had been reduced in price from £100 to £50, but then I noticed a piece of paper pinned t
o the end of the display with three special offers on it and, yes, the phone Dave wanted was one of them! What was the offer? The phone was now reduced from £50 to FREE! Now that's our sort of price!

We attracted the attention of one of the salesmen - no we hadn't been 'pounced' on as we entered the store - and told him which phone we were interested in. He began to talk about the price and I pointed to the notice. He laughed and apologised as the offer had only started that day - so we obviously weren't meant to get the phone the previous day then! God does work in mysterious ways!

He confirmed that the phone would be free of charge and asked if we would like to haggle on the price! We were obviously on the same (daft) wavelength!

He asked us to sit down whilst he showed us the phone and went through our options with us. He took all Dave's details and fetched the phone for Dave to have a look at and see if it was exactly what he wanted. Meanwhile the manager passed the sweets round - there was a bowl of chocolate éclairs on the counter!

The sales assistant was thorough in his explanation of everything and never pushy about 'extra' sales. He also spoke to both of us at all times. The ladies will understand what I mean here. Sometimes when looking at electronics, cars or such like the sales assistant talks to the man of the couple and only addresses the lady with remarks about the colour of the car or other non technical stuff, as though the 'little woman' wouldn't know about anything technical. That really annoys me!!

Anyway, I'll climb down from my soapbox now and continue the opinion!

He went on to explain the insurance cover at £7.99 per month and pointed out that, if the phone was lost or broken, the monthly contract would remain in force for the full twelve months even though we hadn't got the phone. Normally we don't bother with insurance, but we did
decide that this would be a good idea, but again there was no hard sell tactics, just common sense explanations.

We were also asked if we would like to take advantage of Phones 4 U landline package to save us money, but we said that we were happy with our BT package and that was the end of the matter.

Dave asked about the hand's free kits to go with his new blue tooth phone as he often has to answer calls on the move so to speak and the assistant showed us the right one for the job and offered a 10% discount if we bought it there and then, which we did.

He also showed us a couple of new 'toys' - a little torch that plugged into the phone and a little laser light, which Dave was interested in for when he's training people at work. He had no intention of buying either of these at that time, thinking that it might be a good idea for a present at some point. The assistant asked which one he liked the best and offered it at £5 instead of the £10 price tag, so Dave has his laser light too!

We left the store feeling as though we had got exactly what he had gone in for, at a good price, with good, honest service.

BUT it gets even better.

When we got home Dave started to sort out the phone, putting in the numbers, setting the voice recognition, charging it up etc. When he tried to charge up the hands free kit nothing happened! Great - it was the only one they had in the shop as well. They had looked in the stock room and found none so we had bought the display one, which had looked perfectly OK.

We went into town first thing on Sunday to return the set to the shop. When Dave showed the assistant the box and began to explain, he was cut short as the assistant said he already knew all about it! Apparently the box had a mark on it to denote a faulty item, but he hadn't realised that the previous day and had sold it to us by mistake. Since they hadn't got any more in stock someone had driven
over to the nearest branch to get another one ready for us to collect. Had we not gone in ourselves they were going to ring us and let us know.

So all in all we were both very impressed with Phones 4 U for their service, prices, pleasant, courteous, but not pushy, staff and of course the chocolate éclair!

Summary: