Mystery Caller: international video calling

Mystery Caller has found a job that involves a lot of travel around, but he has two young kids he wants to see grow up. Can the operators find a video calling solution to ensure he doesn’t miss important moments?

6: Virgin Mobile

The fact that neither device had a rear camera needed for video calling showed he didn’t have a clue what he was talking about

Manner – 1/5
Understanding – 0/5
Knowledge – 0/5
Helpfulness – 0/5
Clarity – 0/5
Overall – 0/5
Total – 1/30

5: Orange

She had tugged at the heartstrings but had suggested something that could often leave me without a way to make the video calls I needed to make

Manner – 3/5
Understanding – 2/5
Knowledge – 1/5
Helpfulness – 1/5
Clarity – 3/5
Overall – 1/5
Total – 11/30

4: Vodafone

Like Sonja, Vicky gave misleading advice, but perhaps both of them had been blinded by Apple’s marketing campaigns

Manner – 3/5
Understanding – 3/5
Knowledge – 1/5
Helpfulness – 1/5
Clarity – 3/5
Overall – 1/5
Total – 12/30

3: O2

Once she had found the information, Joanne seemed shocked to be able to offer such a good solution

Manner –4/5
Understanding – 3/5
Knowledge – 3/5
Helpfulness – 4/5
Clarity – 3/5
Overall – 4/5
Total – 21/30

2: Three

Jamie had done a very solid job, but it all fell apart when I asked him about video calling outside UK borders

Manner – 4/5
Understanding – 4/5
Knowledge – 4/5
Helpfulness – 4/5
Clarity – 3/5
Overall – 3/5
Total – 22/30

1: T-Mobile

Glen said I would get “a more professional modem that could run at speeds of up to 28.8Mbps”. Impressive

Manner – 5/5
Understanding – 5/5
Knowledge – 4/5
Helpfulness – 4/5
Clarity – 4/5
Overall – 4/5
Total – 26/30

Summary

The CSAs were split between those who could offer a solution for video calling and those who didn’t know what they were talking about.

John at Virgin recommended two phones that would have been practically useless for video calling without a complicated mirror system.

Both Orange and Vodafone wrongly insisted that Apple’s FaceTime service would be just as effective on 3G as over Wi-Fi.

In contrast, Three’s Jamie had a great UK-only solution, while O2’s Joanne had perhaps the simplest offering available, even if she didn’t seem to know it.

But it was Leah who won this time around with a combination of good service and a detailed tariff and phone offering that she explained well.

Full review in Mobile News issue 503 (December 5, 2011).