Mystery Caller: GPS phones on prepay

Mystery Caller has a habit of getting lost. He is after a GPS enabled phone to use with his existing prepay SIM. With a budget of £60-£80 he set about seeing what the networks had to offer

6: O2

I braced myself for the CSA’s attempt to draw me into some form of contract instead, but this never came

Manner – 0/5
Understanding – 2/5
Knowledge – 0/5
Helpfulness – 0/5
Clarity – 2/5
Overall – 1/5
Total – 5/30

5: T-Mobile

I rifled through my fishing box for something juicier to hook to my line. But my willingness to buy was the best bait I had

Manner – 1/5
Understanding – 1/5
Knowledge – 0/5
Helpfulness – 0/5
Clarity – 3/5
Overall – 1/5
Total – 6/30

4: Vodafone

Either Lucy was a robot with a serial number on her base, a parrot on a pirate’s shoulder or she genuinely could not help me

Manner – 2/5
Understanding – 1/5
Knowledge – 1/5
Helpfulness – 1/5
Clarity – 3/5
Overall – 1/5
Total – 9/30

3: Virgin Mobile

Then, when I answered, he started shouting: “We can put you on a rolling contract, we can put you on a rolling contract”

Manner – 2/5
Understanding – 1/5
Knowledge – 3/5
Helpfulness – 1/5
Clarity – 1/5
Overall – 2/5
Total – 10/30

2: Three

“Right, but it is with Google Maps, I presume?” He responded: “I can’t really tell you anything else”

Manner – 3/5
Understanding –3/5
Knowledge – 3/5
Helpfulness – 2/5
Clarity – 1/5
Overall – 3/5
Total – 15/30

1: Orange

It was a pleasure to be asked these questions, instead of simply stating it in the hope I could prolong a conversation

Manner – 5/5
Understanding – 4/5
Knowledge – 5/5
Helpfulness – 5/5
Clarity – 4/5
Overall – 4/5
Total – 27/30

Summary

All in all it was a bad week for just about all the operators. Not many people seemed to care and a reluctance to sell prepay handsets by the majority scored them down.

Teri from Orange was the pick of the bunch this week as she acted just like a salesperson should while Grant at Three had glimpses of being helpful but ultimately didn’t seem to be bothered. Leslie at O2 might have been better if she could wait to take her lunch break away from the phone, which was almost annoying as Chris at Virgin being far too fond of the sound of his own voice.

A trip to Vodafone may uncover a warehouse full of robots if Lucy is anything to go by and in interestingly typical T-Mobile fashion Mark just couldn’t seem to care less.

Full review in Mobile News issue 479 (December 20, 2010).