Mystery Shopper: Croydon

Mystery Shopper is looking for an easy-to-use prepay handset for his mum, which can access emails from the grandkids and has a reasonable camera, for under £60

5: Three

Product range – 4/5
Product knowledge – 1/5
Airtime knowledge – 3/5
Questioning ability – 1/5
Sales ability – 0/5
Shop appearance – 4/5
Total – 13/30

4: Carphone Warehouse

Product range – 2/5
Product knowledge – 3/5
Airtime knowledge – 3/5
Questioning ability – 4/5
Sales ability – 3/5
Shop appearance – 2/5
Total – 17/30

3: Vodafone

Product range – 4/5
Product knowledge – 4/5
Airtime knowledge – 1/5
Questioning ability – 4/5
Sales ability – 4/5
Shop appearance – 5/5
Total – 22/30

2: T-Mobile

Product range – 4/5
Product knowledge – 5/5
Airtime knowledge – 5/5
Questioning ability – 4/5
Sales ability – 3/5
Shop appearance – 2/5
Total – 23/30

1: Virgin

Product range – 4/5
Product knowledge – 5/5
Airtime knowledge – 5/5
Questioning ability – 5/5
Sales ability – 5/5
Shop appearance – 5/5
Total – 29/30

Summary

In the battle of the medium-range prepay phones Paul at Virgin Media put in a near flawless performance, mixing good customer service with a decent deal on the ZTE.

T-Mobile fared well, with Leah offering good advice and carefully considering her recommendation.

Vodafone had a limited choice – though more than O2, which didn’t feature this week after admitting it had no suitable handsets.

Staff at Carphone and Three didn’t seem to care much, with Carphone only helping when I hovered around the high-end section and Three very reluctant to do anything at all.

Full article in Mobile News issue 521 (August 27, 2012).

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