Mystery Caller: January sales

Mystery Caller needs a new phone and is hoping to score a last-minute bargain in the January sales. With a wealth of deals to be found online, will the CSAs find one that hits the spot?

6: Virgin

The CSA told me slowly that Virgin stocked the iPhone 4s in black and white, which was the only detail I was told

Manner – 5/5
Understanding – 2/5
Knowledge – 0/5
Helpfulness – 4/5
Clarity – 2/5
Overall – 2/5
Total – 15/30

5: Vdoafone

Mark gave me a cheaper option but left me feeling he didn’t really know which sort of tariff I wanted

Manner – 4/5
Understanding – 1/5
Knowledge – 2/5
Helpfulness – 4/5
Clarity – 2/5
Overall – 3/5
Total – 16/30

4: Three

Gavin said: “We do not have any offers on at the moment,” which put a spanner in the works

Manner – 2/5
Understanding – 3/5
Knowledge – 3/5
Helpfulness – 4/5
Clarity – 3/5
Overall – 3/5
Total – 18/30

3: Orange

An astute sales person would have been able to turn this into a sale quite easily

Manner – 4/5
Understanding – 3/5
Knowledge – 5/5
Helpfulness – 4/5
Clarity – 2/5
Overall – 2/5
Total – 20/30

2: O2

It was hard to make head or tail of the offers because I wasn’t given the exact model, only the manufacturer

Manner – 5/5
Understanding – 3/5
Knowledge – 4/5
Helpfulness – 5/5
Clarity – 1/5
Overall – 3/5
Total – 21/30

1: T-Mobile

He was the only CSA to really grasp the fact that I was a customer looking for a bargain

Manner – 4/5
Understanding – 5/5
Knowledge – 3/5
Helpfulness – 5/5
Clarity – 4/5
Overall – 4/5
Total – 25/30

Summary

Most of the operators had reduced a selection of devices for the post-Christmas period, which meant my request for a bargain should have been easy to fulfil.

However, several operators still insisted on trying to sell me the most expensive devices, which were not on offer. Virgin and Vodafone were most guilty of ignoring my query, so find themselves at the bottom.

In contrast, T-Mobile’s CSA understood the nature of my call and recommended only those devices that he though were good value.

In terms of knowledge, Ian at Orange impressed by forewarning me of deals on a number of high-end phones.

Full article in Mobile News issue 556 (January 17, 2014).

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