Mystery Shopper: Basingstoke

Mystery Shopper wishes to purchase a contract phone for use by a university ‘fresher’ with a cap of £25-£30 per month. What do the retailers of Basingstoke have to offer?

Product range – 3/5
Product knowledge – 3/5
Airtime knowledge – 2/5
Questioning ability – 2/5
Sales ability – 2/5
Shop appearance – 4/5
Total – 16/30

4: T-Mobile

Product range – 4/5
Product knowledge – 2/5
Airtime knowledge – 4/5
Questioning ability – 3/5
Sales ability – 3/5
Shop appearance – 3/5
Total – 19/30

3: Virgin Media

Product range – 3/5
Product knowledge – 4/5
Airtime knowledge – 4/5
Questioning ability – 3/5
Sales ability – 2/5
Shop appearance – 4/5
Total – 20/30

2: Orange

Product range – 4/5
Product knowledge – 5/5
Airtime knowledge – 5/5
Questioning ability – 4/5
Sales ability – 5/5
Shop appearance – 4/5
Total – 27/30

1: Phones 4U

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

Summary

Only Orange and Phones 4U did well, with the others putting in fairly average performances.

Only T-Mobile has something to cater for such needs, which automatically put T-Mobile, Carphone Warehouse and Phones 4U at an advantage, yet it was only Phones 4U which made use of it. I was surprised to hear U-Fix at Carphone, insead of T-Mobile’s SIM-only deal. Other shockers included an attempt to sell Android Marketplace based on a spirit level app and admitting to being a on a rival network’s staff discount.

Orange and Phones 4U were top by some margin for their help and accuracy.

Full review in Mobile News issue 471 (August 30, 2010).

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