Would like to share my story
I am from Cambridge, UK and I am a big supporter or Nokia / MS / Lumia / Windows...
I have a colleague (he is about 45-50 man) who wanted to upgrade his phone. He is one of those people who don't care what OS they are running and don't care how many apps they can get. He doesn't even know what Android, WP or iOS is. He was using Blackberry - but internet browser is bad, email client don't work anymore, screen is small, battery life and camera are very bad and so on... [4 year old phone] so he wanted something where he can check emails, browse internet, calls and texts and watch youtube videos - obviously with bigger screen and touch, something more up to date...
When we started talking, he immediately said that he wouldn't get an iPhone [or any other high end phone] as it's too expensive and there is no need to pay ?500+ for a phone. Originally; he said he will just get a PAYG phone for about ?80-?130. The only condition he had, was, that he wants to buy it from the Vodafone shop in Cambridge. He is a long term Vodafone customer and he doesn't want to change his number.
Naturally; I wanted to recommend him either Lumia 535, 640 or 735 as I think that any of those phones would be brilliant for him and they are exactly for around ?100. I showed him my Lumia 735 and he liked it - from games he only wanted Pac-Man, he didn't care about any of the banking apps or anything special as he wouldn't do banking on the phone (doesn't trust it)...
So; I went to check the PAYG section on the Vodafone website to see what phones they have - and sadly I can only say they had only Lumia 635 from the Lumia mid range. They have Lumia 640 on pay monthly though. Stunned; I had to stay quiet as I could not recommend him anything from Vodafone at that price on PAYG.
Bearing in mind that they had a strong competition from HTC Desire 510, Sam Galaxy 4 mini etc. in that price range... all in stock... I told him to check Carphone Warehouse because have the Lumia 640, 535, 735 on PAYG and the CW shop is about 100m from the Vodafone shop... also know that their PAYG phones are not SIM locked, so he could get it there for a good price and still use Vodafone, but he wouldn't even consider going to another store...
He went to the shop yesterday, there was only one person apart from him, he spent there about 1h. The sales woman asked him what he is looking for - so he told her that he is looking for a phone where he can check emails (he is on hotmail BTW, and at home has a win 7 laptop) browse internet, calls, texts and so on - simply doesn't have to be anything fancy...
Immediately; she pointed at HTC Desire 510 and told him that is the phone that he wants She didn't even mention other phones / models simply nothing - simply "this is the best phone for you" and that's it.... and he agreed - didn't question anything
Another shock for me was that she convinced him to switch to PAY MONTHLY on ?21 a month [1GB data, 500min, unlimited texts]
When he came to work today and showed me what he got and told me the story, I didn't know whether I should cry or laugh... Simply sad for me as I think that any of those phones would be better choice for him... I bought my phone from Carphone Warehouse in November and I wouldn't expect that the situation with Lumia phones is so bad...
I just hope that the situation with Win Phones in stock will improve everywhere and the promotion side as well. Microsoft can't hope to sell more phones if they are not in stock everywhere, are not priced competitively and are not recommended... I hope that with Win10 the situation will improve...
I am from Cambridge, UK and I am a big supporter or Nokia / MS / Lumia / Windows...
I have a colleague (he is about 45-50 man) who wanted to upgrade his phone. He is one of those people who don't care what OS they are running and don't care how many apps they can get. He doesn't even know what Android, WP or iOS is. He was using Blackberry - but internet browser is bad, email client don't work anymore, screen is small, battery life and camera are very bad and so on... [4 year old phone] so he wanted something where he can check emails, browse internet, calls and texts and watch youtube videos - obviously with bigger screen and touch, something more up to date...
When we started talking, he immediately said that he wouldn't get an iPhone [or any other high end phone] as it's too expensive and there is no need to pay ?500+ for a phone. Originally; he said he will just get a PAYG phone for about ?80-?130. The only condition he had, was, that he wants to buy it from the Vodafone shop in Cambridge. He is a long term Vodafone customer and he doesn't want to change his number.
Naturally; I wanted to recommend him either Lumia 535, 640 or 735 as I think that any of those phones would be brilliant for him and they are exactly for around ?100. I showed him my Lumia 735 and he liked it - from games he only wanted Pac-Man, he didn't care about any of the banking apps or anything special as he wouldn't do banking on the phone (doesn't trust it)...
So; I went to check the PAYG section on the Vodafone website to see what phones they have - and sadly I can only say they had only Lumia 635 from the Lumia mid range. They have Lumia 640 on pay monthly though. Stunned; I had to stay quiet as I could not recommend him anything from Vodafone at that price on PAYG.
Bearing in mind that they had a strong competition from HTC Desire 510, Sam Galaxy 4 mini etc. in that price range... all in stock... I told him to check Carphone Warehouse because have the Lumia 640, 535, 735 on PAYG and the CW shop is about 100m from the Vodafone shop... also know that their PAYG phones are not SIM locked, so he could get it there for a good price and still use Vodafone, but he wouldn't even consider going to another store...
He went to the shop yesterday, there was only one person apart from him, he spent there about 1h. The sales woman asked him what he is looking for - so he told her that he is looking for a phone where he can check emails (he is on hotmail BTW, and at home has a win 7 laptop) browse internet, calls, texts and so on - simply doesn't have to be anything fancy...
Immediately; she pointed at HTC Desire 510 and told him that is the phone that he wants She didn't even mention other phones / models simply nothing - simply "this is the best phone for you" and that's it.... and he agreed - didn't question anything
Another shock for me was that she convinced him to switch to PAY MONTHLY on ?21 a month [1GB data, 500min, unlimited texts]
When he came to work today and showed me what he got and told me the story, I didn't know whether I should cry or laugh... Simply sad for me as I think that any of those phones would be better choice for him... I bought my phone from Carphone Warehouse in November and I wouldn't expect that the situation with Lumia phones is so bad...
I just hope that the situation with Win Phones in stock will improve everywhere and the promotion side as well. Microsoft can't hope to sell more phones if they are not in stock everywhere, are not priced competitively and are not recommended... I hope that with Win10 the situation will improve...