3: Can I upgrade in store? Yes!

I was at Lakeside Shopping Centre buying yet another Mac Pro the other day (there simply isn’t anything better for processing video than a top of the range Mac — although buy your RAM and HDD elsewhere!).

Whilst I was waiting for them to stick in a wireless card, I took a tour around the shops.  I popped into the 3 store to see if their excellent S2 Skypephone was available.  Most certainly.  It was right there.  Next to an E71 on a 26/month contract.  Good deals.

I asked the enthusiastic sales chap if I could get an upgrade yet.  I was ready for the usual bollocks from 3.  You see in any other mobile retailer store, you can discuss upgrading and the rest of your account with the sales people in front of you.  However with 3, the sales chaps usually have to ask you to phone India (i.e. 3 support) to sort all that out.

Which totally defeats the object of having a store for any other reason than signing up new customers.  If you’re an existing customer, they’ve been completely useless.

However yesterday the chap was actually able to look up my account and upgrade me there in the shop.  Smart. Finally!

The only trouble?  Heh.  He made a face of pain when he saw that I was one-day-away from being able to upgrade.

“There’s nothing you can do?” I asked him.  He and I both knew that I was a good, quick win — but that I’d probably not be coming into the shop tomorrow.

“No, sorry. But tomorrow…”

No biggie.

I think I’ll wait ’til the N96 is available and upgrade then…