Gahh! Quite annoyed by this week's Vodafone retail experience

Buoyed by last weeks delightful iPhone 5 purchase experience I walked into the Vodafone store in Richmond yesterday afternoon and bought a Samsung Galaxy SIII on contract.

At least I tried to do so.

The very helpful chap tried to sell it to me.

The device was sitting in from of me for about 10 minutes in the box.

But Vodafone couldn’t sell it to me.

I was being an exception you see. I’d asked for a 12 month contract. All the pricing calculators make it clear this is perfectly acceptable. But the company’s own systems wouldn’t allow it.

First the chap tried to order the 32gb version in white. No. That wasn’t accepted. So then he tried the black version. Then, getting rather desperate, he tried the 16gb ones. The system just wouldn’t allow 12 months for some reason.

I wasn’t about to budge on taking a two year commitment so the chap suggested the farcical option: I order it for delivery.

Stupid I know. But this was the only way he knew he could give me what I had (reasonably I thought!) asked for.

So despite the device sitting there in front of me, there was nothing to be done.

Patently stupid. I could just about deal with next day delivery — and when the chap explained the phone might take ‘a few days to reach me’ I frankly didn’t believe him. This is Vodafone we are talking about. Their logistics are phenomenal!

Not it seems with the SIII which is so bountifully in stock the local shop had every single flavour there for me.

I had the immediate text an email order acknowledgement whilst I was in store.

And then nothing.

Nothing. I logged on to look up the order status and apparently my flipping order number is invalid.

Come on!

I am really not built to handle this sort of exception. I can’t stand the inefficiency. This is stupid simple. How does shit like this still fall through the cracks in this age of logistical nirvana.

If I’d bought the phone from Amazon it would have arrived by 9am this morning.

So now I have a dilemma. Keep the phone or return it when it eventually arrives.

Any suggestions?