Steve Procter of iTagg in impulse Blackberry buying shocker

Yesterday I had lunch with the team at iTagg.  Excellent lunch.  We went to Pizza Express near the river by London Bridge.  I had an American (that’s a pizza).

I was talking with the guys about the Blackberry vs Windows Mobile — and just how disappointed I’ve been in the past. 

Well butter me in honey and call me Sharon, one of the iTagg directors, Steve, has gone and got one!  He sent me a text from the shop — then sent me this description of his Blackberry buying experience:

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Steve, Director of iTagg writes:

Well I did it!  I am now officially among the ranks of the always-connected – I’ve bought my first Blackberry!!  So let me bring you up to date with my mobile phone shopping experience…

As you will recall from my first instalment, the thought of going in to mobile shops to be shown plastic demo toys by a spotty 16yr old doing work experience fills me with dread.  And last weeks trip where I ran out of the 2nd shop in a cold sweat left me thinking that actually my old handset was ok for at least another 10 years.

But after chatting to Ewan yesterday I finally decided that yes, a Blackberry (Bb) was what I wanted right now and I was just gonna do it.  So after a fruitless trip to the Ad:tech exhibition (a bunch of online advertising types all comparing the sizes of each others search results list – another story!!), I jumped in a cab to take me to the nearest T Mobile store.

Now how did I know where that store was, because I’d spent 15 minutes on google and the t mobile website trying to locate their store locator.  Good web design t mobile – NOT!!!  It said Kings Road.  So off I went, asking the cheeky chappie driver to drive the length of the Great Kings Road looking for this damn shop.  Well I can tell you, if it is there they have removed the sign from the front and changed the window display to show clothes instead (and not even your cool 60’s "when the Kings Rd really was THE place to be" clothes either).

So we found an Orange, CPW and Phones4U shop all next to each other so out I jumped.  I would only go in to a Phones4U shop if I was dragged through the door kicking and screaming and then offered a neck massage whilst a fair maiden softly chatted about how they had changed to become really friendly and all the female staff would like to come out for a few drinks with me tonight to chat over the tariff options.  Even then I’d be suspicious.  Orange – well I like them in a funny "they were my first ever network and so they are quite sweet really" sort of way.  But as t mobile were the only ones doing the Bb I had to do it…

So in I step to CPW.  They were busy but I saw one guy in one of those waiting-for-the-computer-to-think moments so I gently asked if they had any Bb’s in stock.  "YES! but can’t you see I’m busy!!".  Blimey mate, you’ll go far in life with an attitude like that.  Clearly looking at a screen that says "processing, please wait" and thinking about what devices they sell is far too much for his brain.

The 2nd guy was dealing with a mother and daughter who were new to the UK and were busily handing over their passports to prove they weren’t a couple of east end gangsters.  And then the poor salesman in broken Portugese had to explain how they had no credit history so Vodafone ("sorry it’s not CPW’s fault, we’re’ so nice we’d give you a share of the profits, but we’re gona have to blame Voda") would need them to pay a £100 deposit.  Now I have to explain that this lady and her 20 something’s daughter (oh and if you’re reading this Maria then contact Ewan who will give you my mobile number 😉 were in Chelsea and looking like they could buy half of Chelsea, if they didn’t already own it!!  It was quite embarrassing seeing the daughter explain to her mother why they were being treated with such little respect.  But to top it all, the lady then pulled out a – wait for it this is beautiful – a black Amex card to pay the £100 security deposit!!  Lovely!!! there is justice!!!

So then there was Fozia!!  I queued for 5 mins and then she dealt with me like a professional shop person who loves her job.  Answered all the questions well and politely and even gave me 2 Top Tips (read below).  I can’t really say any more, it is clearly a bit of a slow process going through the credit checks but it felt very efficient – just as long as "the computer says Yes".

So, mobile phone shops.  Are they all the same?  Are they horrible places staffed by morons?  Well probably not.  I think it actually comes down to whether you get the 16yr old Saturday staff (oh and you do know never to go shopping up the west end on a saturday for this reason don’t you!?) or the professional full-time staff member who cares about their career.  So I say, lets start a list of known mobile shop staff members who should be asked for by name, and boycott the kidz.

Top Tips: ok these might be bull, I’d love a techie-expert to confirm or deny.  But at least she gave them in good faith and with a friendly smile.  1. never charge your battery overnight – only ever do for 2 hrs at a time or you’ll kill the battery;  2. if you are having problems with some connectivity functions then take the SIM out now and then to de-static’ise it.  hhmmm?

So my one big fault with mobile shops: why on earth can’t they pre-charge some batteries…I now have to wait another 5 hrs, 37 mins and 23 secs before I can use my Bb…..oh I’m addicted already, I keep checking the screen to see if it says "go on then, have a quick snort if you want"…

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I’m delighted for you Steve!   I hope you get some good use out of the Blackberry.  It’s definitely revolutionised my lifestyle and freed me up from being chained to a computer all the time.

That said I’d really like to broaden my horizons with the other possible services out there — I’m thinking Good Technology, Visto and so on. 

Anyway I’m thoroughly enjoying reading everyone’s experiences of mobile operators — don’t hesitate to whack me an email and let me know if you’ve had some good/bad/indifferent mobile purchasing encounters?   I’ll try and see if we can get Steve to write a ‘Blackberry: One week on’ article shortly. 

I wonder if he’ll take to the device?

How about you? Blackberry: Best thing you ever did or total unmitigated mistake?