By Adam Engledow, a director with Design Vibe Creative
With more and more mobile network operator owned stores opening up on the high street, plus the whole experience of dealing with the network operators direct improving each time you want to upgrade your phone – it starts to leave the question, why do we need independent mobile retailers any more?Take yourself back six years ago when walking into a network store meant you dealt with an individual who only knew the phrase “The computer says, No.”
Then you only had to walk 30 seconds down the High Street before you hit a Phones4u or Carphone Warehouse.
The comparison between the deals on offer and the individual service provided was like comparing going on a date with a super fun, hot blonde or your best mate’s grandmother.
Network-owned stores seemed uninterested in giving inspiring service and/or deals.
However, six years’ later and with the double dip recession in full swing (in the UK) that gap has disappeared.
Networks’ stores are now in a massive period of growth and they seem to be popping up everywhere.
At the same time, you discover the likes of a Phones4u closing more stores – with the deals and charisma slowing slipping away.
So what is best? Personally, I’m not due a network sponsored upgrade for another six months, but my BlackBerry has had it. I called a friend at a major retail chain and he couldn’t do a thing.
Consequently, I popped into my local network owned store, whose sales folk tried a few things but it was going to cost me around £150 to upgrade early.
Where have the days gone when you couldn’t walk down the high street without getting dragged into a store to do a deal to get out of your contract early?
Thus I had a look on the web, and that’s when I realised that mobile phone’s future is on the web.
I by-passed all these same old comparison sites and found some real meaty independents who offer a range of phones, networks and deals to help me out.
High street stores will always try to sell you the deal that is right for them but on the internet if they don’t show the best deals straight away you just click off.
Sites like e2save and buymobiles.net all offer the best deals straight away. Try them. I liked them so I joined in with RUmobile.
About Design Vibe
UK based Design Vibe specialise in website design and development, we produce professional looking websites that focus on a creative perspective. We also designed the site for RUMobile.
