30 REVIEWS @ mobilenewsmag MobileNewsMagazine www . mobilenewscwp . co . uk
Mystery Shopper
Carphone Warehouse
Northampton
With NFC being much talked about , Mystery Shopper is keen to get more innovative and have the technology to hand at all times . Could the retailers come up with the most suitable and compatible smartphones ?
Three
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Sales assistant Mikey and an unnamed colleague were chatting behind the counter as I entered the shop .
Between them they said that all the top-end phones were NFC-enabled , before pushing the Samsung Galaxy S4 . They then asked if there was a particular phone I was after . Surely that question should have come earlier ?
Mumbling between them , the unnamed member of staff said I should go for the Sony Xperia Z as it was a good phone , before asking what my budget was . This was all over the place .
Twenty seconds elapsed before they said it was free for £ 32 a month on O2 with unlimited minutes , texts and 1GB of data . The only thing the unnamed salesman added was that the Xperia Z was waterproof . Attempting to rescue the visit , I asked how to activate NFC on the phone . “ Turn it on like you would with Bluetooth ,” they said . Useless .
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The unnamed sales assistant in Three first asked if I was looking for a contract and what my budget was , before saying : “ For that price , you have a choice of every single phone everywhere .” That was questionable . He recommended the Samsung Galaxy S III Mini , free for £ 23 a month with 500 minutes , 5,000 texts and unlimited web , then moved on to the S4 Mini , saying : “ I ’ m quite technical with phones , but can ’ t remember which ones do and don ’ t have NFC . If you tell me which ones you like , I can tell you if it ’ s NFC-enabled .” Oh dear .
I went back to the S4 Mini , and he told me it would cost £ 32 a month with 2,000 minutes , 5,000 texts and unlimited web . However , he was reading this off a screen , where he also saw that it was NFC-enabled .
I asked him about activating NFC on the handset and he found the option .
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The store was quiet and sales assistant Bobby was wandering back and forth behind the counter .
Curiously , he said he assumed most of the phones were NFC-enabled , reeling off the names of the Sony Xperia Z , Samsung Galaxy S4 , Galaxy S III , Galaxy S III Mini , Galaxy Note 2 , Nokia Lumia 925 and the BlackBerry Q10 and Q5 . It was a long list to consider .
Bobby asked if I wanted a contract or was looking to go straight on to prepay , as well as asking how much I was looking to pay every month .
He was quick to recommend the Sony Xperia Z , saying it was one of the best phones out . This would be free for £ 32 a month with unlimited minutes , unlimited texts and 1GB of data .
The two letdowns were the lack of detail he gave me about the phone ’ s specs and rushing through showing me how to activate NFC on it .
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At EE I was served by Dean , who suggested the Nokia Lumia 820 , BlackBerry Q10 and Sony Xperia SP . He asked what I wanted NFC for and what I required from the phone .
Dean chose the Xperia SP , which he said was priced from £ 26 a month on 4GEE . He then handed me over to Jordan to find out more tariff details .
Jordan asked if it would be a new contract and whether I was with EE , before telling me 4G was now available in areas around Northampton . On his own handset , he was getting download speeds of 35Mbps , he said .
I would get unlimited minutes , unlimited texts and 500MB of data , Jordan told me . He then disappeared to find an Xperia SP handset .
When he returned , three minutes later , he showed me how to access NFC and he let me take pictures with the phone . It was a good personal touch .
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MN 2013-0730 M-Shopper . indd 30 24 / 07 / 2013 15:35