I’m still on O2, despite my rant about them a few years ago which is still attracting comments. I compared the respective offers from the O2 store sales guy and the one in Phones4U and frankly, the O2 guy won on technique, or lack thereof, alone.

The deals cost the same (although the Phones4U staff tried to ‘up-sell’ us), the phones were the same, but the O2 guy let us ask him questions and let us make our choice or leave it. The Phones4U staff were forceful, kept us there for half an hour or more, making ever more confusing offers and trying to convince us to sign the deal without leaving. I had to stop the senior sales girl (who had joined the original sales guy) twice and ask her to slow down and stop throwing numbers at us. We were offered all sorts of things, cash back, £40 in cash before we left the store, thousands of free minutes and hundreds of texts, all for more than we wanted to pay, provided we signed the deal. I explained politely that I refused to sign anything without first comparing with the competition and when I explained this they stood up and turned their backs on us so we left. I have since been informed that you never actually get any cash back, you get more free call credit. Something wrong with the wording there I think.

The thing was, the deal was better than O2 were offering, but O2 let us choose our deal, Phones4U took what we wanted and then tried to sell us a more expensive deal which was too complicated to follow and then blanked us when we asked if we could continue on our research mission and then return when we had made a decision. So, as annoyed as I was that O2 didn’t know my tariff details and took more than half an hour to come to that conclusion, their sales staff are polite, friendly and helpful while the Phones4U staff were aggressive and rude in their sales technique. I did a short course in sales techniques so I knew why they were being that way – to overwhelm you with impressive sounding figures and get you to sign before you get chance to weigh up the advantages and disadvantages. It’s all about the money. Get the sale. Fuck what the customer wants.

Fuck you, to coin a phrase. You don’t get my money if my university educated brain can’t follow your deal or you try to overwhelm me with figures. Clarity and giving me what I want is the key to getting my wallet open.