My experience at The Mobile Store

[Raajiv]

That was Funny Stuff .

Here at the Mobile Store @ Chennai,sales people are of mixed bag.Good and Bad.But,they seem to have very less models compared the ones available with a regional/local dealer.

Cheers,
RS

[Sam Kapasi]

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

As is my usual bad luck with BlackBerry phones, my 8300 curve has completely given way. I sent it to Airtel expecting prompt replacement (as I have got with my 4 or 5 BlackBerrys in the past lol)

NO, this time they decide that they want to repair it. 10 days.

10 DAYS!!

And they have given me a replacement BlackBerry till then. It's the first BlackBerry model I ever used in my life. It is as big as a transistor radio. Sigh.

Received my own Blackberry back today. Airtel called me. It seems it was repaired and now works fine.

[kaushik_s]

My experience: Once I went to Mobile Store(Marathahalli) to get a SE earphone.First they told me that it's not available so i turned back towards the door.Then the second guy called me and told that he have a black colored one(I had grey colored one with my W700i).I thought, fine,let me check.He took out a polythene packet and one SE earphone.I put it on my ears.It was sounding just horrible.Told him that it's not a original SE earphone.Then only he told me that it's a duplicate one and they don't have the original earphones.I just walked out and never went back to that shop again.

[greenhorn]

they seem to have a funny gifts worth 5k assured scheme, but i think 99.9 % of all the coupons are "holiday packages" which i'm sure will end up making money for the hospitality chain.

they actually advertise the home theatre etc at the gifts you might win , but chances are that you'll get stuck with this.

would you believe they actually posted the actual ratios of the scratch cards on their site

[hydrashok]

I'd visited one of the Mobile Stores here in Kochi (the one in Pallimukku) to pick up a phone for a friend of mine. He was considering the HTC Touch and the MotoQ8.

Salesperson there was pretty much conversant with the features of the HTC Touch, but could not give a lot of info about the Q8. (I really think we will have to accept that salespeople cannot know everything about every mobile in the store - we should do some basic homework on our own before we go to any such place). Anyway, my friend was considering the Q8 only so he could convince himself he was being responsible/mature about the purchase, by considering alternatives (I know very well that he wanted the HTC Touch anyway, and even if the Q8 was given to him at 50% discount he'd have got the Touch, heh, heh).

The salesperson could not confirm whether the Touch they carried was the Enhanced version (more RAM/ROM) or not. But he was happy to open up the packaging and setup the phone and let us find out. We did, and found it was indeed the enhanced version.

Another matter we need some clarification on, was service. HTC does not have a service center in Kochi, and Bangalore is the nearest alternative. The salesperson checked and informed us that for any issue that came up, my friend could give the phone at the MobileStore, and that they would handle getting the phone serviced/replaced under warranty through their network (they'd ship it to Bangalore, get the job done and ship it back). It seems HTC is expected to have some official presence in Kochi within a month or so, and after that they would manage this directly.

Once the "decision" was made, the purchase happened pretty fast. My friend threw in his 19 month-old Nokia 6630 and got 3500/- for it (a bit lesser than what he'd have got in other places I know of). They had a scratchcard contest scheme going, and my friend scratched himself a 3 days + 2 nights holiday

Overall, a pretty good experience.

However my regular mobile dealer gives me as good an experience, a better discount, better resale for the old mobile and some freebie or the other (usually memory). So while the Mobile Store experience is without any bad taste, I'd stick to my guy for my purchases. My friend wanted a better buying experience (= better ambience, and better dressed salespeople, I guess) while buying his mobile, and so he chose the MobileStore. But he did get a free holiday courtesy the Mobile Store

[CorsaLove]

My Experience with Mobile store off Commercial street here in bangalore was good. The staff was very attentive and gave good info on the handsets.

I was looking for 2 phones one for my wife and the other for my sis-in-law. bought i only as they did not have the steel version of Lg that my wife wanted.

Overall it was a great experience with mobile store. Their service center also does a good job with minimal charges.

[jkdas]

@ Hydra; please dont read techy websites and run down to your nearest dealer and order a mobile that was launched last day in US

I too got that holiday package. I bought my E51 from them coz they wouldnt close shop one day and leave. I did expect them to have more newer models though which other dealers had.

I also got a tiny loyalty discount.

[MC Mayank]

which is the best mobile store in Noida? I will be there for a week starting tomorrow and have some time on my hands so was thinking of picking up the HTC Cruise..

Anyone seen this phone in a Noida store?

[HappyWheels]

got myself a nokia 6300 from UniverCell showroom at Chennai, Chrompet (just after the flyover on the way from airport to vandalur). purchase went on fine. nothing great since i had my requirements clear.

it was after that - checked at nokia site if the battery was original; turned out it was not. went back to the store, tell the story and the issue to the guy at the desk and all he has to say was 'we cant do anything'. created a big fuss (not that it did any good, but atleast everyone in the store got to know that I got a duplicate part) and left.

did not expect to have this kind of experience from a famous and supposedly good store!

[spindoc]

Originally Posted by HappyWheels

got myself a nokia 6300 from UniverCell showroom at Chennai, Chrompet (just after the flyover on the way from airport to vandalur). purchase went on fine. nothing great since i had my requirements clear.

it was after that - checked at nokia site if the battery was original; turned out it was not. went back to the store, tell the story and the issue to the guy at the desk and all he has to say was 'we cant do anything'. created a big fuss (not that it did any good, but atleast everyone in the store got to know that I got a duplicate part) and left.

did not expect to have this kind of experience from a famous and supposedly good store!

Sorry for being OT, but just wanted to respond to HappyWheels' experience:

UniverCell delivers close to the poorest customer service of any mobile outlet in Chennai. I have gone to their original (first) store multiple times and have almost always seen someone complaining to / shouting at their staff.

Sadly, some of our retailers seem to think big-budget advertising = brand building! It'd serve them well to invest their time and effort to reach out to customers too.

[nishantgandhi]

The Mobile Store has to be the funniest store for cellphone purchase that I have encountered. I was looking to buy a Nokia E61i sometime in December and came across their offer. Although their prices were 600-1K higher than Subhiksha Mobile and another dealer, I thought it might be worthwhile to try out my luck!

went to the Andheri West (Infinity Mall) store at around 11.30 am and was told by the guy that the piece is not in stock. He asked me to wait for 15 minutes, so that they could send a guy to pick it up from their Lokhandwala store.

It seems that the guy didnt know his way well enough and it took him 1 hour 15 minutes to complete the round trip. After 30 minutes of waiting, I got irritated and wanted to walk away. However, the store attendant was convincing enough to keep me there. He called his delivery guy every 10 minutes and they spoke in Marathi (which I don't understand, being a Delhite). And every time I was told, "he is expected to reach any minute as he is stuck in traffic".

Well the killer part is that when the guy came, he got an un-sealed box. I refused to buy that piece. While the store attendant was trying to convince me that it was a genuine piece, I suddenly noticed a box of E61i lying near the counter. everyone in the store was unaware of their own inventory!!

It was a sealed box and I ended up buying it, after throwing my anger and escalating the complaint to the Store Owner/Manager. I got no discount. And the scratch card (expectedly) gave me a Holiday package.

EDIT: Forgot to add..They have a weird way of calculating the exchange price for your old phone. I tried to trade in my 10 months old Nokia E-50 (in mint condition, mind you, and with all unused accessories). And guess what, they offered me a paltry INR 1800-2000 for it. 2 days later I sold it for INR 4200 through ebay!

[Jaguar]

Couple of weeks back, I had been to the Mobile store @ Koramangala, Bangalore. While I was waiting for the sales man, I saw a guy fighting with the store manager. Apparently, he had been sold a used HTC P3400 and the manager was apologizing.
As I was planning to buy a HTC P3300 myself, I decided not to, from Mobile Store. Ended up buying it from the Staples store. Their price was 600 less than the Mobile store and I got a pair of provogue sunglasses free.

- Jag

[Sahil]

It's suprising that you guys mentioned the mobile store to be more expensive than others... i picked up a 6500 for my dad today for 13100 from them whereas nokia dealers were selling for 14500 ! Thats quite a large diff.... subhiksha has definatly a price advantage but the diff is usually only 200 odd rs lower than the mobile store.

[rider60]

they offered me 1000 bucks for a nokia 6681 with box and i still had to buy a phone from them so i asked for a slim one they suggested me 6300, E-50 and others i made up my mind for E-50 and they price like 500 bucks more than the other vendors, that when i really got angry and left.

i happen to sell the same phone at sangeetha stores and got a much better deal, they bought my 6681 for 3000, and the price of E-50 was 500 less with genuine memory card inside the box it was a 512mb though. so i rate it as bad, too much publicity for discounts and the customers rush in and they just want to sell.

thats all they seldom care about the products many there dint even know the basic features of this phone and only one person for the whole store was informative about the features.

[hydrashok]

Originally Posted by HappyWheels

...checked at nokia site if the battery was original; turned out it was not. went back to the store, tell the story and the issue to the guy at the desk and all he has to say was 'we cant do anything'. created a big fuss (not that it did any good, but atleast everyone in the store got to know that I got a duplicate part) and left...

You would have got a better response form Nokia. But this is indeed pretty scary news.

Originally Posted by Jaguar

...While I was waiting for the sales man, I saw a guy fighting with the store manager. Apparently, he had been sold a used HTC P3400 and the manager was apologizing. ...

Happened to my friend too (see post #35 above for the initial buying experience).

The pack was "sealed" and all, but once he opened the gallery (on the phone), he found a pic that somebody had taken of an elderly lady in a house. No way did HTC "bundle" this picture with the phone. The pic was taken 16 days before the purchase date.

He did not want to create an issue (the phone was all ok, no scratches or other issues) so he left it at that and swore to never buy from Mobile Store again. I'm not suggesting the Mobile Store to anybody anymore either.