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Galaxy Nexus - UK stock and pricing update
Nov 18 2011 03:05 PM |
Karucifer
in Android
While we've finally sourced units for review, our inquiries on stock levels and pricing of the Galaxy Nexus are far from over. Yesterday was the launch day and while many stores didn't have devices for sale, there was quite a lot happening at places such as Phones 4U Oxford Street, where Samsung laid on a free breakfast, gave out vouchers and customers could buy a phone off-contract for £529.
Today things got a little better, but also went downhill ever so slightly. Stock landed in most of O2's stores and more Phones 4U branches got hold of devices to sell.
However, if you visited Phones 4U today with £529 in hand, you would have left disappointed. We were contacted by multitudes of our community members and followers on Twitter and informed that Phones 4U had hiked their prices on the handset-only option by £100, in some stores they were also asking the customer to also pay for a mandatory £10 top-up fee to deter 'box-breaking'.
This obviously hasn't gone down particularly well, so we took up the cause and have been in contact with Phones 4U to clarify the situation.
Long story short, P4U were seeing high levels of customers choosing to go handset-only and as a retailer primarily of contract handsets, they took the decision to increase the simfree cost of the devices.
The good news is that following our discussions with them and other customer feedback, Phones 4U have contacted us this afternoon to assured us that the decision is being reversed. From tomorrow stores will revert to selling the handset at the original price
Additionally, if you paid £629 today, you can contact Phones 4U's Customer Relations team and they'll credit you the £100.
We're not going to blow our own horns here, we're sure we weren't the only outlet in contact with Phones 4U about the change, but it just goes to show that customer feedback can make a difference.
So, next time things go awry, feel free to poke Paul or myself via Twitter, or let us know via the forums what's happening. We can't make any promises, but we can at least try to let vendors, networks and retailers know how you feel
Today things got a little better, but also went downhill ever so slightly. Stock landed in most of O2's stores and more Phones 4U branches got hold of devices to sell.
However, if you visited Phones 4U today with £529 in hand, you would have left disappointed. We were contacted by multitudes of our community members and followers on Twitter and informed that Phones 4U had hiked their prices on the handset-only option by £100, in some stores they were also asking the customer to also pay for a mandatory £10 top-up fee to deter 'box-breaking'.
This obviously hasn't gone down particularly well, so we took up the cause and have been in contact with Phones 4U to clarify the situation.
Long story short, P4U were seeing high levels of customers choosing to go handset-only and as a retailer primarily of contract handsets, they took the decision to increase the simfree cost of the devices.
The good news is that following our discussions with them and other customer feedback, Phones 4U have contacted us this afternoon to assured us that the decision is being reversed. From tomorrow stores will revert to selling the handset at the original price
Additionally, if you paid £629 today, you can contact Phones 4U's Customer Relations team and they'll credit you the £100.
We're not going to blow our own horns here, we're sure we weren't the only outlet in contact with Phones 4U about the change, but it just goes to show that customer feedback can make a difference.
So, next time things go awry, feel free to poke Paul or myself via Twitter, or let us know via the forums what's happening. We can't make any promises, but we can at least try to let vendors, networks and retailers know how you feel
About the author
10 Comments
Monolithix
Nov 18 2011 03:40 PM
Karucifer
Nov 18 2011 03:41 PM
Important thing imo is they listened, admitted error and reversed it.
Neil294
Nov 18 2011 04:15 PM
He also mentioned that they sold about 130 phones yesterday, most of them sim-free. In addition, he also told me how it was running the latest version of Mango...bless
FatherD
Nov 18 2011 08:32 PM
I was in there around lunchtime, the guy assumed I wanted to buy one when I asked to LOOK at one .. started asking all the questions and entering it into the system - WOAH boy .. then he was truly reluctant to unpack one for me to look at, he made no mention of the price until I said "They are around £550 yeah!? .." then BAM .. " No, Samsung upped the price to £629 " .. that was when I walked. Later in the day called into 3 on the off chance .. bagged one for £515. Sorted!
JimiB
Nov 19 2011 11:21 AM
I notice phones4u are showing it on all networks, but you don't seem to be able to go direct to Vodafone for the device.. will that ever be an option, might be able to get it as a work phone if it's available direct form Vodafone.
Mark
Nov 19 2011 12:18 PM
Karucifer
Nov 19 2011 12:52 PM
@Mark - AFAIK they are sim-locked, yes, other user reports we've had are to that effect.
Mark
Nov 19 2011 04:15 PM
Neil294
Nov 20 2011 04:57 PM
£100 for the phone
£36 pm for Orange w/900 mins + 1Gb data
Upgrade after 18 months
Pity I only want it sim-free.
Think I'll wait a few weeks until more suppliers have unlocked versions in stock
Mark
Nov 22 2011 05:16 PM