I’ve had my current mobile phone for about three years and it is starting to look a bit tatty, plus my wife fancies getting a mobile.

In the past I’ve come across mobile phone shops running family deals where you get two handsets on the one account etc etc so was interested in exploring the possibilities.

We went to a mobile phone shop in Greifengasse, Basel where we were greeted by one of the salesmen who turned out to have all the social skills of a housebrick.

My usual expectation when entering a shop is to state my requirements to a member of sales staff and for them to try and sell me something. So we stated what we wanted and wondered if there were any interesting deals he could offer us.

First he seemed to have trouble understanding our German - my wife and I have an excellent command of the language - and he seemed to think we wanted to extend our existing account with Sunrise. Er, no we don’t.

When we asked about any family deals or other discounts that there might be, his manner became condescending to the point of being insulting, implying we were stupid for even asking such a question.

I assume sales staff at this shop do not get paid commission as this man had no interest at all in selling us something and we left the shop vowing never to return.

I have written to the HQ of the chain to complain about their salesman's behaviour and to remind them that theirs is not the only outlet for mobile phones in Basel and that I will avoid them in future, as well as advising others to do the same.

Cheers,
Nick

Good for you mate, take no prisoners.

the two handset deals do not allow you to use both handsets at once. I assume you're referring to a deal where you have the same number?

It may well be what you mention. Though I have come across the Vodaphone family deal where two handsets on the same contract can call each other free of charge.

We had actually read up about the different deals before going to the shop but I just wanted the guy to talk us through them and make recommendations / suggestions - which is what I thought salesmen were supposed to do.

I work hard to earn my dough and if some shopkeeper wants me to hand it over in exchange for something, then I expect to be treated in a civilised fashion - it is called service I believe.

Cheers,
Nick

Orange Optima allow three preferred numbers (Orange, Fixnet) that you can call for free.

Do you know how it works if one of the parties is roaming ? Do you get the Inland leg free ?

dave

the person in Switzerland calling the person roaming would pay nothing. The roamer would pay incoming roaming fees.

I don't think that's possible because it specifies Swiss numbers. But also they have this:

The info is here

Yeah, the Optima deal looked okay.

How does Orange coverage compare to the other providers these days?

Cheers,
Nick

Was that a Mr. Kovacs?

Hi Nick,

I have both a Swisscom (work) and a Orange (personal) sim card and have no problems with the Orange networks In and between Basel and Zurich, but cannot comment on some of the the more "hilly" :-) areas of the country.

Near the border (Riehen in my case) used to be a problem with roaming kicking in, but this can be overcome by manually selecting the network in the phone options.

Pat

Hey Pat, Nick,

Watch out with that near the border though. From time to time it'll switch again and go roaming in the middle of a call. There is a way that you can turn international roaming off with the Swisscom phones though. You can probably do the same with Orange or Sunrise.

And the reply from the mobile phone outlet...

Dear xxxx

We apologize to your e-mail:

First of all we would like to express our excuses and our regrets due to every of your unconvenience.
After verification with the Shop Manager, unfortunately the mentioned Shop Assistant didn't have enough English skills.

As you were unsatisfied at the Shop 26 at Basel, Greifengasse 1, we look forward and invite you to pass at the Shop 43 at Basel, Greifengasse 22 (Manor).
We are sure that you will be welcomed and attended very well.

Thank you for your time and consideration.
Yours faithfully

and my response....

Dear yyyy,

Thank you for your reply.

My wife and I spoke High German for the duration of our visit to the shop.
While our German may not be perfect, my wife grew up in the Netherlands
within 20 minutes of the German border and I use German as my daily working language. Perhaps <employee name>'s skills in the German language may also be in
need of review.

Kind regards,

Hi Nick,

sadly your experience does not surprise me. A while back I was looking for a windows mobile phone and went in the shop you mentioned and asked about which models they had in stock. The assistant tried to tell me that a number of different phones which all did not run the windows mobile operating system did run it. Realising that the assistant did not have a clue I left the shop. Sadly this chain of shops seems to be staffed by people who have not got a clue about what they are talking about. Generally I have found Orange and also Swisscom shops staffed by people who at least have some technical clue about what they are selling.

This is not a swiss problem....just go and try to have an intelligent discussion with an assistant in Dixons....now called Currys in the Uk.

I suppose if you have a clue about the technology you tend to not work in a shop.

Have fun

Martin