2007-02-20 22:48
My new phone: Treo 680—and a positive user service experience
Today I ordered a Palm Treo 680, after also joining the Owners Buy organization — or, more correctly their corporate alternative, Owners Bedrift via my workplace’s contract with them. Haven’t gotten it yet, though, but in the mean time I’ll tell you about a nice customer service experience.
“Owners Buy” is genious, really (although their company names could be better, I guess): Tens of thousands of private persons and company employees have banded together to negotiate better deals with various providers of services and products. Among those providers is NetCom, my phone service provider. By joining Owners Buy, I can talk with all the other members for free (after the small startup fee for each call).
In addition, their Treos are much cheaper than any other I’ve been able to find. One online store sells them for 4000 NOK (about $650) with a possible 800 NOK subsidization rebate, while through Owners Buy I got it for 1840 ($300) with subsidization.
But they didn’t have any Treos in their store. So I called them today, and they actually added them to their web shop while I was talking to them! Very nice people delivering very good service. As one of them told me, they’re not allowed to advertise (word of mouth only, or NetCom will drop the deal, I guess, which I can understand), so they have to spend their efforts on service instead. And it works, too. I’m definitely recommending them to as many of my family and friends I can.
And maybe I’ll save enough money through Owners Buy that I can afford an iPhone v2 …
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2007-01-09 22:51
My next phone
Lately the signal strength of my Treo 600 has diminished. I fear the external antenna has gotten a blow at some point. Living out here in the farmland, where mobile phone coverage isn’t as great as in denser populated areas doesn’t help the situation.
So I’ve been thinking of getting a new one, although I wasn’t quite sure which way to go. Of course, the Treo 680 would be an option, albeit an expensive one. I’d started thinking of getting a phone running something other than Palm OS, since it’s possible to get sponsored phones for next to nothing.
Well, I guess I’ll be dropping Palm OS in about a year’s time.
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