So, Windows Phone 7. I’ve been going on about it long enough (pretty much since the day it was announced earlier this year), and finally it’s out here in Europe. Supposedly. Microsoft would say it is, but ask anyone outside the Orange flagship store in central London, and they’ll probably disagree with that. It’s now been a week since the “release date” for WP7 – the 21st October – and there are still no handsets to be found at retail, and no adverts around except the occasional TV spot, not even in the windows (zing) of mobile operators and stores. But this isn’t a grind at Microsoft, who have obviously only launched the software in the EU early to iron out any issues that show up ahead of the US release next month. This is the story of my attempts to get hold of one of the launch devices, the Samsung Omnia 7, from Three.
So way back at the UK availability announcement of WP7 (“on all five major networks on launch day”), Three said they were very excited to have the new OS joining their ranks. They even announced that they would be running pre-orders for their launch device, the Omnia 7 – luckily the one I’m most anticpating – about a week ahead of launch (on their Noticeboard; conveniently the Omnia 7 announce post containing that detail has now disappeared). But that day came and went, and still the only mention of WP7 on their website was a tiny badge at the bottom of the home page from which you could “register for updates”. Useful.
Roll on to last Thursday, and I popped out at lunchtime to try and get myself a handset. There were no point of sales displays in any relevant store windows – odd for a launch day – and I was informed by the store assistant in Three York that no stock was expected until the end of the month, but that I should look at the Nokia N8 (a Nokia in this day and age? I’m alright thanks. But that’s for another post). I checked into Phones4U and Carphone Warehouse for good measure, and they didn’t know when handsets would be in – and both again pushed the N8 my way – so I thought I’d check out Orange: you know, the big Windows Phone 7 UK launch partner? Well the first sales assistant didn’t know what I was talking about (I tried “windows phone”, “7″, “omnia” and a whole bunch of Boolean combinations of those), and another member of staff could only tell me that he had no idea when to expect any Windows Phone 7 devices, or even if Orange would be carrying any from launch. Brilliant.
But away from Microsoft’s failure to provide sufficient launch handsets, and networks’ inability to effectively train their staff, and back to Three. So having failed in town, I logged online to find that the “register your interest” badge had changed to one linking to buy the Omnia 7. And no, I hadn’t been notified, obviously. So I went through, completed the entire transaction, and was told that my phone would be delivered tomorrow, Friday 29th October. A far cry from the “next day delivery” claim on the right side of the page, but I assumed this was down to stock issues. I got an e-mail receipt, and was told to expect a dispatch notice sometime this week.
Pretty much an entire week passed, with me a little concerned that it was now the day before my supposed delivery and I had yet to receive a dispatch note. Then, at quarter past four this afternoon, I got a message through from Three asking me to call them, to confirm my order. That’s me to call them, on a national rate number, despite them taking two contact numbers and an e-mail address from me, and them already getting near enough a grand off me over the next two years, minimum. But hey, I called them, spent about ten minutes navigating a menu with no relevant options, before being put through to an advisor who asked me for my order number, name, address etc., who then told me that wasn’t my address. I was pretty confident that it was in fact where I lived, but apparently that wasn’t the address on their records. So I gave them them the details to my billing address, rather than my delivery one; I’ve recently moved to university, and so wanted my phone delivered here, but billed to my card, registered to my family’s address. Seeing as this was fine with everywhere else I buy online, and the Three online store had asked me for both a delivery address and billing address, and asked how long I’d lived at each, I didn’t see what the problem was. The advisor on the phone was adamant that Three don’t deliver to non-billing addresses, so left with no other choice, I cancelled the order.
I checked the website, to re-place an order, and sure enough, now I cannot put two addresses, although I most definitely did when I ordered the phone last week. Now my problem isn’t that Three don’t allow delivery and payment on two different addresses, although that is indeed a pain. My problem is that the website allowed me to do that last week when I placed the order, and now, the night before I was expecting my new phone to arrive I have been told that is now not possible. I don’t appreciate being spoken to in a tone of voice that suggests I know nothing about what I’m talking about either – I’ve long been a follower of mobile technology, and I know what I’m on about. Unfortunately, the Three store in town was closed before I got there tonight, otherwise I would’ve gone down to try and buy the phone I wanted in store, not that there’s likely to be any, and the store will not either hold me one or contact me when they are in.
The most depressing thing is that I’ll still be looking to buy the phone from Three; in terms of value, services, and the lack of handset restrictions, it’s by far the best option of all the networks in the UK at the moment.
