Buying phones

As part of setting up our company, we decided to get two new mobile phones on a business contract.

The natural place for me to buy anything that can be delivered to your house is the Internet, so of course I surfed the websites of the different operators.

I found a decent deal, but there were a few small issues with it, so reluctantly I called their sales team.

They promptly offered me a completely different (and cheaper) deal from what I had seen online.

When I mentioned it to Marcel, he found it completely natural. According to him, there are just so many deals they can’t possibly list them all on their website, and you have to talk to them to get what you need.

I’m really shocked, though. I believe the best deals should always be available online, given that this saves sales rep salaries.

Surely it’s easy enough to design a system that allows you to enter your precise circumstances and be offered deals that suit you, without needing to list all the other deals on offer.

What’s up with them? Are they just weird because they sell phones, or are lots of companies like that?