Well there’s no doubt that both of these options certainly have their venue, but when would you use one over the other? Which is your preferred method to shop?
When you want information about the phone: Let’s take as an example the ‘Pearl’ from the Blackberry Wireless Phone collection. You know nothing about it, you would like to know its features, how it works, what it feels like, etc. An on-line store is just not going to get you the comfort and information that you are looking for. So, obviously you would hop in your car (fighting traffic is optional) and go to a physical retail location.
There you will probably have to wait in line to see someone who may or may not be knowledgeable about the product. However, you will get to see, touch and try out the phone, which will give you the comfort factor that you are looking for.
The downside is simple; the salesperson is not just being a ‘nice person’. They do have better things to do and one of them is to SELL you a phone! Often they don’t care which one you buy as long as you buy something. There are some phones that they make more money on than others, and you can be sure that they’ll be pushing you in that direction. ‘Best interests’ are definitely at heart . . . it’s just not yours.
When you want to actually buy the phone: When you’re in the store you are not going to be able to compare; 20 different stores (that carry that phone), with 20 different rate plans, or 20 different rebates and their options. At a retail location you are going to get only 1 cell phone price, a few different rate plans, and only 1 rebate offer – take it or leave it!
So, if you already know what phone you want to buy, then the Internet is just the way to go. You can compare 100′s (if you really want to make a career out of this) of cell phone prices, service plans, and rebate offers.
On-line retail stores have cell phones that vary from being free to hundreds of dollars. The best part about shopping on-line verses a retail location is that ‘usually’ you don’t have to finance the rebate. In other words, you don’t have to pay for the rebate, fill in the forms (correctly) and then wait 4 to 8 weeks for your rebate to show up.
Of course the proverbial question is; where are the best deals on-line, who is safe to buy from, who has the fastest shipping, best customer service and offers me a money back guarantee?!?!
Keep clicking . . . you’ll find them!
So if you want to go to the retail store, then hats off to you! But, when it’s time to buy, on-line should be your preferred choice.
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Warren Romanow has been in the interconnect industry since 1984.
He has held the positions of, Vice President; Telrad Canada, President; Comtel Data Group, C.E.O.; Comtel International and owner; DataNet Telesys Group.
Warren has worked with companies and installed telecommunications equipment in Canada, United States, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
Warren resides in Forest Falls, California where he operates Zero1T1, Inc., BlackberryWirelessPhone and WinningOnTheInternet.