Friday, February 15, 2008

Buying mobile phone in Bangalore

Buying a mobile in Bangalore

In the last one week, I went out with friends and family to buy 2 different handsets. This is what I realized ...
The major players selling mobiles in Bangalore are Nokia priority dealer, ezone, Univercell, sangeetha, Mobile store etc. The guys at ezone are careless. They just don't pay attention to customers. I didn't like their attitude. I have had such expereince in two different ezone stores in Bangalore. On the contrary, you get very good experience at Univercell. Each customer is taken to a separate table, where a a reperesentative displays all the mobile phones from all the companies, and, explains and compares the features of each phone. If you are trying to decide on which model to buy, you can go to Univercell and they will help you identify the phone that fits your budget.

There are some places where all these different stores are located walkable distance from each other. So, what I did was to go to each of these shops and enquire the price of a particular model. What I did to get the best deal was get the quote from one guy, then go to the next one and say that the first guy was offering the same handset at Rs 100 or 200 less. Then this guy would quote the best deal he can offer. Take this price and go the third guy and get a further discount. What I realized was, by doing this, the price of a basic phone (under Rs 2500), the price could be reduced by Rs 200 and for a phone in the range of Rs 6000 to Rs. 10,000, the price could be brought down by Rs 400 - Rs. 500. One of the handset, we bought was Nokia 6300, which was quoted at Rs 7800 in the first shop, was finally purchased at Rs 7450.
Just 2 days after buying the phone, out of curiosity, I walked in to a Subhiksha store and en quire the prices. Subhiksha is a chain of retail stores, which advertises on TV that they give the best deal in the market. When I started enquiring the prices of the phones I had purchased, I realized that the price these guys quoted were less than the best deal that the other stores could offer (and that too without bargaining). The price of the basic phone was less by Rs 50/- and higher models had bigger discount. Nokia 6300 was costing Rs 7350/- which was Rs 100 less than the best deal we could get in the market (for which we had spent 2.5 hours for running from store to store for comparing and bargaining the rates).

From Subhiksha website
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Call "60607777" for enquiries in Delhi & NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Baroda, Ludiana, Surrat, Jullundur Patlala, Ambala, Merut and many other towns.
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Atleast till now, I feel that Subhiksha gives the best deal in Bangalore for buying a mobile. Checkout their price before you buy your handset. Use the price quoted by Subhiksha to get further discounts at the stores mentioned above.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

heyy guys.. i just bought a new cell nokia N82 with gps from Sangeetha Mobiles for a gr8 price @ rs 20,600/- only + free bluetooth and free gift voucher in all gifts worth rs.2,800/-. tat's a hell of a deal..and the mobile cost much more @ other stores.... i really recommend you guys to check it out.