Booked An Apple iPhone 3G With Vodafone

Congratulations! You just booked your new iPhone with Vodafone. We will keep you updated on its price, features and availability in due course. Till then, if you have any further queries feel free to call us on 111(toll free) and we’ll be happy to help.

This was the message I received when I pre-registered with Vodafone for an Apple iPhone 3G. First impressions are the best impressions. That is what a Mac had on me the first time I saw it at our printers office. We have a few iMacs in our office and I use them quite often. This only intensified my urge to buy one for myself. But I couldn’t convince myself to dump my eight year old PC for an iMac considering its price.

Image: Courtesy of Apple

Then I had almost decided to buy an Apple iPod but stopped myself after coming to know that the Apple iPhone 3G will be soon available in India.  I currently use a Nokia 1108 mobile phone that I bought two years ago. Even with its limitations–limited memory, no radio, no music player– it has served me quite well all these days.

I always wanted to go for a phone that was sleek and light weight. iPhone 3G a sleek model with a depth of 12.3 mm and weight of 133 grams fits the bill perfectly for me. Have to see what kind of pricing Vodafone comes up with for the Apple iPhone 3G in India.

Apple iPhones will also be available with Bharti Airtel. Interested people can register their names with Airtel by sending an SMS with the keyword “iPhone” to 54321 (toll free).

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Do Not Reply to Hutch’s (Now Vodafone) SMS

While the war for the control over the Hutch’s (Vodafone) stake in its Indian operations is heating up, I had the same feeling while experiencing another classic service from Hutch. It was some timeI got my cell battery recharged and it stopped working lacking any power. While it took me some time to get it recharged I had received the SMS from Hutch informing me that I had 3 (remember this) missed calls between 6:37 PM and 6:48 PM (note the timings). Thinking that i had missed some important calls i promptly sent the SMS to their 303 number which promptly charged me Rs. 3:00.The funny part starts here, I immediately received a message from 303 and when I opened it up found the most hilarious message – there were no missed calls.

The next thing on my agenda, immediately call up the call center guys knowing what they would say. And the interesting thing comes up now – the standard reason – the server was down and after it got back gave you this message.

Though I am not an expert in systems or with computers, with my seven years of experience using computers I can say that if a server is down it will not record anything and even if it does (this should get a nobel prize) how can it send the wrong message to me.

While I informed them that I would be happy to have the charge credited back to my account, I wonder if customers are taken seriously anytime.