British Playbook Retail Experiences
So yesterday the Playbook was launched in the UK. Excellent, so off I trotted to PC World to try one out and maybe even buy.
As I approached the store I noticed the iPad posters in a prominent position by the door, I was a little irritated that there didn't seem to be any posters for the Playbook even on launch day, I did spot one in the end right at the corner of the building where nobody would notice it.
I entered the store and located the tablet area, the store was rather quiet at the time so there was no rush, I fondled the Android tabs to get a bit of perspective and a benchmark before using the RIM device.
When I finally got the the Playbook it was requesting an update be performed, with no obvious way to skip past this screen I figured I'd just update the device there and then, it said it would take 12mins to install so I wandered off and figured id amuse myself with some other gadget.
12 or 15mins passed and I went back, the update had failed. I thought it was a little odd so I told it to retry, I came back after 10mins and it had failed again!
I called over to one of the sales guys asking something like "Hey, do you have a Playbook that works?"
He didn't come over or to see what I was talking about he just called back "That one should be turned on"
Anyway, I had a conversation with the sales guy, who remained about 20ft away, and explaining that I couldn't test the device because it wouldn't update he just stated "The Wifi isn't very good in here because we have so many devices connected" and shrugged. I asked if they had another device I could use, and he said they didn't. At no point did he seem to care about the Playbook not working, or offer any assistance.
This has to be the worst customer experience I have ever had, the guy didn't give a damn about losing a sale or the other potential sales that may have been lost due to a demo product being unusable. I loitered near the tablets for a while and had a play with a Nindendo 3DS (Which is excellent btw, but not worth the �200 imho) While I was there I spotted 2 or 3 other people give the Playbook a look, and then walk away after only seconds. Potential lost sales? Maybe.
I left the shop feeling pretty annoyed with the whole experience and wondering, if it was a iPad2 demo unit not working if the sales rep would have been any more use?