The Telus / Rogers / Bell Rage

What does one get a 13 year old girl for her birthday? S was recently faced with this very same query. She had settled on getting her niece (the 13 year old in question) a cute little pink phone available through Telus’ pay as you go plan.

“Want to meet me later, help me get my niece her gift?” she asked me via Blackberry message. “Sure,” I replied. I hopped on transit after work and made my way to S’s office. We then ventured into the mall and found ourselves engulfed in a wave of teenagers and pre-teens scurrying around spending their parents’ money.

Thankfully, the Telus store was close to the entrance we had come in from. This will be quick trip, in and out of the Telus store and home in no time, I thought to myself. If only things were that easy.

We walked around the Telus store and were virtually ignored by the sales staff who were hiding behind the main display case. The store was empty so there was no way they could have missed seeing us walking around. We couldn’t find the particular phone ourselves so we finally asked one of the sales guys if he had it in stock. “Sorry, we’re all out of that one,” he said. He checked on his system and found the nearest store that had it in stock was out in Scarborough.

I could tell S was not pleased with our experience at Telus. We continued our trek through the mall and tried the Rogers store next. They were so busy in there, we would have waited to speak to a sales person. S and I looked around and saw that they didn’t have the particular phone anyway.

On we went to the Bell Mobility store. But not before being cut off by several people and their reckless strollers. “What is wrong with people?!” S asked me. “Its Friday, they’ve lost their common sense,” I replied. Upon entering the Bell store, we were quickly approached by a young man asking if he could help us. S described the phone we were looking for. The young man set about trying to find similar phones to show us.

He eventually went over to ask a colleague of his if they had anything like what we were describing. The new guy then went on to tell us what they had. “Does it have a camera?” S asked. No, it didn’t. “Does it have a MP3 player?” S asked. No, it didn’t. What it did have was a price tag three times that of what the fully featured Telus phone had.

It was then that it happened.

S fixed her gaze on the clerk and said, “Telus has way better prices then you,” she began. “Ok. Bye!” With that, she turned on her heel and walked out of the store. I just stood there, holding a bag of hair product we’d picked up at Shoppers earlier. I stood there, unsure of what to say. I didn’t even look at the guy. Instead, I quickened my pace and met up with S. “What was that?” I asked. “What? It was true, they had crap phones for a lot more money.”

It was decided that S would get her niece a gift certificate from Old Navy instead. On our way out of the mall, we made one last stop at a generic cell kiosk. I merely asked the guy if he had any pay as you go phones and he brought out a notepad and started in on his whole spiel. I finally cut him off, knowing that S was in no mood for a sales presentation. After admitting that he didn’t have the phone we wanted, we kindly said our good-bye.

The moral of this story is this: make sure S is fed before venturing into a mall (hunger makes her more apt to have the rage) and better yet, don’t accompany S on her shopping trips.