Ok people, so this story starts out, I’m shopping for a new cell phone on http://www.wireless.att.com (I can never remember the web address for that site, so I always just type in www.cingular.com knowing that it will scoot me right there.) I’m waiting til midnight because I’m guessing that there will be good sales on thanksgiving day, and there are. In fact, the new Samsung Blackjack 2 just came out, and it’s only $150, which yesterday, is what the original Blackjack cost. Now the Blackjack 1 is only $75, new, or hey, you could buy it refurbished for $100! I really hope nobody’s that stupid. (I have decided to get the blackjack 2, which is twice as awesome in general and for once I’ll have a new phone on the day it came out. Suck on that, iPhone.)
While I’m shopping online for this phone, and checking on the various specs between the Blackjack 1 and 2, a window pops up. It asks me if I would like to chat to a salesperson about my phone choices. AGGGGHHHH!!!!!
I click “CHAT”….
…and an instant message dialogue box opens up and “Steve” comes on and welcomes me to the online store and asks if I have any questions. I ask him some specs, he takes a while to respond while he looks it up, I guess, and writes back. I ask him more questions, like how the two phones differ in memory, screen size, and if it has programmable buttons, and he just answers them for me! Which means less clicking for me– while he’s checking that, I can look up other info.
At first, the whole thing kind of freaked me out. It was somewhat like surfing a webpage and having the owner of the webpage see you snooping, come out, and ask you what you’re doing. I’m not used to that, and I didn’t really like losing the anonymous feeling of buying online, of not feeling pressured in the least to buy.
I have to admit, though. The online salesperson was completely helpful, saved me time, and was in general a nice experience. The lag time logging into the chat room was a bit long, and sometimes it took a while to get an answer back, but there are some things that you just can’t find out from spec sheets online, like programmable buttons.
So yes, I have seen the future. The future kind of sneaks up behind you and just starts massaging your shoulders, and you’re like “Whoah, who are you?” and the future’s like, “It’s me, the future.” and you’re like “Uhhhh” and the future’s like “This feels good, doesn’t it?” and you’re like…”uhhhh…I guess so…”
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