Advice from a former phone salesman who’s got your best interests at heart, these are my tips based on experiences I had with customers,
Buying close to release cycle,
It’s not secret, smartphone manufacturers release new phones every year, and each year the devices have newer features that make last years model less desirable.
Each manufacturer releases at different times, Apple is known to announce its latest lineup of iPhones in the third quarter, in the lead up to Christmas. – September is a safe bet at this point for. New iPhone.
If you can avoid buying close to these release cycles you can enjoy the most up to date features for longer.
Underestimating The Storage,
Think carefully about the storage of your current phone and how your needs are likely to expand in the future.
My advice is, whatever storage you think you need, go one model up, this will give your room to grow as you take new photos, videos and download new content.
Don’t forget, the storage being used on your current phone is likely what will be initially taken away when you move all your data to your new phone.
Not all phones have expandable storage, when I would sell Samsung phones I’d remind people they can expand the storage, but for iPhone you are stuck with size you buy.
Settling for another model, storage size or Color,
When I worked a telco I would often see customers settling for another variant of the model the actually wanted.
Maybe we had sold out of the color they wanted or perhaps they wanted a 512GB storage capacity when we only have 256GB model in stock that day.
Remember the job of the sales rep is to sell phones, they don’t actually care what you buy, as long as your are buying and signing on the dotted line, that is their end game.
Some telcos work off a commission based model, the more you sell, the more money I make on my pay check, the stores have sales targets to hit!
You should be conscious of this and don’t let anyone talk you into buying something you don’t actually want, we all want a new phone that day, and I know it’s disappointing, but go home and order your phone online, or visit another store which does.
Being oversold on plans,
From international calls to huge data caps, what do we actually need vs want are two different questions.
I’ve been guilting of over buying mobile phone plans, you think the more data the better, when in reality less is more. You probably don’t need 200gb-500gb of mobile data, you can get away with just 40-80gb.
If by chance you do exceed it you can adjust your plan to allow more data,
Especially now as telcos have mostly shifted away from charging money from going over data allowances to capping speeds to incentivise more spending.
I’d say, be conservative when choosing your phone plan, you’ll probably save a few dollars too!
The Bottom Line,
Be conscious of release cycles when buying a phone, don’t let impulses behaviour or pushy sales tactics compromise on the phone you actually want, have patience and wait until the model you want is in stock, or order online. Don’t overbuy on phone plans, you can upgrade later if you need too, save the money. – the one area you need to considerate of is the storage you will need over the next two-to-three years, make sure you give yourself room to grow in terms of mobile phone storage.