I bought a new cell phone the other day, but for a while it was touch and go... I decided on what I wanted, and since none of a certain yellow company's 54 or whatever options appeal to me, apart from pay as you go, I wanted a phone without a starter pack. I may as well have tried to fall pregnant. First of all, buying one sans starter pack was proving harder than getting a politician to admit to a mistake. Then I found a shop that would, but... what else... they didn't have the model I wanted. "Could you order one for me?" "No!" Now I wasn't asking the lady for a dirty weekend, all I wanted was a particular model from one of their suppliers. But the "No" I got was very emphatic and very final. With tears in my eyes and with quivering upper lip... what's the hassle? I would have paid for it upfront and they would have made a sale, but no, or should I say "No!". In contrast, when I decided that stores in Cape Town clearly didn't want my business, I went further afield and bought exactly what I wanted online. Thanks Jo'burg... The service was spectacular, the feedback constant, and I was drooling over my new purchase within 20 hours of having placed the order. It took less time to get my phone from a business about 1600km away than it did to not buy one from a business a kilometre down the road. Now that's service... or lack of it.

Rod Baker, guest columnist All retail news to: retailnews@bizcommunity.com Responses to this column welcomed in our new online editor's column archive.