Ordinary Gweilo

An amusing story from Shaky about trying to buy a phone in Fortress and being offered to a dummy phone to evaluate:

The Geeky Kaiser: “I’d like to try out a real one, I want to try out the operating system.”

Salesman: “What? It just has a normal system. Same as all phones.”

Shaky was not impressed, but I imagine the salesman was equally bemused.  Who cares about the operating system on a phone?  The brand, the shape and size, the number of megapixels, the price, the free gift, of course, but the operating system?  Well, yes, people do care, but they probably don’t shop in Fortress.

Fortress is like Dixons in the UK.  They have stuff for sale, and you are welcome to go and buy it, but just don’t expect the salesman to know more than the basic details about the product.  At least in Fortress they don’t spend most of their time trying to sell you an extended warranty that costs an arm and a leg – the last time I bought something there, they did offer me an extended warranty, but only in a very half-hearted way.  Actually, it wasn’t bad value for money, to be fair.