This has been the question that has been doing the rounds in my mind for the last couple of weeks. Simply because you find more number of mobile phone shops in the city today than even grocery stores. Such is their penetration. And what is their USP. If you look at it, all of them offer the same warranty and are fairly original pieces unless ofcourse you are looking at Burma Bazaar or Maya Plaza. Then, it is a question of Top of Mind. Univercell is one store that is on everyone’s mind. He has a good 6+ branches and apparently he does so much business that Nokia has a team only to service his sales needs. But, is he really worth goin to? I have asked this question to a lot of people and the answer is he seems to be trustworthy and ‘do we have an option’?. But let me tell you, the prices at Univercell are a good 10% more than the other shops. It is packed always and buying ain’t a pleasant experience at all. And if it going to be the same experience everywhere, then why get caught in the Univercell myth.

That is when I started looking for options. I wanted to pick up an N70 Nokia phone. I checked with the Nokia priority dealer. He quoted some Rs. 19,500 plus. Then went to a shop in NSC Bose Road, he offered some Rs. 200 lesser, then went to Univercell again the same range. This is when I was asked to go to 3 shops, Vasanth & Co., Vivek’s and Poorvika mobile phones. Till then I never knew the first two sell mobile phones. All the 3 rates were competitive enough. I settled down with Poorvika. Rs. 18,000 (now did I pay more??). I exchanged my MotoRAZR for Rs. 4500, though I bought it for Rs. 14,000 just a year back. I got a gold coin free and Nokia also does a scratch nd win promotion for N-Series buyers. Plus, the usual warranty and associated things. He also offered me to install all software (additional ones) free of cost. All I’m saying is, Univercell is there everywhere, and may be the most popular, but when you guys step out just check as Univercell have started to take the customer for granted. Success has got on their heads, may be. All the others I mentioned are in T Nagar, around the Pondy Bazaar area with Vivek’s in North Usman road. I am sure they branches across the city and you will also have your neighbourhood store.