Thursday, August 7, 2008

Release Date Of The T-Mobile MDA Vario IV/4:

I know there's a lot of people (myself included) who are awaiting the release of this phone but are getting no luck regarding the release date from T Mobile. I've had contradicting statements from every person I have spoken to at T Mobile regarding this; the store in Manchester told me 2 weeks (2 weeks ago), customer service told me August, September and October, and Customer relations told me "I'm afraid we've no plans to release the MDA vario IV in the near future. I'm sorry if you've been advised to the contrary. However, we do have the MDA compact IV available now." via email.

I took things into my own hands and decided to ring T Mobile Head Office, which I have done today and spoken to Anne, who works in the directors office there. She actually went and spoke to the senior purchasing manager, who told her that the Vario IV has a provisional release date of October 1st 2008; and that the phone is currently in testing, but that the release date is dependant on how long the testing/tweaking takes and also the depletion rate of the current Vario III.

I asked why it would take so long, since the MDA Compact IV was released fairly soon after the HTC touch Diamond (the phone that the Compact IV is based on) and she said that it is because it has more on it to test. I don't know how correct this statement is, but I thought that the actual features on the phone weren't that different between the 2 phones so wouldn't have thought that *much* more testing would be required; I guess time will tell on this one. She then told me that it would definitely
NOT be any time before this date but that she would let me know of any developments as and when they happened; so I will update this page whenever I hear from her.

It was not the news I wanted to hear anyway, I'm dying to get my hands on it.

10 comments:

Nas said...

I have also had the same experience with T-Mobile. It is obvious that customers services have not been briefed and anyone who has an interest in phones has to find out the info for themselves.

Even a yes it is due for approx end August or Mid Sept would help.

Also I find the excuse of always 'testing' the phone, rather, well, testing!

Claire (The Beauty Scoop) said...

I agree, I think that most customer service agents do use the 'in testing' as an easy get out clause when faced with a question about a phone that they know nothing about.

You would have thought it would be good business sense to have the customer service agents fully briefed about their products; and their customers updated about the products they are wanting to own.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for putting me in the picture. My upgrade is due 22nd August and when I spoke with T Mobile last month I was told it would "definitely" be available before my upgrade.

Looks like I will have to wait :(

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this. Like others I am due an upgrade and have the vario ii - and can't wait for the IV.
Out of intrest, a poster called T-mobile on the What mobile forum has just had a pre-release phone and loves it.
http://www.whatmobile.net/forumvb/showthread.php?p=262409

SimUK

Anonymous said...

Hi there Claire

Just to say thanks for doing the blog - it's really useful.

Anonymous said...

Just got off the phone to Vodafone who say that they will release the Touch Pro on their network on 5/9/08.

Still no news from T-Mobile

Anonymous said...

In polish Era (polish T-mobile) they don't even know if Vario IV will be available or is it in tests..nothing..And as many of you my upgrade time is coming very fast..one week since now :/

Anonymous said...

Just to let you know that T-Mobile in Netherlands have released the MDA Vario IV. It is on their website.

If T-Mobile UK dont get a move on, I'll just go to Vodafone who are releasing on 5 Sept. They have a good data package also.

Anonymous said...

Just to let you know that I spoke to t-mobile uk yesterday and they finally have a note that the vario 4 has been released in some european countries and that they are now waiting the uk release date. So at least they admit it exists now !

Anonymous said...

Well, just spoke to t-mobile and it seems it is now on their system - the bad news is they now have a date of December !!

How rubbish is that ?