2 Spare Batteries For Vario IV For Sale!

I've managed to end up with more batteries than I needed due to an error on my part so if anybody wants to buy one/them please let me know in the comments and I'll stick a buy it now up on ebay (but only going to do that when I know somebody wants one as their fees are so high now that I've stopped bothering normally) so you can see I'm not going to rip anybody off. :-)

It's Finally On The Website...

Over a week since people have been able to get hold of the handset, T Mobile have finally put the handset on their website.

http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/shop/mobile-phones/phones/pay-monthly/t-mobile/mda-vario-iv/overview/

It took them long enough...

Arriving Tomorrow...

After a lot of messing around over numerous phone calls with T Mobile regarding the price, I finally ordered it last night for £82.75, which is down from the £232 I was first quoted to stay on my current price plan (Flext 35 Web and Walk £31.88); and also better than the trade up on my price plan that I was offered to go to £40 a month and then pay £92 on top of that.

I'm sure I could have got a better deal if I'd waited a bit longer but in all fairness, I think I have waited long enough haha. It's arriving tomorrow before 1pm.

It doesn't seem to be on the website at the moment, or in stores but if you ring up then they'll have access to it, and if they say they don't tell them that it may be on a different system as that is what I was told when I rang up and they couldn't see it at first.

Will post up what I think when I've had a play.

If anybody has any decent sites for downloading applications and games from, feel free to comment and let me know.

Thanks. :-)

Good News!!

Having just spoken to Anne again, I am able to give a date for the release of this phone... finally. She said it should be released on the 20th of January, if all goes to plan and there's no hitches. She also said there would be plenty of stock and although she didn't know the cost of the phone exactly, she *thinks* it could be around the £350 mark... which you will obviously get your retentions discount on top of, that I hope bring it down to an affordable price, considering how long most of us have waited for the phone.

She is calling me on the 19th to confirm that the phone will be released as planned, so I will update here when I hear back.

At least it's not gone another few months forward again, which is a massive relief for me.


Note to commenter 'Mightily Miffed' who asked about the X1; apparently T Mobile have no plans to release this phone from what I have heard.

Another note: I tried the G1 out of sheer desperation... a load of rubbish in my opinion! Needless to say, it's been sent back!

Last one: Happy New Year!

Another Vario IV Delay... Plus Upgrade Problems/Delays

Just had a call from Anne at the Customer Service Directors office and she has been speaking to the acquisitions department who now say they're looking at the MIDDLE OF JANUARY for the release of this phone.

I honestly do not know why I feel so loyal and am hanging on/waiting for T Mobile to get themselves in gear as they're clearly just dragging their feet.

Also, I have been told (along with many others) that I cannot upgrade now until January even though I have been eligible for an upgrade for a while now (I even tried out the Omnia - didn't like it though). I believe this is because they have run out of funds in the upgrade 'piggy bank' but that I can have a 'Christmas Customer Loyalty Discount' applied to my account which will take my bill down by £5; I've accepted but it doesn't really cut it though and I am seriously considering taking my business elsewhere now as this really isn't good business practice by them.

Hmmmpffff!

T Mobile G1 Phone AND N96 Showing On Site!

I am wondering why they are showing the G1 as coming soon on the website and have got the N96 in stock so quickly (plus had it on coming soon), yet are having so many problems getting the Vario IV out, or even putting any information on the website/to their employees so that customers are informed about this phone easier.

It's like they don't want you to have it/know anything about it, which makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to me.

Annoying.

Release Date: Not Good News!

I haven't posted for a short while as I haven't been told anything new regarding this phone or its release date, until today!

I've just spoken to Anne in the directors office again and have been told that the Vario IV has been put back as it's still in testing and is not going to make the October 1st release date that they originally hoped for. The date she has given me now is... wait for it....


..the END OF NOVEMBER!!!!


This has come as a real shock to me, and I've been left wondering if it's worth me waiting for it any more, since it's not even definite to be released at that time either. I have a friend who has the HTC Touch Pro and has said he's putting it on ebay as it's not very good, which is disappointing. I'd expect/hope some of these problems would be sorted with the Vario as this would be the kind of thing being tested and hopefully fixed - which is what is putting the release date back even further.. but it's just whether or not I want to wait almost 2 months after my contract is supposed to end before *maybe* being able to get this phone.

The only other phone I have been interested in is the Samsung Omnia, which I have now asked to try out and I should have on Friday for a 7 day trial.

I'll post again when I get the Omnia as if you're anything like me then you're possibly considering both!

For Those Interested.. T Mobile Netherlands Web Page.

I thought I'd have a nosey at the Vario IV on T Mobile, Netherlands website, and I thought others may want to do the same, so here it is:

Click Me For T Mobile Netherlands Page Vario IV

I have put it through googles translator so it's in rough English for the most part, although this means you also have to go to shop, phones and then to the product page as the URL doesn't change from the google translated first page.

The original page is here for anybody who wants to view it, in its original state.

More Conversations With Head Office!

I rang head office again today, and have been told something slightly different to last time. The girl I spoke to, said that she had a look on the internal internet of T Mobile, and could only find ONE piece of information about the phone and that was saying Q3 release, which could be any time up to September. I told her that I had been told many conflicting things about the date and that I was told October, and she said it could be late September/early October then, but that they don't tend to get much information until the actual release of the phone and she had to look quite deep within the internal internet just to get the snippet of information she told me. I told her I'd heard that it had been released already in the Netherlands so was hoping that would mean it was a bit further on over here. She has basically said that the release over in the Netherlands wouldn't have any bearing on the release of the phone in the UK.

I then rang back and spoke to Anne again as I wasn't sure who I'd spoken to or if they had any authority to get accurate information; and she clarified that the expected release date was still at October the 1st and that whilst the phone is in the testing stages, It could still be rejected if it's incompatible with the services etc of T Mobile like they have done with many of the Nokia N Series phones; although this is apparently unlikely as it's a T Mobile branded phone so problems would be ironed out rather than just not releasing the phone at all. She also told me that the Netherlands release wouldn't have any impact over here as I'd asked if it was out of testing now, due to it being released over there. She said that although it's one parent company, each country operates in a different way and gets handsets differently based on what their customers in that country want from a phone in terms of features etc and that each country has it's own way of testing, which is a big reason why T Mobile in different countries have different/more phones available to T Mobile UK. I'll be talking to her again in 2 weeks so if there's any news then (or indeed before then) I shall be sure to post it up for you all.

On the plus side, I have been sent a loan phone (Samsung U900 Soul) from T Mobile as my N95 is having technical difficulties which need sorting.. which is partly the reason I am so desperate to upgrade to the Vario IV.

Vodafone.. For Those Who Don't Mind Where/How They Get The Touch Pro

I also noticed that Vodafone have the HTC Touch Pro on the coming soon part of their business centre. They say release is expected to be August and you can register your interest on that page too.

http://www.vodafonebusinessshop.co.uk/Details-Phone-HTC-Touch-Pro-3037.html

Good on Vodafone for just releasing it as the HTC Touch Pro and not having to go through the tweaking and 'testing' stages that seem to take forever.

O2.

Ok, so it's not really an update on the Vario IV unfortunately, but I thought I'd post this anyway as it still seems fairly relevant to me.

It seems O2 are even worse than T Mobile as they haven't even managed to get their version of the HTC Diamond (MDA Compact IV) out yet.

Having spoken to a few customer service agents at O2 on the phone this weekend, it seems they don't have a clue about this phone at all, let alone a release date. Looks like I'lll be giving head office a ring tomorrow to see if they know anything.


What is wrong with these people? Why can't/won't they just give us a date for these phones?

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.