In 1990 the mobile phone industry was revolutionised by the enormously popular, durable and efficient Ericsson 388.
This incredibly well featured phone led Ericsson to the number one spot in the mobile phone industry.
So What went wrong?
Amazingly the productiveness of such an efficient and typically Swedish company, whos political correctness and inept perfect perception of the industry, was soon about to fall, into the hands of an equally efficient but obviously better controlled Nokia Telecom.
Or was it?
I believed in Ericsson. I spent many years in the mobile phone industry and i knew a good thing when i saw it. Ericsson for me, and all my customers, was the number one choice.
Eventually, after a few years my persistance in wanting to be involved with such an ideal company was to pay off for me - or so i thought.
Unfortunately this wasnt to last.
I couldnt believe that Ericssons new found committment to the Independants in the phone industry was anything less than the truth. The way they had taken on representatives to go into the retail field and offer there full support was amazing.
I had been offered a prime opportunity - a chance to be a partner with Ericsson (Ericsson Partner Network).
There were many partners throughout the UK. Many independants were pulled in to a vacuum of deception and lies because they
believed that this big perfect Swedish company was actually going to give them a voice against the likes of "Carphone Warehouse" and the other "big boys" in the Industry.
I should have realised the truth. When i met the managing director of Ericsson. I was suprised to be confronted with someone who was so wet behind the ears and certainly (in my opinion) in someones pocket.
This man had the audacity to make a special visit from sweden to a small independant company who had been appointed the opportunity of being the uk's only Partner Network Global Store. We were also given service centre status. (one global store was allocated to each country)
This man actually stood in the middle of my store and with a big grin on his face actually praised the likes of carphone warehouse when he was supposed to be backing the independants.
This man had pay off written all over his face and i wasted no time in telling him exactly what i thought of his comments in an obviously politically correct manner.
The next few months went quite well - we were visited by reps quite frequently and the parts for the phones finally started arriving from sweden.
We were told that service centre status meant that we would repair any warranty phones free of charge to Ericsson but with the help of a advertising fund we could advertise freely and we would be entitled to keep any charges made to customers from out of warranty or damaged phones that we repaired.
This seemed like quite an opportunity at the time as we had an extremely large region that we were covering and with the help an advertising fund to attract them with the paid work would outweigh the unpaid work - (so we were told anyway).
One morning i received a phone call from a rep telling me that they had organised a massive venue in Winchester (Homelands). I was told that the supplier of the telephone equipment to be sold at the venue had let them down and was asked if i could take there place.
Wow i thought - this was great - the only problem was - i had to get hold of 65, 000Pounds worth of stock with less than 2 days notice. But with the help of a friendly supplier, insurance agent and vehicle company we were on our way.
NOW FOR THE SHOCK
The venue was a farce - i was disgusted to see what i had got myself involved in. There was this huge swedish company ERICSSON LTD UK in total control of...
wait for it...
a massive rave in the middle of a massive field. i was surrounded by 1000's of drug crazed youngsters in a hugely drug crazed environment and to top it off - they were being invited to use free calls anywhere demonstrating their latest new models of phones whilst being surrounded with loud beating music and massive screens showing high impact subliminal messages about there phones.
These people were obviously young, vulnerable, and totally out there faces in the middle of nowhere and being hit by highly intensive advertising.
Is this what respectable businesses do?
In the meantime - Ericssons latest range had fallen flat on its face. The phones were rotten and fell apart quite easily. and to make it worse the television reports were saying that if you were not happy with your phone take it to a repair centre.
I was soon inundated with phone repairs, not only from annoyed customers, but also every mobile phone shop in at least a 20 mile radius.
I was flabbergasted - the parts for the most popular ERICSSON phones were in a 3 month backlog.
Have you ever tried telling a customer that their phone will take 3 months to repair?
And after many persistent calls to ERICSSON and many knockbacks from ERICSSON i decided that enough was enough.
I had been funding the repair of Ericssons phones and staff wages out of my own pocket for 6 months without a call from anyone with any authority and certainly no sign of any advertising fund.
I was ruined disheartened and 30, 000POUNDS in debt. i had to close my shop and let my staff go. My dream shattered
Three years later i have found the courage to write this report and to this day - the massive Ericsson scandal has been hidden under the carpet and to this day i have not heard one single word about the affair.
So - this goes to show never, never, never put your 100% trust in anyone - even if they are a multi million pound swedish empire - they will screw you nonetheless.
As there was only one Global Store in the UK - it wont take much to work out who wrote this article - but hey - ive lived with this hell for 3 years - and i really dont care anymore.
D
London
United Kingdom
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