Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2004/09/03/comet_mobile_deal/

Dial-a-Phone hitches ride on Comet

High Street mobe supply deal

By John Oates

Posted in Channel, 3rd September 2004 14:56 GMT

Dial-a-Phone has won a deal with Comet to supply the High Street chain with mobile phones. The deal is likely to raise some hackles among phone retailers and distributors.

Comet customers will be able to order phones from 250 stores but not take them away - credit checks and delivery will be handled by Dial-a-Phone, according to mobiletoday.co.uk. Comet will promote Dial-a-Phone's six top-selling phones - the company has made an impact thanks to aggressive pricing.

Comet staff will process orders online and the firm will get a percentage of the sale price. Comet told mobiletoday that the deal saved them from the risks associated with having a large inventory of phones. They chose Dial-a-Phone from a short list of three firms because it specialises in contract sales.

Bill Moir, head of grey goods at Comet, said: "There were two reasons for this deal; we struggled to compete on price with the volume of phones we were selling and secondly the customer experience wasn't great - it was taking 45 minutes to sign a customer up, this is much quicker." The service will be co-branded and Comet hopes to match or exceed the 25,000 phones they sold last year.

Dial-a-Phone also works with Argos. ®

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