This place really ranges from 3.5-4.5 stars from me...Anyhow, my family and I have been customers at PhoneX for 3 years already. It all started when my mom heard that PhoneX does a weekend "Spin-the-wheel" promo for every new line that you open (more on this later). She is a sucker for these prize drawing things and so am I. So off we went to PhoneX in San Gabriel. It's located on the second floor of a large plaza on Valley and Del Mar. Yes, the same plaza that Ranch 99 is in!
The workers here are all very young and very...Asian. They speak very quickly, almost TOO quickly if you ask me. I have a feeling it's to confuse the heck out of you so you won't know if they are ripping you off or not. Nonetheless, they have a wide variety of phones. Definitely more so than other stores that I've visited. They don't have their phones displayed neatly or anything. All the models are scattered all around the room so you have to reach in between swarms of people to grab the one you want, bring it over to the person helping you, then they go to the stock room and grab you a new one. The deals PhoneX gives you depends on who you talk to. The girl who helped us today wanted to give us $500 rebate and charge us for SIM cards, but we talked her out of it when we explained that another company had offered us a better deal. I wasn't lying; I had pictures of the deal to prove it.
Anyways, so today we opened 4 new lines (ugh, gotta inform my friends that I have a new # for the next 2 years), got two new phones (I think mine is ugly btw), didn't pay activation or sim card fees. Oh yah, they gave is $160 in rebates too. I guess that's a pretty good deal, but now I have to stick with my phone for 2 years...yes, I know I am complaining about a phone I chose. I swear, I was forced to choose it because my mom wanted a rebate! Had she not been griping about the cost, I would have chosen the sexy looking Sony Ericsson K660i.
OK, so the wheel....you are basically a winner every time you spin. There's LCD TVs, Ipods, Ipod Nanos, thermos, pressure cookers, fans, table lamps, $10 gift certificates to Dodoro Cafe (the restaurant that inspired me to start Yelping...don't go there...it's crappy!), etc. The prizes change often. Oh yes, there's also a bunch of Chinese radio hosts that broadcast live from PhoneX whenever there are prize drawings. Some people were starstruck by these radio hosts. I was not. I just wanted to end my very long day and get out of San Gabriel.
Btw, if you are claustrophobic or anthropophobic, don't go to PhoneX during peak hours. It gets really, really crowded!
P.S. T-Mobile is currently doing a promo where you can get a free airplane ticket for 2009 (no blackout dates) if you open a new line or something like that. read more