Hafeez Center Lahore is full of BlackBerrys these days, courtesy Ufone’s discounted offers to educational institutions, particularly a special deal with MCB whereby all the MCB group employees are able to get any BlackBerry model on a 40% discount and 20% is waived off on services.
At MCB group, BlackBerry is given to the managers and above only. Ufone has the similar policy as well. But these respected managers have found it a very profitable activity to buy the expensive BlackBerry handset on a good 40% discount and sell it in the market earning some 5 to 10 thousand depending upon the model. According to reports some 700 such BlackBerrys landed into Hafeez Center Lahore in the last month.
One can also derive from this small act of fun that, not all the managers are willing to remain connected through their communication devices using the email and other data services. It doesn’t show that economic crunch has struck the corporate people so badly that they are earning money in such a way, but, it is just the way most of the people think,even the corporate class.
A Ufone employee told us that business class is always looking for every new handset that is launched globally so in order to get the new handset, they sell their old one, even at a loss, just to fulfill their desire for a brand new model. But interestingly in this case, they are selling it on profit.
Varying prices of BlackBerry handsets in the local markets compelled us to write these lines as it involves great risk with reference to after sales services on a pricey handset. Cellular Companies only take responsibility of the handset they are selling from their own platform.
Ufone and other companies must not do what they did with the SIMs otherwise, soon a BlackBerry will be like a candy in any “Mom and Pop Store”.
Ufone BlackBerry statistics may look like the following figures;
| BlackBerry Model | Official Price | After 40% Discount by Ufone | Ufone’s set in the market (approx.) | Estimated profit for employee |
| Bold | Rs. 45,000 | Rs. 27,000 | Rs. 40,000 | Rs. 10,000 |
| Curve | Rs. 27,000 | Rs. 16,200 | Rs. 22,000 | Rs. 4,000 |
| Javelin | Rs. 55,000 | Rs. 33,000 | Rs. 46,000 | Rs. 11,000 |
Ufone’s webpage takes you to the inner webpage showing facny deals on BlackBerry through a combined promo between Ufone and HBL. We called on the mentioned number to know the details of the deal but the guy confirmed that the offer had been disconnected some 6 months back. Perhaps Ufone’s PR people are busy on other projects but any such thing is not an excuse from country’s leading cellular company.
Via Apnatime
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