TelEm Group’s Mobile provider TelCell is hailing St. Maarten’s first Blackberry pre-paid launch a huge success.
Hundreds of TelCell customers packed into the company’s Pond Island Building Saturday morning to sign up for the company’s new Blackberry Smartphone service and also to take advantage of special introductory offers.
Manager Marketing & Sales, Carmen Lake-Reyes, said announcement of the pre-valentine’s day launch was made at the last minute to guard against a mad rush for the service.
As it turned out, even the "soft" launch brought forward more customers than expected.
By 10:00 am, long lines began to form and TelCell management were forced to draft in a backup team of employees from to serve snacks and refreshments to customers waiting in the lines.
"We want to thank all the loyal TelCell customers who turned out on Saturday after receiving our SMS message about the launch and the specials, and especially to thank them for their patience in waiting for assistance and to sign up," said Manger, Customer Service, Ms.Veronica Browne.
Ms. Browne and Mrs. Lake-Reyes said staff were rushed off their feet from the moment they opened at 9:00 a.m. Saturday morning until they closed at 4:00 p.m. – well after the scheduled 1:00 p.m. scheduled closing time.
"We stayed open after hours to help the many customers who waited in line for a couple of hours to get their Blackberry Smartphones," said the TelEm Group Managers.
TelEm Group’s Chief Commercial Officer (CCO), Mr. Brian Mingo said sales will continue all week at the special introductory price.
He said not only is TelCell now providing a pre-paid service for Blackberry on St. Maarten, but the pioneering mobile provider is also promoting a very attractivwe package for business users.
"The flexible Blackberry packages and the e-mail and web-browsing service we have been offering TelCell customers for a number of years through Windows Mobile, TelCell can boast of having the most complete web experience for mobile users on St. Maarten," said Mr. Mingo.
"Our Blackberry service is two times faster than anything else available and our Windows Mobile service is also reliable and fast," continued Mr. Mingo.
Saturday’s launch began with two Blackberry models, the Blackberry Curve 8520 and the Blackberry Curve 8900 for sale at $199 and $299 in the introductory package. A third model (the Blackberry Bold 2) will be offered to customers at a reduced price towards the end of the month.
Post Paid customers will be required to sign a contract in order to get the service, however they will be able to purchase their Blackberry phones at an even cheaper rate of $99 and up.
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