This news has been kind of inferred before, but now we have it direct from Vodafone – it won’t be physically stocking the Nexus One in its UK stores or distribution centres.
In a post on the Vodafone Forum, a Vodafone employee confirmed that Google will be sending the phone direct to UK consumers who buy it on Vodafone contracts, so you’re out of luck if you were hoping to saunter into a highstreet store and pick one up. It’s going to be a bit more awkward than that.
Here’s the quote:
“Unfortunately we won’t be selling the device directly however, it will be available direct from Google.
“Whilst i understand the implications and concerns around this we are unable to offer any further assistance in regards to purchasing the device”
It’ll be interesting to see what plans Google puts in place to ship Nexus Ones to the UK. The current arrangement, which sees the phones sent via courier from the US and therefore incurring a huge VAT (tax) import bill upon arrival, isn’t ideal. In fact, it’s terrible. No wonder the Nexus is stuffed right at the bottom of Vodafone’s Coming Soon page.
Vodafone needs at the very least to ensure Google dispatches them all from a UK address, or face a huge backlash from casual consumers unaware of the bizarre import duty situation.
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