Went to purchase phone instore how ridiculous and confusing is this?

They're being realistic, though. Of course they aren't going to outright say that you aren't welcome to come to their shop for help after buying from their website, but they're relying on the vast majority of people not needing/bothering to do that.

They'll be assuming that most people will either know, ask somebody or look online for answers to any queries, rather than schlep all the way into the shop and take one of their (probably not very many) staff out of action.

If everybody who bought a phone from them online went into their stores and asked/expected them to set it up for them - a process which is largely automatic, but it can take the phone a long time whirring along to do all of its stuff; and you can't even just leave it and come back, because it periodically asks you to press a button or two to confirm your choices - they'd have long queues out of the doors. Their default norm is that customers will set up their phones themselves; it's the outliers who will need hands-on help from them to do so.

If having high street stores were so profitable for them, why would they have been closing so many of them down over the last few years? Actual bricks-and-mortar premises are great when it comes to things like cafes, hair salons, shops selling fresh/timely/impulse purchases and the like; but phones are one of the things that are so very easy for the majority of people to buy - and thus for the suppliers to sell - online. Again, a bit like with banking, where you can even pay in cheques online now. Other than paying in cash, there's very little indeed that you can't do quickly and conveniently online.

I may be wrong, but I'm as certain as I can be that you'll find the shops disappearing before long. Smartphones have only existed for less than 20 years and things move very fast indeed with tech. If I were you, I would try to find out how to do things like transferring to a new phone ASAP - by asking questions instore if need be, rather than just leaving them to do it for you - before there are no more stores and that avenue is closed to you. Most people don't buy a new phone more than once every two years at a minimum... a lot can change in two years, including previously readily-available high street shops becoming nothing more than a memory.

You’re right, customer service is really crap these days. It’s made life just that little bit more crap.

You should learn how to do it yourself. It’s not rocket science by any means. My 9 year old could do it.

My OH isn’t a phone guy. A basic android does the job for him, but his last phone was getting slow and the screen was cracked so we went into EE and they had handsets for sale out right for about £90. We asked to buy one and the sales assistant said oh I can give you an appointment in about 45 minutes?
I said no, we just want to buy that handset now please. Nope, we needed a bloody appointment 🤣 and they couldn’t fit us in for 45 minutes? WTH 🤦‍♀️?

We politely declined and went and bought a phone from Argos down the street.

True, but the more we buy online (and I have bought my phones online for a very long time), the sooner shops will shut, so when someone does want help/advice, they won't be there. Some people don't have family to help, and I know some people don't like to bother their family, so do go in.
Guess it's inevitable, and when we look at photos of the past in a few years, phone shops will be a late 90s-2028(?) ish thing.
It does seem stupid to me that the price is so different. Apart from anything else, if the customer goes home and googles it, they could see another phone they prefer, so the shop could lose out on the sale.
OP, who knows how things will change, but I don't think you're unreasonable. My teenage niece went mad with delight when she went to a big mall, and said she can't believe we used to be able to buy clothes in every town (small towns now seem to have few shops teenagers like, here anyway) instead of having to wait for them to be sent after online order.

Reading fine thank you

To be honest, OP, they're streamlining their operations towards the vast majority of customers - who will be quite content to look through their website, choose a phone, order it, have it sent to their home address and then set it up themselves/ask a family member for help if they aren't tech savvy.

There won't even be any real benefit to going in to handle the phones, as they're mostly pretty identical size-wise; it's just the software and internal components that vary.

It will only be a matter of time before there are no 'standard' phone shops left soon, as they cost them a lot of money to run in building costs, overhead and staffing. Also, like with physical bank branches, the people who use the branches are mostly the ones who make them the least money.

I think, again like banks, we're currently coming towards the end of a unique 'dual' period of time - where most people do most things online, but facilities are still kept available for the people who aren't online. By the time the current oldest generation have all left us - if not before - I'm afraid the only solution that will be given to "But I'm not online/confident" will be "You need to get online and/or ask somebody else to help/teach you".

My DGM didn't have a landline phone, except for a few months when she had one installed with some persuasion, used it a very few times but couldn't come to terms with it and soon had it taken out again. We tried patiently to help her, but she just made up her mind against it. That didn't mean that all of the services and facilities that were (pre-internet) only available over the phone put themselves out to make themselves available to her and the rest of the tiny minority like her in person - it just meant that she had to get somebody else in the family to phone on her behalf.

It's fine if you're happy to choose to remain dependent on others - and you have family and/or friends who are willing to help - but most people who are able to do so prefer to keep/gain their independence.

BT sold O2 2006 and recent bought over EE in 2016. The customer service and weird deals are BT marketing department strategy.

Retail and online are 2 separate entities with different cost and overheads hence different pricing

I think OP summed it up when she said she wanted to see it and a member of staff o activate and transfer data
shops cost money staff cost money these are factored into the sale price basically if you want those facilities you pay for them

"Sim free" is highly misleading. They have an e-sim built-in.

I'm not sure why people are getting confused about sim free phones. The new iphone is called sim free.

What does SIM-free iPhone mean?
A SIM-free iPhone is not tied to any network and does not come with a SIM card. This means you can use it with any carrier of your choice, giving you the flexibility to switch providers when a better deal comes along. It’s also a great option if you want to avoid lengthy contracts.

It’s really not that confusing

I think it must be an eSIM. But l had it in my old phone. New phone copied all data from old phone by being placed next to it.

New phone full operational on my old network ( as they keep sending bills) with all data incl passwords. But no sim.

Sim somewhere in top drawer of my chest of drawers😬

Do you use for phone for calls or texts?

No l have no sim in my new phone.

My SIM card is in my top drawer as ds stole my old phone. He ‘knows’ about these things, and says Sim cards will be obsolete in a few years.

So you've got no SIM in your new phone? That doesn't make sense, it's what gives you access to the network. An eSIM is exactly what it says, a virtual SIM.

Unfortunately, if you're dependent on the shop assistant helping you, then you're not independent. Nowadays, it's not something that you expect to need a professional to do; it's a largely automated process that virtually everybody can do, except for those with additional needs, disabilities or other vulnerabilities.

The world changes a lot, and it isn't unusual for people to need to seek help from younger generations or younger/more capable friends with all kinds of things. Just like, if you get too old to drive safely and have to give up, that doesn't mean you never travel in a car again.

It's been specifically designed to easily do the majority of it automatically - so the shop staff will be doing it as a favour to a customer who is still struggling; it isn't a standard part of their job.

If you can't press the buttons and/or see the screen to activate the transfers, you're going to struggle all the time when using the phone as well, aren't you? I have extensive nerve damage, so I know that it can be very difficult and painful using phones - which is why I use my laptop whenever possible.

Somebody who can use a smartphone can just as easily learn/manage to transfer their data - otherwise, if they prefer not to or aren't confident, they can choose to seek help.

Ultimately, you can't continually expect companies to provide costly retail store-convenience but at online prices.

I have never had help transferring a phone over, there will be a YouTube video explaining how to do it.

I don't suppose the OP is buying an iPhone at that price, when I changed my android phone recently I'm pretty sure I had to move the SIM card before I transferred everything else so it may be different

Like everyone else says its really really easy to do nowadays