Been to three different Telstra stores in Gold Coast and none of them have a working, charged XL on display. This is more or less the dialogue for each and every one of my attempts to get some hands-on time with it.
Me: "Hi there. I'm a current Telstra customer with only a couple of months left on my plan, and am very keen to sign up for another 24-month XXL plan, with the Google Pixel 2 XL. I would like to try this one here [points at the demo on display, which won't turn on], but it doesn't appear to be charged.
Telstra person: "I'm so sorry, but the connected charger is faulty."
Me: "I see. Can we plug another charger into it?"
Telstra Person: "Sorry, but we don't have a charger with a long enough cable."
Me: "You're a phone store, and you don't have a charging cable to reach from here [points at the power socket 3 feet below] to here [points at phone]?"
Telstra Person: "....."
Me: "Ok, so can we swap them around very quickly then?"
Telstra Person: "Sorry, but the cables aren't long enough."
Me: "No, I mean, can't you just attach the XL onto the other mount. It's just a couple of screws that are holding them in place. It would literally trigger the alarm for 3 seconds – if that."
Telstra Person: "No, sorry, we don't have the right tool to unscrew the phones from their mounts. And we can't trigger the alarm."
Me: "Ok, well do you have a working one in stock so I can take a quick look at?"
Telstra Person: "No, sorry, I'm not allowed to do that.... [uncomfortable 5 second silence] ...It's exactly the same as the Pixel 2 though, except it's bigger."
Me: "Actually this screen [points at lil' P2] is made by Samsung and this one [points at P2XL] by LG, and they have different resolutions."
Telstra Person: "Oh....." [looks at me blankly]
Me: "Yes, and there have been countless reports online about the P2XL screen having an obvious blue tint when viewed at an angle, and I just want to check this for myself."
Telstra Person: "Oh, I haven't heard about that.... Well, there's a JB Hi-Fi just down the road – maybe they have one you can try."
Me: "Thanks. You've helped me decide whether or not I should sign another 24-month plan with Telstra, or buy the phone outright and move to Virgin mobile."
Seriously, the lengths Telstra appears to be going to in order to stop people from seeing the P2XL screen woes is ridiculous.
