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07/15/2006 12:10:10 PM · #1 |
Not angry but figured this ought to be in the rant section anyway.
Been a customer for over 7 years now. Spend almost $5,000/year for our family & business service. Its almost time to renew so I called for a new phone and was told for over 25 minutes how they valued me as a customer and wanted to keep my business but the best they could do was give me an extra $50 off the phone. Keep in mind that if anyone walked in off the street and signed the exact same contract they wanted me to sign the newcomer would get the same phone for $349 and T-Mobile valued me enough to sell it to me for $299. After 7 years with what I assume to be a large dollar service contract I amount to $50 more than anyone who hasn't been a long-term customer. Oh well, I'm headed to Cingular or Verizon Wireless or someone else since I can get exactly the same kind of treatment for the same 24 month contract that T-Mobile wanted. |
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07/15/2006 12:15:59 PM · #2 |
If you go Verizon, we can call each other all the time for free on The Network!!
;) |
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07/15/2006 01:12:29 PM · #3 |
Verizon rocks! I'm up for a renew and i get a free phone!
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07/15/2006 01:24:42 PM · #4 |
Don't forget to poke them in the eye and take your phone # too.
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07/15/2006 03:31:31 PM · #5 |
Kevin,
Not to be difficult, how much of a discount were you expecting?
Bear in mind that in exchange for you signing a two-year contract, the cell phone provider is typically already giving you a discount of $200 over the non-contract retail price of the phone (the price which would be charged to a customer who purchased a phone without extending his contract, or without signing an annual contract). At that price, they are already taking a loss on the phone. They are giving you an extra $50 on top of that, which to my knowledge is a VERY unusual step. In total, they are offering you a $549 phone for $299, or a 46% discount.
I'm assuming you have a high-end rate plan based on the offer they gave you -- I've recently shopped the high-end rate plans of all the national cell phone providers. I can guarantee you that T-Mobile is much less expensive than Verizon or Cingular. You'll pay Verizon or Cingular much more over the life of your prospective contract with them than you could ever expect T-Mobile to discount the phone -- even if they gave you the comparable phone for free.
~Terry
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07/15/2006 07:10:22 PM · #6 |
Originally posted by ClubJuggle:
Kevin,
Not to be difficult, how much of a discount were you expecting?
Bear in mind that in exchange for you signing a two-year contract, the cell phone provider is typically already giving you a discount of $200 over the non-contract retail price of the phone (the price which would be charged to a customer who purchased a phone without extending his contract, or without signing an annual contract). At that price, they are already taking a loss on the phone. They are giving you an extra $50 on top of that, which to my knowledge is a VERY unusual step. In total, they are offering you a $549 phone for $299, or a 46% discount.
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This is one area where the UK appears to be cheaper. I expect the latest phones free every year (or more often) for £35 per month (USD 50), for which I get 500 minutes, 50 texts, 5MB data free per month. I never sign a contract for more than 12 months.
Anyone spending $5k a year would be treated very well - you would be getting free upgrades on phones every 6 months, if you wanted them. I am amazed that they might turn down $10k revenue over a $350 (or $600) phone.
Message edited by author 2006-07-15 19:11:55.
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07/15/2006 07:31:12 PM · #7 |
Originally posted by KevinRiggs:
I'm headed to Cingular |
Cingular will play ball. I recently upgraded a pair of the latest greatest phones of 4 years ago to a pair of latest greatest phones of today and as an existing customer they did give me the new customer price (had to speak to a manager tho). |
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07/16/2006 08:37:49 AM · #8 |
Originally posted by routerguy666:
Originally posted by KevinRiggs:
I'm headed to Cingular |
Cingular will play ball. I recently upgraded a pair of the latest greatest phones of 4 years ago to a pair of latest greatest phones of today and as an existing customer they did give me the new customer price (had to speak to a manager tho). |
Right -- but he's being offered better than the new customer price by T-Mobile.
~Terry
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07/16/2006 08:49:54 AM · #9 |
I like Sprint myself - their customer service (Retention) area is superb. I get a free phone every 18 months, or usually $150 off whatever phone I want and you don't even have to beg for it, it's automatic. Whenever I've called them and asked for upgrades to plan they are excellent about giving something up for free to keep my business, even during the terms of the contract, as the cancellation fee for early termination is about the same as it would cost them to transfer the cell number to another carrier.
Don't know much about Cingular, but I'd stay faaaaaaar away Verizon. Their customer service blows - they once refused to honor a written contract that I had in my hands - signed by one of their reps and thrust in the face of the local store manager - all because he didn't work there anymore and they couldn't verify his signature. They are famous around here for knobbing you on the renewal piece.
Whatever happens, good luck!
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07/16/2006 10:45:42 AM · #10 |
I did hear bad things about Verizon customer service.
I have Sprint. And have had Sprint for about 3 years now. I like the coverage that they have. Now Verizon's coverage is probably a *little* bit better than Sprint because Verizon rents cell towers off of Sprint -- so anywhere there is a Sprint tower, Verizon will have service too -- but Verizon also has a few of their own towers, so there are some areas where Verizon will work but Sprint won't.
However, I'm 99% sure that both have WAY better coverage than T-Mobile. T-Mobile basically covers all major highways and all major cities with little in between...so you might be happier with Sprint/Verizon in that department anyway.
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I had a problem with Sprint once, when they merged with Nextel...I switched to a Nextel phone, which I hated...so I switched back. I had to wait on hold for like 15 minutes while they got me a manager, then that manager put me on hold a few times, but I got the activation fees, and the service fees waved for the whole month. So they definately are willing to help you out if you are willing to wait on hold and be polite.
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07/16/2006 11:26:24 AM · #11 |
It's the quality of voice and data services that matter. Clarity, static, dropped calls, coverage, ...
If you're unhappy with T-Mobile service, by all means switch. But if you're happy with it, consider that you may be getting poorer service with another carrier. |
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07/16/2006 08:54:11 PM · #12 |
Well, we stopped by a Cingular store and a Verizon store and ended up going with Verizon. We got a better plan (shared minutes, rollover for 12 months, VCast video, etc) and free phones. We'll be saving about over $80/month so I'm pretty stoked. I even got an extra line to separate business from personal calls.
To Terry's point, the phone lists for $449 and if anyone signs a 12-month contract they got $50; a 24-month contract would have been a total of $100 off for anyone signing the contract. I expected something more than another $50 frankly. I was able to go buy a similar phone and plan for less with no history over at the Verizon store. I'm just surprised I guess. Over the years my interaction with T-Mobile was always that they made their mark with customer service and going the extra mile and considering that I'd only taken advantage of the free phone upgrade once in 7 years I kinda thought it would be nice to have them honor my commitment to them but it seems like its a "what have you done for me lately" kinda business world so I figure I'll adopt their mentality. They had several years of my history to look back on when they made the decision so I guess another carrier just wanted my business more. I've no hard feelings towards the company but if its just business and money then I got a better deal as a newcomer to another carrier than I got as an historically high-paying customer to my old carrier.
By the by, we did take our old phone numbers with us and since I still have a month on my T-Mobile account they were nice enough to allow me to switch to a "temporary" number and just buy out the last month instead of trying to charge me the severance fee (Verizon told me that they were supposed to do it but the T-Mobile customer service rep actually offered that option without me having to ask for it so I'll give 'em that).
And to Dr.Confuser's point of clarity and service I'll have to say that I've touted T-Mobile's service to my friends and family and often heard that they seem to have bad coverage but I was always happy with them. Well, today we drove a round-trip to see all the grandparents and share some news (soon to be posted in another thread) and we had coverage in areas where I'd never dreamed of getting coverage with T-Mobile so I have to give it up to my lovely wife as she has tried once or twice to get me to change carriers over the last few years because she believed we'd get better coverage and we actually do. Color me the die-hard I suppose.
Anyway, alls well that ends well so I don't know that I'd caution anyone against T-Mobile as I was always content with their service but for me it turns out that I believe my dedication to a business to be undervalued and I found better service at a lower price for my area.
Thanks for the comments all. I truly hate change and I like supporting those that work with me but it looks like we've made our move and we're both happy with it.
Kev |
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07/19/2006 10:18:47 PM · #13 |
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