Concerning My Cell Phone Renewal
As a T-Mobile customer, I’ve had my ups and downs. While the service has been generally adequate, there are still some annoying “no coverage” spots that make me wonder if I wouldn’t do better elsewhere. After the situation over the summer when a cell tower by my house went down, and no one at customer service knew it, I decided to wait before renewing my contract. Now, several months later, the tower appears to be up for good (it was down for almost a month!), and I geared up for a handset upgrade.
Over the last half decade, I’ve definitely made the rounds. I started with AT&T, but moved on to MCI Worldcom when I got a better contract price (the phone network was really Verizon). From MCI (who I thought was in financial trouble when their billing was three months behind, and then kept sending me bills after the account was closed, this went on for months…but alas, I digress) I next went with the cute orange stick figure, better known as Cingular. And then I finally ended up with T-Mobile. The only company I haven’t been with is Sprint, and they have no coverage of my local neighborhood. Each time, the cost of a new handset was far more money than just paying the activation fee to a new carrier and getting a new phone.
I doubt my story is that unique. I remember reading that around 3% of cell phone customers defect in a month, which translates to more than a third of subscribers in a year. There just isn’t any loyalty built into this at any step of the process, and we all chase the best phone, with the most minutes for the lowest monthly payment.
In the handset department, the hardware side of cell phone technology, I’ve made the rounds as well. I started with an Erricson (before Sony was involved), then moved on to Nokia, had a pair of Siemens (one flip, one not), and another Nokia. This time I went with a Motorola, maybe because this was the only major brand I haven’t used yet (review forthcoming, of course!).
In other words, this is the first time that I renewed a contract rather than jumping ship. What changed? Well, with the consolidation and mergers, the prices of the plans are pretty uniform between carriers. Also, while I was happy with my Siemens CF62 flip phone, the battery was dying big time. The daily charging routine was too much to take, so I needed to do something to improve the situation.
It was finally cheaper, and easier to upgrade than to do anything else. To start with another carrier would require another $35 activation fee, which then gets taxed on top of this. A new battery would have run over $20. Drum roll please! To reenlist with T-Mobile was actually the cheapest. By signing a two year contract, the phone was $79, plus tax, minus a seventy buck rebate. So, the new phone is around $16, which is less than the battery for my old Siemens! In the process, I also got upgraded to a new Bluetooth phone which I can’t wait to play with when I have some more time.
Are the carriers finally getting it? It’s too early to tell, but I would think they should realize that this is probably good business sense. When you’ve got a customer that pays on time, you should put as much effort into keeping him, as acquiring a new customer. Ask any of your local businesses, and I’m sure they will agree.
--Jonas
Over the last half decade, I’ve definitely made the rounds. I started with AT&T, but moved on to MCI Worldcom when I got a better contract price (the phone network was really Verizon). From MCI (who I thought was in financial trouble when their billing was three months behind, and then kept sending me bills after the account was closed, this went on for months…but alas, I digress) I next went with the cute orange stick figure, better known as Cingular. And then I finally ended up with T-Mobile. The only company I haven’t been with is Sprint, and they have no coverage of my local neighborhood. Each time, the cost of a new handset was far more money than just paying the activation fee to a new carrier and getting a new phone.
I doubt my story is that unique. I remember reading that around 3% of cell phone customers defect in a month, which translates to more than a third of subscribers in a year. There just isn’t any loyalty built into this at any step of the process, and we all chase the best phone, with the most minutes for the lowest monthly payment.
In the handset department, the hardware side of cell phone technology, I’ve made the rounds as well. I started with an Erricson (before Sony was involved), then moved on to Nokia, had a pair of Siemens (one flip, one not), and another Nokia. This time I went with a Motorola, maybe because this was the only major brand I haven’t used yet (review forthcoming, of course!).
In other words, this is the first time that I renewed a contract rather than jumping ship. What changed? Well, with the consolidation and mergers, the prices of the plans are pretty uniform between carriers. Also, while I was happy with my Siemens CF62 flip phone, the battery was dying big time. The daily charging routine was too much to take, so I needed to do something to improve the situation.
It was finally cheaper, and easier to upgrade than to do anything else. To start with another carrier would require another $35 activation fee, which then gets taxed on top of this. A new battery would have run over $20. Drum roll please! To reenlist with T-Mobile was actually the cheapest. By signing a two year contract, the phone was $79, plus tax, minus a seventy buck rebate. So, the new phone is around $16, which is less than the battery for my old Siemens! In the process, I also got upgraded to a new Bluetooth phone which I can’t wait to play with when I have some more time.
Are the carriers finally getting it? It’s too early to tell, but I would think they should realize that this is probably good business sense. When you’ve got a customer that pays on time, you should put as much effort into keeping him, as acquiring a new customer. Ask any of your local businesses, and I’m sure they will agree.
--Jonas
posted by digitaldoc at 11:21 AM
2 Comments:
I played the musical carrier game years ago. We settled on VoiceStream which was acquired by T-Mobile. The service has been OK, the ironic thing is, we don't have coverage at our house. Actually, we get coverage, you just have to go out side to get it. Th main thing that bothers me is the deals they have on new phones. If you are a new customer, they have a bunch of phones to chose from at a steep discount or even free. The current customers get fewer good deals. I've taken to calling and telling them I'm going to switch carriers for this reason, then they get a supervisor and make me a deal on a better phone.
If you think you had a problem with Worldcom, you should be glad you aren't my wife. She also had the 3 month billing issue,so she closed the account. They sent the final bill, with no call details, which was double the normal bill. My wife told them she wouldn't pay full the bill without the detail because she didn't use the phone any more then usual. Long story short, they never sent the detail, so she eventually got them to agree to her paying only the normal monthly fees. End of story right?... Wrong! 2 years later, she gets a notice from a collection agency demanding payment of the final bill, including the amount she had already paid. Fortunately she kept all the paper work proving that she had settled with Worldcom previously.
It's really no wonder that they went out of business. Even with the phone sitting in a box with the battery and SIM card removed, they kept claiming that I was using it to make calls. Totally absurd! The only way I "broke free" was to have a supervisor send me a paid statement. After that, they got off of my case.
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