Posted on 07/11/2007 9:45:02 AM PDT by Kaslin
His/her balance sheet shows profit and growth but I can guarantee they haven’t done the market research that would tell them that this 80’s style of big phone business is not choice one for the biggest spenders. We, the biggest spenders want to save time as we compete in global markets. It’s the shrewdness in us that says that paying $100 bucks for bundled service is smart but when you lose 50 hours of time you have lossed all the savings plus many times more. You get what you pay for comes to mind like buying a Ford-F150 for $23k that breaks down when you can buy a Tundra for $27k and it lasts you 25 years.
Maybe they are actually doing both at the same time...
[Back to the cell phone business. I have known folks who would get a new phone, then decide that they don’t like it (actually just want a different phone) and so they complain and come up with all sorts of excuses - calling the provider repeatedly to bug them into a different replacement phone. The phone the customer has is perfectly fine/functional. It just isn’t what they want (and it’s after the legal window to be able to get out).
Folks play the system - so the system has to change.]
The cell phone companies have unreasonably long contracts and unreasonably exclusivtivty for the phones.
The contract that is years long, defeats the whole breakup of at&t in the first place. the contracts are an unfair monopoly. We should be able to get any phone that we want with any service which we are willing to pay for. Eliminate the damn unreasonably long contracts, and the exclusive phones.
I’ve seen managers do essentially the same thing and I used to think it was so stupid (still do). There are some customers that are best kept away. Bottom line losers who rob businesses of their time and money.
i try to avoid calling my cellphone co.
i call maybe once or twice a year.
I understand that Virgin Mobile uses Sprint's phone networks. I'd steer them in that direction. Customers would be able to resolve a lot of their problems online.
We should be able to get any phone that we want with any service which we are willing to pay for. Eliminate the damn unreasonably long contracts, and the exclusive phones.
Who says you have to have a contract for 1-2 years for a cell phone? Between the "pay-as-you-go" products, and the option of buying a pay-as-you-go phone, but then buying a sim card and just signing up for a standard plan...
There is also the option of paying the REAL price for the phone equipment - then you have no contract either. The point of the contract is so the company can make back the discount they give you on the phone.
I too hate contracts. On the other hand, without them, we would be paying over $100 for even the most basic phones out there. Don't want a contract - then pay for the phone up-front. Simple. I gave my grandmother one of our old phones we recently replaced (Cingular - phone still perfectly functional). She got service - no contract. She is free to move to any company that supports the same technology, at any time she wants.
For that matter - you can jump out of your 1 or 2 year contract with any major carrier at any time - you just have to pay whatever the early termination penalty is (which is supposedly the cost of the phone discount you got on the front end - at full retail price).
Yes, there are some customers who do have legitimate gripes, but there are many who seem like they are looking for a fight. No matter how hard you try to help them, they always find something else that is wrong. Fortunately, we have a pretty good upper management staff who will almost always back us up in a situation like this.
wanted basically free advice and service all the time.
Doesn’t that just drive you up the freakin’ wall? I’ve run into quite a bit in our computer business.
The bad ones will call and explain their problem, so I’ll give them a few possibilities as to what the problem could be and ask if they wish to schedule a service call. These problem customers will then say no, but ask if I can walk them through fixing the problem over the phone. They seem to think our time over the phone should be free, and that it’s not valuable unless we physically show up.
The other bad ones are those who feel that one fixed problem entitles them to a lifetime of free maintenance from then on.
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