Posted at 10:11 am EDT, October 21st, 2009 by David, Managing Editor.
Project Dark, we have high hopes for you and we sure hope this is enough to catapult you into the good graces of the wireless deities.
I know what you all want and we are prepared to deliver. We’re putting this in the rumor column at this point but we’re pretty confident on this pricing. You’re going to skip right past anything else I write so here is what we know:
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I called T-Mobile to confirm that the current offerings are less expensive than my Loyalty Plan combo of talk and data. Turns out that the new all in one plans are $10 less monthly than what I am paying.
So I asked the rep it T-Mo will be coming out with new pricing for Loyalty customers since now that discount for long term, loyal customers has been lost.
He said they will be coming up with new loyalty pricing, but he could not give me specifics.
It makes sense that they would do this, but we shall see. CSRs have not been all that reliable in providing accurate information.
CSRs have not been that reliable, because we don’t know the answer. We are bound to policy and training provided, and making up answers to keep customers happy is a big no-no!! If I were to promise this, and notate it in the memos, we are legally bound to give this to you. I can promise you right now – I have heard no mention of “new loyalty pricing”. If I ever do hear any mention of new pricing for anything you have my word that I will pop it on here. Even though I am employed by TMO, I am first and foremost a consumer!!!
A CSR convinced me to move over to the loyalty plan stating to me she will note in the memo I can switch back to the $39.99 Unlimited night and weekend plan 1000anytime whenever I want. I called them to switch back and they said sorry that plan doesn’t exist anymore and you can’t switch back. tmocsr you work there, you just mentioned they must honor it if they tell me that’s what I can do, any suggestions or insight on this? And yeah loyalty plans are more expensive dumb!
Still available, however switch from even more plus to contracted plan may not be possible. If you are not on even more plus ask for customer loyalty and you can get it on a two year. Also you MIGHT be able to go back from even more plus but I would ask for customer loyalty
Oh further more I love math and I will tell you why you want even more plus. If you like new gadgets that are high end let’s do the math together. I will use the moto cliq and a 1K min plan as an example.
Cliq two year contract 200 (not counting upfees) 39.99 for plan 34.99 text and web you are running at 75 a month on even more plus this is 70 plus also included free mobile to mobile. 5 a month on a two year contract is a saving of 120 over a two year contract additionally add in the 200 for the cliq we are at 320. That is an 80 diffrence to just buying the phone at the 400. So if you accept it and pay 15 more a month (75 vs 69.99 plus 20 month installments on cliq for 20 a month = 90) 10 months down the line you have paid off 200 to the cliq. Pay the full discount price of 200 at that time and guess what you’re back down and can get another phone at full discount every 10 months. I love these new plans for that reason and hope that helps.
@Pixiwish, personally i work in Customer Loyalty and we do everything we can. With the new benefits of the RP’s it does not make sense to fill a customer with false hopes. Then when we cant do it we take the brunt of the anger, and frustration. Please stop thinking Customer Loyalty is a one stop shop. We also have limited amoutn of tools and services available. We do our best to right fit a customer with what we have. Dont assume we can do something blindly.
why do ppl think they deserve special treatment and demand lower pricing then what companies offer? what makes them so spoiled to think that they can say just because they have been a customer for so long they deserve everything special? Try doing that with your cable company or gas provider…
Cable companies and gas providers are often monopolies – bad example.
How about you try doing it with your car insurance provider… oh wait, they do offer loyalty discounts. T-Mobile offers loyalty plans for the purpose of maintaining market share. You can certainly see an issue with a loyalty plan being more expensive than a standard plan.
Well I resfuse to shop at walmart and always goto target and have been for over 10 years.If I went into target and asked for a free tv or else I will shop at walmart from now on I think they’d laugh at me
I have been with T-mobile forever and yes they do have special offers for long term customers and they should …I have 2 accounts both with 5 lines on them and spends close to 400 a month should i get a better deal then the guy with a 29.00 plan who always pays late and has a free phone ? i mean really i have paid for every high end phone tmobile has made and yes i deserve to have special perks.
Ok so I have been with my cable co for ever 10 yrs. I should expect what???? I find it nuts that everyone wants free this that and the other. there are no other companies that off anything like this. I would love to hear if some one called their electric company and got something free from them or pay something different cuz you have been with them forever.
As a rep. I can honestly say that I am flabbergasted by such a comment anyone using common sense would disagree…I have purchased Pepsi-Cola for years my parents purchased Pepsi-Cola for years I don’t march into Pepsi-Cola and demand free soda its down right stupid we stay with them because we like the product let me guess wal-mart doesn’t make the pricing on Pepsi-Cola
Also I buy LG products year in year out do I deserve a discount on that too?
I also purchase American Living clothes do i deserve a discount on that too?
Or what about my Nikes?
if you want to discuss service related industries
Do i deserve a discount on internet or my phone (not monopolies in my area)?
I have xbox live should i get that discounted?
bottom line get over yourself we pay for products based on reliability and quality if everyone got a discount then reliability and quality would go down its basic econ there is supply and demand the better quality and reliability equals higher cost just be glade T-Mobile had decided to be priced cheaper to gain more market share instead of pulling an Apple Inc. and have high cost to target a select customer base
You sir are an idiot. Mrjoe2you was talking about special perks since he has been with TMobile for a long time and spends a lot of money with them. If TMobile was like you and didn’t care about giving long-term customers discounts just for staying with TMobile, why would they come up with a Loyalty Plan? Obviously, they want to give their long-term customers discounts for sticking with them, right? Now that the regular rates are the same as the Loyalty Plan, it only makes sense to ask TMobile to lower the Loyalty Plan rates, other wise the existence of the plan makes no sense.
It is in fact you who has failed to use common sense and are an equal failure as a rep if this is how you think.
On the flip side, if you call up your credit card company after years of good history (i.e., paying on time, not overdrawing, etc.), they’ll often lower your rates, to keep you on their ledgers. You could go back and forth all day on examples for or against. T-mobile’s bottom line is based upon number of customers, retention and building market share. Walmart’s is more about moving boxes one at a time. It makes sense that T-mobile would offer discounts to keep up their market share.
Actually, if you call your cable company and tell them you are looking to switch to directtv THEY WILL TRANSFER you to their loyalty department to “save” you as a customer. They also have loyalty plans… hence, the 20 mb download internet that I pay $30 per month for standalone instead of $80!!
I’m considering an upgrade and I will tell you that the discounted prices for NEW customers vs. existing is pissing me off (Nexus One, for example). I understand it is marketing, but my contract is up and I could easily jump to Verizon. It certainly seems like TMO doesn’t care if it retains customers.
As a former t-mobile csr, retail rep, and current customer, I can see most points of view here. I can understand not getting what was promised as I had to email the ceo, Robert D, to get what was promised to me. I still have friends that work for the company so I know what is going on as it happens.
First of all, the loyalty issue. We all know that if a cell phone company is going to “give” you anything, it is based on future commitment. The company knows that as you use the cell phone that they “gave” you for a 2 year contract, they will make up the cost in the monthly service charges. If you change your rate plan to a promotional plan, they will extend your contract 1 or 2 years if your contract was to end before the date of your existing contract. So did they really “give” you anything?
Secondly, I can tell you why MrJoe has been with the company so long… He has 10 lines and they are all with different contract end dates. At any given point in time I would bet that more than 5 of those lines were under contract. So rather than pay $1000 in ETF’s he has kept the service… That isn’t “loyalty”, that is just economics. Who would want that on their credit report? (He had to have good credit to get those 10 lines) So for him to say “give me something for free, I have earned it” really means “I don’t want to pay an ETF, but I will get as much for free as I can since I stuck anyway”
Finally, the reason TMobile changed their plans is because their biggest “churn” (the biggest reason they lose customers) is to a prepaid wireless carrier, Boost. TMobile gets reports and does exit surveys with a percentage of those that port out (those that keep the same number but move it to another carrier). A port out request is made from another company to TMobile, and you KNOW they track this.
So to compete with the prepaid wireless industry, TMobile first cancelled some of their roaming contracts with AT&T. (Try to do a manual network selection and use AT&T towers… you can’t in many areas of the country now) They did this in areas that they had overlapping coverage… why pay another company money when you have towers there already?
The next thing they did was test the cost of unlimited plans with their “loyal” customers. This made the most sense since they could see how the unlimited plans would affect the usage of the customers that they had the most data on.
Then they rolled out the plans and marketed the plans WITHOUT contracts. (Those average $20 less a month than the regular plans… that is $480 for a 2 year contract… and go figure, that’s the price of a new high end phone!) 70% of cell phone subscribers that are on an unlimited plan do not need an unlimited plan. The dreaded fear of overage charges and feeling of no-worry endless calls brings people to pay a bit more for an unlimited plan when all they may need is 1500 minutes. So in reality, most people STILL pay too much for their cell phone services.
The strategy was brilliant if you ask me.
PS. If you look on the fine print of Boost Mobile, you will see that if they feel you are using their services too much, they reserve the right to cancel your phone.