With mobile phone manufacturers refreshing their products every six months, it’s expensive, especially for this college student, to keep up with the latest and greatest in technology.
So when I became eligible to upgrade my phone at a discounted price, I got excited. I researched all the latest handsets and began searching for the best deal. What I found was that most stores and websites had great introductory pricing for new customers but didn’t offer much for existing customers.
I called my wireless provider inquiring about porting my number out to another carrier in hopes of receiving some kind of incentive to stay with the current one.
They offered me the same upgrade price offered on their website, which was more than what I could buy the phone for on Amazon.com. How is that a deal?
The worst part was that the representative on the phone was apathetic to my situation. Basically, he could do nothing, and he wished me luck finding another provider with a better deal.
Instead of focusing all their money on customer acquisition, big companies also need to focus on customer retention. My experience with this particular company hasn’t been the best, and I would happily jump ship if I did find a better deal elsewhere.
I’ve worked in the mobile phone industry, so I understand how phone subsidies work. Smartphones are expensive, but carriers discount the price of the phones when customers sign a contract hoping they’ll make their money back over the next two years. So what difference does it make if you’re signing up for service for the first time or renewing an existing contract?
In the last few years, we’ve seen companies once thought to be bulletproof filing for bankruptcy or going out of business. Mobile phone carriers and all big businesses should take note and stop treating their customers as if they’re disposable.
At the end of the day, we pay their salaries, and we are the reason they’re so big in the first place.
