The New York Times has a piece (you have to pee in a cup, show your passport and pee in a cup again to read it) about how Verizon Wireless are running ads specifically to target AT&T Wireless customers following the AT&T Wireless – Cingular merger. I havent seen the ads, and I cant really tell from the copy on the graphic carried on the Times web site, but it doesnt appear there are any mentions of needing to buy new phones to access both networks, take advantage of rollover minutes and so on.
According to the article, the copy focuses on the problems AT&T Wireless had last year when number portability became a reality. Thats not the best move on Verizon Wireless part. Thats old history and whoever suffered through it was moving away from AT&T Wireless, and its old history anyway. Customers wont have really known about it unless their telecom dorks like me. Hearing about the fact you wont get to take advantage of one of the better contract options Cingular have available without going through a pain-in-the-ass, expensive migration is where customers need to know theyre going to feel real pain and frustration. This is where the customer starts to think Well, if Cingular are going to make me BUY a new phone and move all of my information over, I might as well consider all of my options.
Not too many days after the merger closed we were in an AT&T Wireless store because Barry is in the market for a new phone. The sales clerk kept trying to sell him on certain models and didnt mention ANYTHING about the impact of the merger. Finally I had to speak up and ask, If he buys a phone here today will he be able to get rollover minutes.
The answer was a very sheepish, No. The guys on the retail front are really botching this up, because theyre not telling customers about these issues, and presumably not telling them at any point before the sale is made. Youre going to have a lot of very pissed off people who may or may not be under a service contract, but who are going to leap to other wireless carriers the first chance they have.
