I’m sure that Ive written here in the past to complain about an annoying habit of the US mobile phone service providers. This annoying habit is providing enticing offers on handsets and bundled minutes to new customers while sticking it to your returning customers by making them pay higher costs for new equipment, etc. Even when I was outside of my contract and they should have offered me a better price on the phone I wanted to keep me, AT&T Wireless wouldnt offer me the new customer deal. At the time I wanted the phone (the Nokia 6820) bad enough and was sufficiently satisfied with the service to say the hell with it and buy the phone anyway.
What I tried to explain to the rep in the store at the time, and what remains true, is that customers like me should be treated at least as well or even better than prospective new customers. In the age of number portability, the deal T-Mobile might be offering me on a new phone to switch represents an opportunity cost to me. By not offering the returning customer a similar deal youre opening yourself up to churn among the very customers who have hopefully already proven their value in terms of revenue. It makes no sense.
I see in this news item from the UK that Virgin Mobile UK gets this. In their new post-pay plan, as distinguished from their traditional pay-as-you-go model, customers are rewarded for the longevity of their contract with Virgin. Rewards include cheaper calling plans and free or lower cost equipment. I hope this model works well for them, and I can only hope Cingular (my provider) and other US carriers take the hint. Sayeth the article:
The approach makes some sense, and is likely to cause some consternation for incumbent carriers, whose focus always seems to be on attracting new customers with special deals and cheap handsets, rather than keeping their existing customers by offering the same level of enticements. In the age of mobile number portability, customers are generally offered little financial incentive to stick with their existing carrier, when switching can mean a cheap new handset and/or a better tariff — a perplexing situation for many consumers, who don’t understand why their history of custom is rendered essentially useless.
That said, Im still waiting for Motorola, Nokia or even a Korean or Chinese manufacturer to come out with an unlocked phone with a low enough cost and sufficiently adequate features that you wont even bother to purchase a phone from the carrier anymore. I mentioned this before when I wrote about the delay in the Motorola iPhone.
