Cell phone carriers are notoriously bad at customer service and they are always trying to raise your rates whenever they can. The only time this is an exception is when you have the power to leave without incurring an early termination fee (etf). There are really only two times that this occurs. The first is when your contract is up and the second is if they make any changes to your plan (this also includes if they change any fees on your bill). Many of you know that I worked in the wireless industry for five years so I know where the info is and I still have a bunch of friends that work in wireless. So how do you negotiate with the monster wireless companies? You go for the jugular.
The key to all of this is to get transfered to your companies retention department. These people are trained to give good customers what they want to keep them paying. Now I have had a Sprint phone since 2000 and I have four lines of service (this makes me valuable). So when Sprint recently changed my plan due to a change in their billing system I immediately went to retentions intent on getting my old plan back. There is no need to be nasty just express your frustration and ask for what you want. So what did I ask for on top of my old plan back? I got my 3rd and 4th lines changed from $10 per month to free. I got my text messaging upgraded to unlimited for free and I got a feature from Sprint called Pick 3 where I pick three numbers outside the Sprint network that I can make and receive calls from for free. So my plan ended up being:
4 phones
1500 Minutes
Free mobile to mobile
No Roaming
Overage minutes only 10 cents per minute
Free unlimited text
Free Pick 3
5% loyalty discount
Total before taxes $64
That is what can be accomplished by negotiating yourself into a new contract. The best sources for information can be found by typing “your cell phone companies name” followed by “users forum” into Blingo (or if you are a heathen Google). Sprint has, by far, the best forum at SprintUsers.com. That is probably because it has been around the longest (since before I was working there) and sprint is lower on the customer service totem pole.
Why one Free Number is Such a Big Deal
Mobile to mobile calling, where you can make free calls to any phone from the same carrier, was the first push by the cell phone companies to tie large blocks of people to their network. I was working for Sprint when it was introduced. For the first time you could get a low cost plan and talk as much as you wanted as long as everyone was on the same network. This was brilliant. Even today no one in my family will consider leaving Sprint because they would no longer be able to call whenever they wanted (this may be a good reason for some of you to switch carriers). This also marked the first time that the consumer began to wrestle some control away from the telephone companies. Now, when they make one person angry they could lose 20.
The point of all of this is to show that you have to take the best of what is offered from your carrier and use it to win with your wireless bill. Eventually wireless will be unlimited, but until then I have come up with another solution. Three companies now offer an option to pick a few numbers to which you want to make and receive free calls (Sprint, T-Mobile, Alltel). Since I have Sprint I will be using the terminology for that company. Here is the strategy:
Step 1: Get Pick 3 (the service where I get to pick the numbers) added to my plan
Step 2: Register for a phone number from GrandCentral.com
Step 3: Register my new GrandCentral.com number with my new Pick 3 service
Step 4: Give out my GrandCentral.com number to all business contacts and everyone that does not have a sprint phone.
Step 5: Wait two months and then adjust my plan to a lower number of minutes because I am no longer using minutes for business.
The question you are asking now is, “what the heck is GrandCentral.com.” GrandCentral is a free service, offered by Google, where you get a phone number that forwards call to whatever number you want. You can go into the settings and have that number show up as your caller id when the call is forwarded from that number. You do give up the convenience of caller id here but if you are using the number for specific reasons , like I am for business, you know that the call is important. The other advantage is you can use your cell phone number on order forms and things of that nature. So when you get a call from a number you do not recognize you know it is not something you want to answer. My expectation is to use about 500 less minutes per month as a result of this change. This may or may not be be enough to allow me to change plans but I can ensure that I do not go over as a result.
These kind of tactics are just the beginning. I believe a meteoric shift in mobile is on the horizon. I will be sitting on the front edge of that shift and will be here to tell you about it.
Prepaid Phones
here is one more option to winning the cellphone game that does not get discussed in length and that is to go to a prepaid phone. There are many many people out there that have cell phone plans that almost never use their phone or use it very little during a month. These people are stuck paying $30 per month for a phone that only brings them the security and a little convenience when they are out and about. Prepaid phones are perfect for this person. The other type of user would be teenagers and younger. A teenager can do some real damage to your cell phone bill. This is a great way to rein them in with only a preset number of minutes and text messages.
As far as providers go the one prepaid company that gets higher reviews than any other is Net 10 Wireless. In fact if you go to different message boards people love Net 10. The plan is simple. Each minute costs 10 cents per minute and each text message is 5 cents. As far as pricing goes that is it. The only catch is you have to refresh your minutes every so often. This time period depends on how large of a group of minute you purchase. The amount of time breaks down like this:
300 Minute Card is $30 and lasts for 60 Days or $15 per month
600 Minute Card is $60 and Lasts 90 Days or $20 per month
1000 Minute Card is $100 and lasts 180 Days or $16.67 per month
1500 Minute Card is $150 and lasts 365 Days or $12.50 per month
As you can see the best deals are the 300 and 1500 minute additions. By purchasing additional minutes before the expiration date you keep your phone “fresh” and keep the minutes you have left over. In other words you don’t loose minutes unless you let your phone expire. How do you know when it is going to expire? The phone tells you on the screen. The phone will also tell you how many minutes you have left so that you can add more minutes if you are close to running out. The other question people ask is how hard is it to get minutes. Well, you can purchase minutes directly online, you can purchase them in different retail locations, the most notable being Wal-Mart, or you can enroll in the “Buy Now” service with a credit card and you can purchase minutes directly from your phone.
I have reviewed the other prepaid offers and in my opinion none are as affordable or easy to understand as Net10. So if you are a person that falls into the categories I stated above I would definitely check out Net10’s latest phone specials and just stay away from The Cell Phone Game.
Jim says
An even better deal is Virgin Mobile prepaid. You set up automatic recharge from a credit card of $15 every 90 days. This works out to $5 per month. Minutes cost $0.18. This is the best deal for someone that uses only a few minutes per month. Unused balance carries forward and does not expire.
Paul says
Virgin can be a good deal but now we are getting down to how many minutes you use. As long as you do not use 70 minutes or more you can do better with Virgin. However, Virgin is moving farther and farther away from the value shopper. Their goal is to pursue younger people who want all the features and their parents want all the control. I base all my calculations on 100 minutes per month. In my experience this is the number that low end users, who do more than leave the phone in the glove compartment, will gravitate toward over time.