What the sneaky cell phone companies mean when it says “we never stop working for you”

The cellular phone industry must be getting more competitive because for the past month, there has been at least two (maybe even three) attempts by my cellular service provider to get me to renew my contact. And the attempts are getting more and more aggressive.

 

I am a bit of an anomaly among cell phone users because I have been with the same provider for more than eight years. My current two year contract runs out in July and my plans are to wait for it to run out and then try to negotiate a discount in return for renewing for two more years. Another reason I am not renewing just yet is because I may end up working for a company with a better employee discount than the one I am currently getting and in such an event I may have to switch providers to get the discount. 

 

About three weeks ago I got a call from someone at my provider trying to get me to sign up for a new phone with the “New Every Two” promotion, which grants a $100 subsidy toward the purchase of a new phone every two years. She tried to get me to upgrade by telling me I should have a phone with the latest technology. What she delicately didn’t tell me, but I knew from my previous dealings with the company, was that partaking in the promotion would renew my contract for two more years.  I explained to her that I was happy with my current phone and was in no hurry to upgrade.

 

Then last week I got a flier in the mail from the provider giving me a list of phones I can upgrade to. I notice that it now offers 100 bonus minutes per month for customers who renew on a three year contract, a three year contract is something I have never heard of before. The latest attempt to get me to renew was earlier today when I got a call from “Gillian” asking me how happy I am with my phone and with my current plan.  I inquired as to whether the company was trying to lock in as many customers on a contract before the iPhone comes out. She countered that the company was trying to protect its customers from price increases, which was a ridiculous answer because I don’t see cellular service prices going up anytime soon. I told her I was happy with my service and didn’t want to make any changes right now. It was then that she went over the line. I had already told her I wasn’t going to renew and she said “we can renew you now and you will still have six months to get a new phone, is that okay?” I paused as the audacity of what she did began to sink in. I said “do not renew” and hung up.

 

It is clear that the cell phone companies are worried about its customer base defecting to Cingular when the iPhone comes out in June and are offering its employees big commission money to cold call its customers and badger them into locking in. The next time I get a call from Verizon Wireless, I am going to pretend that I can’t hear them. “Can you hear me now? How about now?”