Mobile Phone Companies, Don’t Expect That Loyalty Counts For Anything

Mobile phone companies must think we are stupid. We never hear from them until our contract runs out. However in the last month of the 24-month contract, a letter or phone call comes our way. All of a sudden they are our best friend. They want us to stay with them.

My wife’s contract ran out in January. We were very happy with our company as their rates are extremely good and their customer service is not bad either. So like Sherlock Holmes, we jumped onto their website to check out their best 24-month contract deals.

After finding the perfect deal we called them up. Only to be told that this deal was only for new customers not existing customers. In fact all the deals we had looked at were for new customers only, not existing customers! There was a special website for existing customers to check out their deals. Let me assure you, this so-called special website was only special for the phone company, as these deals for existing customers were terrible. The phones were cheaper and the monthly amounts more expensive.

From what we can gather, would you believe all phone companies are like this? They are much more interested in finding new customers than keeping their existing ones.

Didn’t my loyalty count for anything?

·         Paying my bills on time

·         Having two phones on the one bill

·         My 5 years plus of being a customer with them

Well apparently not! And we found this out once we tried to argue our case with the call centre. We even talked to a call centre team leader to be told there was nothing he could do. This answer did not please us.

We wrote a letter to the company putting our pleas in writing outlining our argument why we should be allowed to take up this deal. Plus we even wrote in very black and white terms, that if they did not accept this deal we would be forced to change providers.

While we really did want to stay with our current company, shopping around for a new deal was easy due to the internet. And as all these companies were like ours, and gave such great deals to new customers, it was like being a kid in a candy store. They were all trying to get new customers.

OK the pen is 100% mightier than the sword. Would you believe all of a sudden we were offered the same deal as a person who has not shown any loyalty? So we had to go the long way round. However, the savings are there to be had if you are prepared to put in the extra effort.

However, don’t just think this is happening with telephone companies but also insurance, gas, electricity, internet, and pay-TV. For some unknown reason, these companies have a better price for new customers than existing customers. But is this unknown reason that hard to work out? Somewhere along the line, these companies have worked out that customers just don’t care. They send out the renewal form and we sign it.

To save money, you can’t just sign the form. Ring the company as a fake new customer. Tell them you are unhappy with your current deal and what could they do for you. Then ring back as yourself. See if you can get the same deal. If you can’t, write an email, write a letter or ask to talk to a team leader. This small amount of time researching can save you money in the future. And just to show you what I mean, we expect to save around $12 a month from our letter to the mobile company. Average this out over 24 months and for a little bit of effort, we have saved $288. Not bad!