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I emailed the CEO of T-Mobile and he killed my contract

bizjournals.com

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Re: I emailed the CEO of T-Mobile and he killed my contract

#91

Post by abrahamsen »

benjiweber wrote: post #86
glesica wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the meaning was that most Americans resent that they are basically forced into a contract in order to get the plan and device they want. I would rather bring my own device, but the only carrier available to me (until recently) was Verizon, and they won't let me do that. So I (at one time) signed a contract, but I would have been happier to simply pay for the device of my choice and paid for service month-to-m…

Why can't you buy your own devices? I live in the UK and have always bought my own devices, it often works out at about half the price over the term of the contract.

UK (like most of the world) uses GSM. With GSM your identity is linked to your SIM card. Put your SIM card in another phone, and "you" are still "you" as far as the phone company can tell.

Verizon (and most of US) uses a competing "standard" called CDMA, where your identity is coupled to your phone. Which means you have to involve your phone company in order to switch phone.

Re: I emailed the CEO of T-Mobile and he killed my contract

#92

Post by Toucan »

SilasX wrote: post #73
Steko wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure for 100% of mortgages people would love to just make a down payment and get the deed and not have to make any other payments for 15+ years but there's nothing ironic about the need to fulfill contractual obligations that aren't awesome for you.

Yeah, but if you buy a house with cash upfront, you don't have to keep paying interest to a bank. In contrast, if you do the analogous thing with a cell phone plan -- buy the phone upfront -- you still have to pay the implicit "interest" in the higher monthly fee. There's no option to take a lower monthly fee in return for paying upfront. Some marketers noticed they can make people buy more if they stretch out the ph…

You absolutely can in the UK. I pay £15/mo for the same service my friend pays £34/mo with a phone. He's in a 24month contract instead of my 12 and will end up some £150 down over the course of the contract.

Re: I emailed the CEO of T-Mobile and he killed my contract

#93

Post by pyre »

abrahamsen wrote: post #91
benjiweber wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why can't you buy your own devices? I live in the UK and have always bought my own devices, it often works out at about half the price over the term of the contract.

UK (like most of the world) uses GSM. With GSM your identity is linked to your SIM card. Put your SIM card in another phone, and "you" are still "you" as far as the phone company can tell. Verizon (and most of US) uses a competing "standard" called CDMA, where your identity is coupled to your phone. Which means you have to involve your phone company in order to switch phone.

> Verizon (and most of US) uses a competing "standard" called CDMA

Verizon and Sprint use CDMA. AT&T and T-Mobile use GSM. The frequencies that T-Mobile uses are non-standard, IIRC.

  AT&T => 107.3M
  Verizon => 116.8M
  T-Mobile => 44M
  Sprint => 64.3M
More information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_wireless_... (Note: the numbers on that page are different from the numbers on the individual carrier pages in some cases)

Re: I emailed the CEO of T-Mobile and he killed my contract

#94

Post by VLM »

phaus wrote: post #55
gkoberger wrote: post #8

The title seemed negative to me (I thought he complained and the CEO said "we're done with you!"). But really, the T-Mobile CEO was helping -- the author wanted out of his contract (well, out of the $200 fee). (EDIT: The original title was "I emailed the CEO of T-Mobile and he killed my contract, no joke")

The title did seem negative, and I was surprised to find that someone actually had a positive experience with T-Mobile. I was a T-Mobile customer off and on for about 7 years total. For the last contract I had signed with them, I made sure that I would be able to get out of my contract if I A: moved due to a military PCS, or B: Moved due to getting out of the military. The T-Mobile rep at the store assured me that I…

This is the flip side of the puff piece story.

Read the last line of the bizjournal story "Michael handles our Web coverage, social media accounts and videos."

If after getting out of .mil you got a job handling web coverage, social media, and video, then having better PR reach than their own people, the CEO might care. Otherwise, let you rot.

Re: I emailed the CEO of T-Mobile and he killed my contract

#95

Post by edanm »

ruswick wrote: post #83
lancewiggs wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The CEO is modelling behaviour for everyone else at the company. He should not have to do this for every customer as by now the word should be spreading internally that if the CEO can do it, then so can you/

> if the CEO can do it, then so can you That's not how it works. I doubt that the customer service reps have the ability to arbitrarily dole out perks with no justification other than that they felt like it.

FYI, isn't that exactly the power that Amazon customer service reps have? I'm pretty sure they can decide to arbitrarily give someone refunds, send them new merchandise, etc. Or rather, they can do so but probably within limited rules, not arbitrarily.

I agree that it takes a CEO both showing what to do, and empowering the people below him to do it.

Re: I emailed the CEO of T-Mobile and he killed my contract

#96

Post by jeza »

harshreality wrote: post #31
rjzzleep wrote: post #9

It's funny how people immediately mock someone's sense of entitlement. You know what? Sometimes you indeed are entitled to something and the only reason you don't is because everyone else just accepts the sewer everyone is in. I once received an apology letter after helping my mom bringing her complaint to the governing board of deutsche Bank. Because god forbid she was right and that douchebag bank worker wasn't. In…

This reporter wasn't entitled to get out of his contract early. Either he was too lazy or stupid to know when his contract was ending (a dangerous thing for a journalist writing articles to inform the masses), or he knowingly pressured T-Mobile into letting him switch to a contract-free plan early. He thought he was special (he had the power to write a misleading, negative article about T-Mobile if they didn't cave,…

Everyone's entitled to get out of their contract if the other party agrees to terminate it. Regardless of whether they knew he was a reporter or not, I wonder if they figured they'd already made a buck from this customer (he only had six months left or $200 to pay out) and perhaps they just have more to gain by keeping him happy by releasing him from his contract. Therefore increasing the chances that the customer will stay with them in the long run and perhaps even tell his friends about it.

Re: I emailed the CEO of T-Mobile and he killed my contract

#97

Post by jamesmcbennett »

mcherm wrote: post #90
jamesmcbennett wrote: post #62

Desire Paths 101. See Tom Hulme talk. http://mcbennett.wordpress.com/2013/09/17/tom-hulme-john-mae... Taking inspiration from Urban Design where a path runs along the outside of a park expecting everyone to take the architected route. However people cut through the middle when they don't like the given route, following their desire path. Over time, the grass wastes away from the thousands of footsteps and bicycles th…

> the question remains whether he should pave it. Actually, that question has been answered. T-mobile has started offering no-contract plans, a complete change from the rest of the US industry. The only thing done here was to let a customer move to the new system sooner than they otherwise would.

great! Thx for update. (I don't live in the US, so don't know much about the industry there.)

Re: I emailed the CEO of T-Mobile and he killed my contract

#98

Post by fein »

InclinedPlane wrote: post #57
Steko wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure for 100% of mortgages people would love to just make a down payment and get the deed and not have to make any other payments for 15+ years but there's nothing ironic about the need to fulfill contractual obligations that aren't awesome for you.

This is true, but mobile contracts are much murkier than mortgages, and this is by design of the phone companies. Consider how much different things would be if people had month-to-month service contracts and they financed their phone upgrades separately (though the payments were rolled together). Imagine if people could just pay off their device debt, cancel their contract, and move to a new carrier. Or imagine if p…

I do this right now in the US.

Straight talk monthly plans (bought 3 months ahead, service has been great so far) + nexus 4 with an ATT sim.

$45/month for the unlimited plan, $200 for the phone.

Re: I emailed the CEO of T-Mobile and he killed my contract

#99

Post by sp332 »

abrahamsen wrote: post #91
benjiweber wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why can't you buy your own devices? I live in the UK and have always bought my own devices, it often works out at about half the price over the term of the contract.

UK (like most of the world) uses GSM. With GSM your identity is linked to your SIM card. Put your SIM card in another phone, and "you" are still "you" as far as the phone company can tell. Verizon (and most of US) uses a competing "standard" called CDMA, where your identity is coupled to your phone. Which means you have to involve your phone company in order to switch phone.

It's technically possible to "unlock" a CDMA phone, but in the USA, CDMA carriers refuse to unlock a phone on their network. And even if you did get an unlocked CDMA phone, the providers will refuse to activate any phones that were not originally activated on their network.

Re: I emailed the CEO of T-Mobile and he killed my contract

#100

Post by mpchlets »

sp332 wrote: post #99
abrahamsen wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

UK (like most of the world) uses GSM. With GSM your identity is linked to your SIM card. Put your SIM card in another phone, and "you" are still "you" as far as the phone company can tell. Verizon (and most of US) uses a competing "standard" called CDMA, where your identity is coupled to your phone. Which means you have to involve your phone company in order to switch phone.

It's technically possible to "unlock" a CDMA phone, but in the USA, CDMA carriers refuse to unlock a phone on their network. And even if you did get an unlocked CDMA phone, the providers will refuse to activate any phones that were not originally activated on their network.

I use Verizon and they are always more than happy to activate my CDMA capable phone for use on the Verizon network - which I have been using for a very long time and live contract free this way. I also use a very old completely Unlimited plan, so buying a phone from Verizon would cancel this plan and force me on a new contract.

Anyhow my point is I have no problems adding a personal device to my plan anytime - many times.

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