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Re: They made the rules.... said by tc1uscg:I disagree. Are you saying that you would not have a cell phone if you had to pay 200 bucks for one? You wouldn't be under a contract. You could go to anyone else you wanted at any time but you would have to buy a new phone. See, I think thats the problem. People like you think the phones should be free, the service should be dirt cheap or free and you should still have 110% customer service. We made the industry the way it is, not the companies. We drove them to this "500 dollar phone for 100 bucks, if you sign a 2 year stay with us contract".. People are so caught up in this FREE/Get all I can get for nothing mindset. No, we made the bed. We allowed it and now people are fed up, cell phone providers are killing themselves trying to fix it and people still bitch. I'll be looking for your treo on ebay...  So many assumptions.
I remember the days of the mobile phone with operators. Those phones weren't cheap and neither was the service.
Next came the cellular system. My first phone was a car model with a massive battery pack to make it portable. I paid $14.99/month to Bell Atlantic Mobile for 200 off-peak minutes. Peak minutes were $0.65/min.
Then Sprint Spectrum came in and made another network and everyone followed suit. Phones were still around $100-$200. Plans were getting cheaper and more people signed up.
Now, we have free phones and plans that have better pricing than some home phone plans.
Have you priced a phone without a contract? It is anywhere from $300 to $350 more. Do you seriously think the cell phone culture would be where it is right now had it not been for these discounted phones? Do you really think the cell phone companies make money off of the phones? Service is where the money is and that's where the cell phone companies focus their energy.
I have 2 T-Mobile Sidekicks. If I had to pay $600 for the phones, I would not be subscribing to the unlimited email, text messaging and a big bucket of minutes. Sure, I have a 1 year contract but I intend to keep the phone for that long.
Had the cell phone company not done the deals for handsets to get people signed up, we wouldn't be talking about this now. They wanted the customers, now they have to deal with it. Customer service is part of that equation. Don't sell something you have no intention of providing. | |
 tc1uscg
join:2005-03-09
Saint Clair Shores, MI | That's why the likes of Sprint, VZW and ATTM should STOP selling phones and let the manufactures sell the phones. They could "sell" the phones for them but at a price FIXED by the manufacture and stop subsidizing. Look at game systems. The PS3, 360 and Wii are pretty much the same price no matter where you go but you can get them from anyone who has shelf space. Sprint can sell you a Centro for whatever Palm says, you just pay Sprint for use of it's network. That way people like you and I don't have to worry about waiting for our 2 years to end before we can get an update. If having the latest and greatest is THAT important, we can shell out bucks and buy what we want, when we want. IF we don't like our provider, we can go somewhere else. Problem for us, the majority of us don't want to do go down that path. We can still buy insurance in case we loose our phone or break it outside the 1 year warranty but people seem to think cell companies should service the phones, and should kiss our ass everytime we walk in with a problem with the phone.  | | |
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| said by tc1uscg:That's why the likes of Sprint, VZW and ATTM should STOP selling phones and let the manufactures sell the phones. They could "sell" the phones for them but at a price FIXED by the manufacture and stop subsidizing. Look at game systems. The PS3, 360 and Wii are pretty much the same price no matter where you go but you can get them from anyone who has shelf space. Sprint can sell you a Centro for whatever Palm says, you just pay Sprint for use of it's network. That way people like you and I don't have to worry about waiting for our 2 years to end before we can get an update. If having the latest and greatest is THAT important, we can shell out bucks and buy what we want, when we want. IF we don't like our provider, we can go somewhere else. Problem for us, the majority of us don't want to do go down that path. We can still buy insurance in case we loose our phone or break it outside the 1 year warranty but people seem to think cell companies should service the phones, and should kiss our ass everytime we walk in with a problem with the phone. Fine, let the manufacturers sell you the phones. Motorola, Nokia, Qualcomm, and the rest of them can sell you either a CDMA or GSM phone depending on who you want service with. Let them even handle the warranty.
BUT, since the cell phone companies no longer subsidize the phone purchase with the monthly plans, where is the discount? Since a 2 year contract gives you a $300 discount on the phone, I want a $12.50/month savings on each plan I have.
Phones don't make the cell phone companies money. They break even just to get you to sign up for those 2 years.
You also forgot that each phone that works on each service needs programming and software to work. T-Mobile Sidekicks require connection to Danger to make the email and web browser work. Blackberries need special connections too.
You do realize also that GSM phones will not work on a CDMA system and the converse is also true.
It's amazing how cell phone companies treat people who have a contract and how they turn real nice right before it ends. | |
tc1uscg
join:2005-03-09
Saint Clair Shores, MI | They already handle the warranty issues. I've had a problem with a 2 month old Razar.. no insurance so the only thing my provider did was give me the phone number to call moto. 3 times to moto and they finally fixed it. Isolated case. Don't think so. I know of some Sprint people who have had to deal with this too. They use to handle in-warranty problems in house but realized they could make more money by "charging" you for that process. Phone more then 30 days old, you can't cancel so the user is responsible for sending it in if you don't have the insurance. The least they could do is take the customers phone and ship/track it for them but what do you expect for a free phone and a 30.00 plan? And yes.. I know that one platform isn't compatible with another platform. That's my point. People keep bitching about Sprint and it's fee's so they are FREE to go to someone else, buy another phone and shut up. Everyone charges fees, cable, wireline phone service and I just read where even VoIP users will be paying a 9-1-1 fee soon. There are much dynamics involved with wireless service. Roaming agreements, data access, text messages, SMS text messages, portals, total service at 360degrees anywhere on earth. Paying 30 cents more a month isn't worth getting ones panties in a bunch.  | |
| said by tc1uscg:They already handle the warranty issues. I've had a problem with a 2 month old Razar.. no insurance so the only thing my provider did was give me the phone number to call moto. 3 times to moto and they finally fixed it. Isolated case. Don't think so. I know of some Sprint people who have had to deal with this too. They use to handle in-warranty problems in house but realized they could make more money by "charging" you for that process. Phone more then 30 days old, you can't cancel so the user is responsible for sending it in if you don't have the insurance. The least they could do is take the customers phone and ship/track it for them but what do you expect for a free phone and a 30.00 plan? And yes.. I know that one platform isn't compatible with another platform. That's my point. People keep bitching about Sprint and it's fee's so they are FREE to go to someone else, buy another phone and shut up. Everyone charges fees, cable, wireline phone service and I just read where even VoIP users will be paying a 9-1-1 fee soon. There are much dynamics involved with wireless service. Roaming agreements, data access, text messages, SMS text messages, portals, total service at 360degrees anywhere on earth. Paying 30 cents more a month isn't worth getting ones panties in a bunch. They handle warranties but only if they made a mistake. You drop it, your fault and you pay unless you paid for insurance. The first razrs were bad and moto took a bath on them. Right now, the cell phone companies act as a go between to keep the subscriber.
That phone is not free. You pay for it with your monthly plan. Text messages cost the carriers next to nothing yet they charge 10 to 15 cents each. Minutes between their own subscribers are next to nothing but they get charged the same amount. You pay for that phone after 2 years of high access prices.
The cell phone companies know full well they can't people to pay for the expensive phones so they give them away and make it back when they sell the service. | |
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