T-Mobile: "We are not raising the price... we are moving you to a newer plan."
T-Mobile switches users to pricier plans and tells them it’s not a price hike::T-Mobile: “We are not raising the price… we are moving you to a newer plan.”
T-mobile: hello sir we are calling about your plan and a way you can save money
Me: that isn’t true
T-mobile: umm we can save you money by changing your plan
Me: that statement is false. No company in the history of humanity has spent money to tell their customers how to do less business with them. They are paying you to call me and you expect me to believe that they are paying you money so they can get less money from me in the future? Makes no sense.
T-Mobile has lowered my prices while increasing my service in the past. The fact that they don’t dick me around is one of the reasons I’ve stayed. If they’re going to start this shit, then I’m going to leave.
When I worked for ATT, I saw a customer with a legacy unlimited data account. This was after they brought back unlimited data after years of overcharging people for data “overages”.
I absolutely could not convince this person to change to the new plan that was a third of the price.
My previous ISP once called me to tell me that i couldn’t reach the speed of my current plan from my house, and offered me to take a cheaper package without reducing my speed.
My current ISP sent me a mail at the beginning of this year informing me they were quadrupling my speed at no extra charge. And they did, I went from 50 up/down to 200.
That’s not entirely true. I recall a consulting client who had a customer program where redeemable points didn’t expire.
The thing was, this meant that inactive accounts with just a handful of points ended up costing a ton in accounting upkeep because they had to account for the possibility these years old accounts might suddenly redeem points.
So they rolled out a new program that was legit much better for the vast majority of active accounts to migrate people over.
Yes, it was still them doing something that was to save them money, but the new alternative was also better for the customer too. It was simply closing a loophole they’d not thought about when first designing it which didn’t benefit the customers, it simply led to procedural costs that skyrocketed.
So there are rarely cases where companies will spend money to do something in your interests. It’s just always going to also be in their own interests too.
There is a plausible economic incentive to do this:
Reputation.
This happens less in markets with few, big sellers and lots of customers locked into long-term contracts (like ISPs), but it does happen occasionally in high competition markets where customers can take their business elsewhere easily.
Restaurants are a good example - where I live, a host might hand out a round of after-meal shots on the house to encourage a big table of uncomplicated guests to come again.
I’ve actually had Verizon call me to offer a lower rate for faster home internet. I presume it extended my contract and somehow got the sales person a bonus but it still cost me $15 less per month.
Over the years, Verizon has increased my speed twice without additional charges. But not for the same price I was paying in the first story.
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English
T-mobile: hello sir we are calling about your plan and a way you can save money
Me: that isn’t true
T-mobile: umm we can save you money by changing your plan
Me: that statement is false. No company in the history of humanity has spent money to tell their customers how to do less business with them. They are paying you to call me and you expect me to believe that they are paying you money so they can get less money from me in the future? Makes no sense.
My ISP lowered their (already very competitive) prices for no good reason, so some do exist
T-Mobile has lowered my prices while increasing my service in the past. The fact that they don’t dick me around is one of the reasons I’ve stayed. If they’re going to start this shit, then I’m going to leave.
And go where
When I worked for ATT, I saw a customer with a legacy unlimited data account. This was after they brought back unlimited data after years of overcharging people for data “overages”.
I absolutely could not convince this person to change to the new plan that was a third of the price.
My previous ISP once called me to tell me that i couldn’t reach the speed of my current plan from my house, and offered me to take a cheaper package without reducing my speed.
My current ISP sent me a mail at the beginning of this year informing me they were quadrupling my speed at no extra charge. And they did, I went from 50 up/down to 200.
What ISP do you have? Is it a local ISP?
That’s not entirely true. I recall a consulting client who had a customer program where redeemable points didn’t expire.
The thing was, this meant that inactive accounts with just a handful of points ended up costing a ton in accounting upkeep because they had to account for the possibility these years old accounts might suddenly redeem points.
So they rolled out a new program that was legit much better for the vast majority of active accounts to migrate people over.
Yes, it was still them doing something that was to save them money, but the new alternative was also better for the customer too. It was simply closing a loophole they’d not thought about when first designing it which didn’t benefit the customers, it simply led to procedural costs that skyrocketed.
So there are rarely cases where companies will spend money to do something in your interests. It’s just always going to also be in their own interests too.
Yes, the good old “the more you spend, the more you save!”
AKA you spend more but you get some much more value that actually you’re saving (no you’re not).
There is a plausible economic incentive to do this:
Reputation.
This happens less in markets with few, big sellers and lots of customers locked into long-term contracts (like ISPs), but it does happen occasionally in high competition markets where customers can take their business elsewhere easily.
Restaurants are a good example - where I live, a host might hand out a round of after-meal shots on the house to encourage a big table of uncomplicated guests to come again.
I’ve actually had Verizon call me to offer a lower rate for faster home internet. I presume it extended my contract and somehow got the sales person a bonus but it still cost me $15 less per month.
Over the years, Verizon has increased my speed twice without additional charges. But not for the same price I was paying in the first story.