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How Can I Get A Phone

rtx

Mar 26, 2004, 2:36 AM
OK now that I have decided to stay with T-Mobile I want a new phone. I upgraded my service plan yet had only been a customer 2 months and didn't qualify for a free phone or a discount on one.

I dson't understand why ALL of the celluar companies won't sell their phones at a reasonable discount. I don't mind paying 150. for a new Nokia 6610 but I do mind paying the 230. list price they want.

How can I purchase a phone at a reasonable price without waiting for my 12 months (which just began again because of the upgrade) to be completed? There must be a way to buy a phone at a reasonable price, no... yes?
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simplyme

Mar 26, 2004, 12:29 PM
Pay attention to the prices you over at Expansys. You _are_ getting a discount on the phones, the $230 you quote, is probably still less than what it cost them. One cell company rep i talked to said it cost about $25 per month just to have someone with an active account. The cell companies idea behind selling phones at what they do is that they will make it up 'over the long run', given the shakey status of most of them...
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JDigital

Mar 26, 2004, 12:40 PM
First of all, your 12 months almost certainly DID NOT start over again because you switched plans. T-Mobile doesn't do that usually. For example if you switched from the Get More 600 to the Get More 1000 there would be no contract extension. Secondly, I'm going to tell you a secret... CELL PHONES ARE EXPENSIVE. You never get a better deal on a phone then when you are signing a contract, because the company is taking a loss on the phone to get you to sign up. That is why you should always buy the phone that you actually want when you activate, instead of playing the typical ignorant greedy U.S. consumer and taking the "free phone" or whatever is cheapest. I mean come on! This is something that you are going to use every single day for a...
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rtx

Mar 26, 2004, 3:39 PM
JD you are not correct about the upgrade on TMobile plans. It begins a new one year contract with the company. If you have fact, cust. care agent name and extension I would love to have that infromation so I can find the one agent who apparently isn't following policy :-). Please post it here.

I disagree with your and another posters assessment of the price of cell phones. While the market is very competitive and loss leaders are out there, the cel companies are making money with each phone sale at retail price. The retail price is set by the manufac. The cellualr companies are purchasing wholesale.

BTW: Why do you assume I'm American? Because I currently live in America?
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cloudedvision

Mar 26, 2004, 4:59 PM
uhh depending on the "TYPE" of rate plan you want to hav edetermines if you have to extend your contract or not. Any of our plans that have nights included are "PROMOTIONAL" and require the contract. (and i do work for t-mobile customer care). you can get the sam ple NON promotional without nights, and pay an additional 4.99 a month and get the same features.. as far a cheap phone, it would have been in your best intrest to get a better model when you started. Otherwise you have to wait the year.. or another option... E-BAY, they sell phones on ebay, just look for a >GSM
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JDigital

Mar 26, 2004, 9:04 PM
Actually I was partially wrong, and I have been misinformed. Here are the facts:
Technically, any time you switch to a promotional plan, even if you are already on the same type of promotional plan, it requires a contract extension. However, if you give up the promotional part of the plan, i.e. free nights, you can switch without extending the contract. Then you have the option of adding free nights as a feature for $4.99 a month. One thing to note: the Get More 600 plan WITH nights is no longer considered a promotional plan in some markets.

Now, the other part of this is that it is somewhat flexible. CC reps and their supervisors have some freedom to make their own judgement about whether or not a customer has to renew. For exampl...
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hanz

Mar 26, 2004, 9:29 PM
WRONG 👿 if your not a "BLUE" customer YOU MUST EXTEND YOUR CONTRACT if you want a Promo plan. What ever reps is doing this based off of the payment history is retarded. if you want any plan with nights included at no extra charge requires a contract extention. There is no flexabilty with the CC reps on this if i knew any of my reps that did this i would give them a MAjor C&C. If a cust threated to cancele b/c i would not give him a promo rate plan without a contract extention fine offer a cor and trans to saves but i would never offer that
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JDigital

Mar 27, 2004, 6:14 PM
Does that mean that YOU are a supervisor? The rep I talked actually put me on hold and went to check with hers before she came back and told me what I passed on... she also said it depended on the supervisor. Some want the reps to check with them every time and some just want them to make their own judgement, but she only said it was a possibility that you might get a new promo plan without a contract if you weren't a blue customer. I think the whole thing sounds pretty queer anyway. You should be able to go from one rate plan to another without extending your contract as long as you aren't taking advantage of any new promotions.
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hanz

Mar 29, 2004, 5:10 PM
Yes i am a supervisor. what does that have to do withanything. You can change a plan without a contract extention as long as you are not going to a promo plan ANY PLAN WITH FREE NIGHTS IS A PROMO PLAN AND YOU WILL HAVE TO EXTEND YOUR CONTRACT thats it nuff said
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JDigital

Mar 29, 2004, 7:45 PM
Man, somebody needs to chill... I was asking because I was curious. I'm just trying to get the correct info here because I care about doing my job properly and I don't like to give the wrong information to customers. By the way, I was told that the Get More 600 WITH free nights is no longer considered promotional in some markets... again this is coming from one of your reps so don't blame me if its not true, but you may want to double check.
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hanz

Mar 30, 2004, 12:22 AM
ok i did a double check and no market can have the 39.99 plan with free nights without a contract extention. MEANING if you want free nights you must extend your contract. unless you are a "blue" customer. there nuff' said
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dtownsound8

Mar 28, 2004, 8:24 PM
the reason they do that is because the company pays MORE for the phones than they sell them to new customers / renewing customers.

Simply put.. if you wanted to upgrade your phone to a new phone every month, and t-mobile gave you that discount every month, they'd be losing possible hundreds of dollars on you EVERY month. It's just not possible. If they did that, they'd have to charge A LOT more for their rate plans in order to prevent from losing money on each customer.. and NOONE wants that.
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