Tutor
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3 Messages
Customer retention
After over ten years I will be leaving AT&T because they do not care about current customers. According to the latest business news AT&T has the highest defection rate of the top 4 service. T-mobile has been picking off a lot of people. Now it is not real hard to keep me here, give me a sizable refund on a phone and I will stay, $200/300 per phone would work.
when I called AT&T a month ago the sale rep said there are very inexpensive phones to buy. I explained that we had iPhone 5s's and why would I go backwards to a less useful phone. He could not answer and said that was all they could do. I have know interest in direct tv and could give 2 hoots about it. Really believe someone miscalculated that deal and you will lose money on it for awhile.
I
Now i I know nobody who makes decisions will read this, but maybe you can pass this along or agree. I like AT&T and would really like to stay but I will leave their service to save money. I have stopped the newspaper because I would have to quit and resign after a month to get their special price. So, we dropped them and never went back. I have switched internet and phone services several time because they would not give me a break to stay with them. Notice there was no TV, that's right I cut that cable along time ago. Now I use an antenna and roku and pay half of what others pay.
So AT&T what you going to do retain people or lose them after contract run out. Then they come back every 2/4 years. Great business model! Really after 10 years you should want to keep people. That is probably longer than half the people that work for your company.
David[edited for privacy-please do not post personal or unique information such as but not limited to full names, employee ID numbers, email addresses, phone numbers, account numbers, etc.]
you know how to reach me
sandblaster
ACE - Expert
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64.7K Messages
7 years ago
You won't be happy with your new carrier if the service is no good. I think ATT is kind of banking on many of those switching coming back when they find the T-Mobile network doesn't work for them. Whether or not that strategy works, we'll just have to wait and see.
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formerlyknownas
ACE - Sage
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117.2K Messages
7 years ago
Toodles.
Service prices are all pretty close. Coverage is not. Phone prices are the same.
Those that want a price break on phones make their own. I do not buy carrier phones. I bought brand new Moto pure edition this year $200 and $250. Unlocked phones are the way to go.
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Gary L
ACE - Expert
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16.5K Messages
7 years ago
@Commonman Are you still on an old minute plan? You said "contract".
Swtiching to a new Mobile Share plan could easily save you $10 a line which is $240 over 2 years and you're still have the savings after two years. It could even be more depending on the plan and number of lines...
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wvmstr
Scholar
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198 Messages
7 years ago
There is not really a good reason left to buy a phone from AT&T.
I look at AT&T as a dumb data pipe.
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Commonman
Tutor
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3 Messages
7 years ago
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formerlyknownas
ACE - Sage
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117.2K Messages
7 years ago
@Commonman
Im pretty sure @wvmstr and I have posted about this. I bought phones when I switched to ATT 3 years ago. That is the last time. I will never buy phones from them again. I have purchased mint, used ATT phones off eBay (FYI - huge savings) or non ATT phones.
My service bill is great, very happy with the price and services.
Call it a protest, not just against ATT, but the manufacturers. The price is too high. The bloat is excessive. Unlocking a phone still doesn't free it, because it will not update on another carrier (except iPhones). I could go on.....
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wvmstr
Scholar
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198 Messages
7 years ago
@lizdance
I was thinking of another benefit of my dumb-datapipe approach to AT&T and it has to do with the enormous amount of time wasted by people dealing with customer service.
I would never buy an alarm system
I would never get a fake free tablet
I would never get my bills consolidated
I would never use any of the promotions
I don't make any changes
Since VOLTE does not work (yet) that leaves the only things I am interested in as:
how much data?
the speed?
how much money?
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Gary L
ACE - Expert
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16.5K Messages
7 years ago
COVERAGE is
just asmore important than the above list, if you don't have coverage where you need it, the rest doesn't matter.0
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formerlyknownas
ACE - Sage
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117.2K Messages
7 years ago
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little birdy
Scholar
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151 Messages
7 years ago
The bloated phone prices at ATnT to catch people who want a nice expensive phone without having to pay for it all up front are a huge percentage of their profit margin. To people who see a value in that arrangement they walk out of a store with a new phone. Entering into that agreement is not mandatory, and I did that with my first smartphone when I didn't know ANYTHING about smartphones and was in a desperate hurry to replace a dead dumbphone. $700 later I learned I REALLY don't like android phones and smartphones do not really have to cost that much to be fine nice working phones.
I also learned that the other two phone companies in my region will lie to you and steal your money. So will ATnT? Well they do have some unscrupulous employees. And some bad policies on returning phones, but they have good coverage, and for me USUALLY good customer service. I get what I pay for and I pay for what I get. As long as I can move my sim card to the next phone of my choice from ebay, or Amazon, or, yes, BlackBerrry, I am happy with my carrier at least as long as I live where I do but I wish they had that data-free music streaming offer that T-Mobile has, I can't have T-Mobile here.
However to expect a phone company (or any business) to pay their customers back for their products already sold sounds strange to me. I am still amazed at what I paid for my first phone, but it's on me, not them, that I made that decision without first doing my homework. I was amazed and in awe of that phone for awhile but the bloatware loading data-munching operating system was unacceptable to me, and I now have amazing phones with an operating system that I like and (kind of) understand. and could have bought four for the price of one of my first phone.
How much of the problem with ATnT is their fault as a company and how much if it is just dishonest people trying to pocket some extra money any way they can? Not just people who work at ATnT.
Good luck finding a Better Deal Out There...
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