Monthly payment plans for new devices

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@TPHurleybird wrote:

You should add a feature in the mobile app and online to allow the monthly installment for a new device to be increased by the acct holder above the minimum payment or preset amount determined at the time of purchase.

 

This is a win win for both parties. A no brainer.

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I don't think it's exactly a win for AT&T as keeping the normal monthly payments is a way to keep customers around for the length of the installment plan. People aren't as likely to pay a huge lump sum if their decide to leave, but they might increase their monthly payment by $20 a month so they are done with the installment plan after 18 months instead of 24

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@TPHurleybird wrote:
-##Thats only if the only way you can keep your customers is to do it using
handcuffs to keep them. If you focus on providing great customer service,
then your customers will become loyal and your best form of marketing.

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AT&T still gains nothing by making it easier for customers to leave.

@TPHurleybird

This is a customer populated forum, and we are customers like you, not employees.

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@TPHurleybird wrote:
-##Thanks for the clarification. That makes the response to my initial
sugestion that much more strange. I have owned and ran several
corporations. In every case I always put the emphasis on customer
satisfaction rather than profits and trapping the customer to keep them.
That just ensures that your going to have to constantly replace those
customers that leave once they can.

Just my perspective.

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No one's being trapped; customers can leave anytime, they just have to pay the rest of the installments. 

I'll say it again: there is no upside for AT&T if they allowed people to change their monthly payment amount so they could pay off their device in fewer installments. 

@TPHurleybird

ATT is not interested in fiddling with “refinancing” a retail sales agreement.  If they did, I’m sure they would attach a fee for the annoyance of doing so.   And if they allowed extra payments, I can guarantee some deadbeat would want to pay LESS or SKIP a payment.  

Anyone can make a down payment with original purchase.  

None of the carriers allow extra payment, only pay off in full or upgrade with trade in. 

It’s bad enough carriers allow any financing at all. 

@TPHurleybird you know they had more expensive plans with the contracts right? They just built in the cost of the phones into the plans and unless you upgraded exactly every 2 years you wasted money. Contracts were worse in almost every way

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@TPHurleybird wrote:
-##They should give the phones to their customers just like they did
before. The 2year contract allowed for them to recoup their costs and then
some. Believe me Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint all make obscene
profits every year with all the fees and taxes, over priced plans, data
limits or packages, and so on and so on.
Carriers either had to jack up line fees to account for $1,000 phones, or sell phones separate from service to keep plans affordable for those who did not want $1000 phones and $60 line fees.  It was a no brainer.  
You sound like you think their not making enough to do what ever it takes
to provide a good user experience and still make plenty for their share
holders.
I ‘think’ a lot of things I want them to do different, but I’m not in charge.  No one said ATT doesnt have CS problems.  They have HUGE CS problems.  But paying off phones at a variable rate is way down on the list.
It has worked for Nordstrom's since they opened their doors. Because they
focus on customer satisfaction, they can charge more than any other
department store and customers are more than happy to pay the higher
prices. Simply because they know that no matter what, they will always be
given the benefit of doubt with any situation that's unsatisfactory.
That has nothing to do with how you pay off your phone.  Your talking about customer service, not payment and policies.      Strictly based on Nordstrom  p&l, it is showing lower net profits every year.  Just like Macy’s and other retail giants, it’s only a matter of time before they have to address the problem.

https://amigobulls.com/stocks/JWN/income-statement/annual
And cost of goods and other overhead keeps going up.  Since they are 100% a retailer of goods, and cellular is selling primarily a service, it’s not an apple’s to apple’s comparison. 
You focus on profits, then you will always be reinventing ways to get more
out of your customers to compensate for attrition.
Despite AT&T lack of CS, they still have the lowest churn in the industry.  
When the focus is customer satisfaction, your company will always
experience unbelievable profits that continue to rise and not have to deal
with the chasing of how to get them back to where they once were.
Once were?  Or still are?   Compared to other carriers?   The industry itself is still growing.  57% of households are now cellular only (no landline) and it has not yet reached stasis.   T-mobile is taking a lions share of new connections with the same business model.  In fact T-mobile created the business model, the rest are just copying it.  T-mobile tries things, some fail.  Some work well.  Att copies what works.

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