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Come on, really? Darn...
- Thread starter Wantin
- Start date
Verizon really doesn't negotiate on rate plans. They have a few promos here and there but the prices still won't come close to what Sprint is offering you. They are more willing to negotiate pricing on equipment so you may want to work it from that angle. Let us know how things go. Good Luck! 
butthead007
Well-Known Member
I sincerely hope you had a typo moment when you wrote EVO 3D because you are going to be greatly disappointed when you don't have that 3D experience.
I have two questions:
1.) Why is it everyone feels the need to announce carrier shopping decisions to the world? last time I checked in my household, there is one person that counts and her name is not the internet/forum board/consumer I feel your pain website because I am an entitled moron that I have to consult with before I make decisions. If you have consulted with her already, then I would like to believe you have made your decision so I am not entirely sure why you are seeking validation.
2.) Why exactly do you believe you deserve something cheaper? What you are basically saying is "I want the great network experience but I do not wish to pay for it." Where exactly do you think the revenue comes from to build out the network? You clearly have done zero research and you just want everything for nothing. I can say that with 100% confidence knowing Sprint outsourced much of their network operations and sold most towers recently. Google it.
What you are asking for is akin to walking into a Kia dealership and demanding they stock and sell BMWs and you want them at kia prices. If Verizon dropped it all to Cricket prices, where exactly do you think the revenue would come from to build out infrastructure? Do you go to the gas station you've been going to and demand they give you a special rate or you're going somewhere else?
Go to Sprint. Keep your cell service decisions within your family budget and stop being a drama queen by trying to have a pity party because you think you're paying too much. Just do it.
This need for Internet exhibitionism is disturbing. I only hope he doesnt don a male thong to ask his neighbors whether or not he should cut the grass going forward and down or side to side. I pray his neighbors do not have EVO 3Ds because that is something you definitely don't want to see.
I have two questions:
1.) Why is it everyone feels the need to announce carrier shopping decisions to the world? last time I checked in my household, there is one person that counts and her name is not the internet/forum board/consumer I feel your pain website because I am an entitled moron that I have to consult with before I make decisions. If you have consulted with her already, then I would like to believe you have made your decision so I am not entirely sure why you are seeking validation.
2.) Why exactly do you believe you deserve something cheaper? What you are basically saying is "I want the great network experience but I do not wish to pay for it." Where exactly do you think the revenue comes from to build out the network? You clearly have done zero research and you just want everything for nothing. I can say that with 100% confidence knowing Sprint outsourced much of their network operations and sold most towers recently. Google it.
What you are asking for is akin to walking into a Kia dealership and demanding they stock and sell BMWs and you want them at kia prices. If Verizon dropped it all to Cricket prices, where exactly do you think the revenue would come from to build out infrastructure? Do you go to the gas station you've been going to and demand they give you a special rate or you're going somewhere else?
Go to Sprint. Keep your cell service decisions within your family budget and stop being a drama queen by trying to have a pity party because you think you're paying too much. Just do it.
This need for Internet exhibitionism is disturbing. I only hope he doesnt don a male thong to ask his neighbors whether or not he should cut the grass going forward and down or side to side. I pray his neighbors do not have EVO 3Ds because that is something you definitely don't want to see.
Thanks for your input guys.
Hey butthead007, thanks for your response. I appreciate your confidence, so the following isn't meant to sound rude.
I am not basically saying "I want the great network experience but I do not wish to pay for it." If I did, I'd basically say, "I want the great network experience but I do not wish to pay for it".
It's the research I've done here that led me ask, that's why I ask. And what I've found leads me to believe that Verizon is both a) able to work something (not widely advertised promotions, different plan combo's etc) and b) potentially willing to do so. Both I think I've seen here in this forum.
Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a thong to put on and prance around for the neighbors before my busy day of trying to haggle the world.
(That was said in fun.)
Hey butthead007, thanks for your response. I appreciate your confidence, so the following isn't meant to sound rude.
I am not basically saying "I want the great network experience but I do not wish to pay for it." If I did, I'd basically say, "I want the great network experience but I do not wish to pay for it".
It's the research I've done here that led me ask, that's why I ask. And what I've found leads me to believe that Verizon is both a) able to work something (not widely advertised promotions, different plan combo's etc) and b) potentially willing to do so. Both I think I've seen here in this forum.
Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a thong to put on and prance around for the neighbors before my busy day of trying to haggle the world.
(That was said in fun.)
OcalaFlGuy
Android Expert
Wantin, IMO, not only have you gotten bad info here, you had to suffer through some amount (in one case for sure) of surly snarkiness to obtain said bad 411. Hopefully, I can improve on that here.
IMO you are 100% in the good wanting VZN to "work with you" on retaining your business and I think I can fully substantiate that.
Consumer advocate Clark Howard has said on many occasions that the carriers themselves have said that it cost them approx. $400 in marketing and advertising to sign on every single new customer. THAT $400 is *precisely* what places you the wireless customer at probably your only one situation where YOU will ever have a possible superior bargaining position with a carrier.
If it were not a completely accepted practice, than pray tell why would VZN have OFFICIAL separate departments/buildings whose sole job is to work with customers who are attempting to or thinking about jumping ship?
Wantin, VZN's name for this group is the Loyalty and Retention center. (In the South East U.S. the Loyalty and Retention center is in Ackworth, Ga. <suburb of Atlanta>)
Those are you first magic code words when you call VZN to dicker. You want to be transferred to a "Retention Representative" at the "Loyalty and Retention center". Now, apparently some of the L&R people also take the regular 611 calls as I dialed 611 and was once told that clerk was in the same building in Ackworth.
Here is a recent thread where I detailed my most recent wheelings and dealings with Big Red. I'll recap a couple highlights here.
http://androidforums.com/verizon/303397-wheelin-dealin-data-plan.html
-IMO, you need to get any deal either in writing on or tape or both. If push comes to shove and VZN wants to back out later, they will do so if YOU can't prove what you and they decided on in a prior call. It is against their policy to send you a live substantiating email from the clerk as you are speaking to them but in my case they DID still send me that email. (Which was Completely The Trick when VZN attempted to weasel out of the deal we'd priorly agreed on.) VZN tells YOU they may be taping the call, YOU tell THEM the same thing and DO IT. I think most decent MP3 players have a voice record function and the one on my Sansa Fuze worked great to tape the call while on SPKR. The phonecall is even then in an emailable file form.
The deal I negotiated with VZN for my 2 year re-up was a $10 a month reduction in the unlimited data plan for my full 2 years and unlimited text for the same 2 years. They also tossed in one month free of my basic ($39.99) phone plan. Now, when it came down to actually making what they agreed to happen, they ran into difficulties (according to them). They WEREN'T actually able to load all they proposed into their system for me. But they did the next best thing. The one thing they cold load in was the unlimited text but just for one year (meaning they still "owed me" for 1 year). So, they PAID me CASH MONEY for All The Rest They Had Agreed To. Yes, a $399.99 CREDIT to my account. [My, my, it surely must be just coincidental that is EXACTLY the amount Clark Howard said they usually spend to get a new customer (or retain one?)]
So, in closing Wantin, not only are you right on course with your thinking (IMO) but VZN DOES HAVE an official group of employees tasked with talking to you about EXACTLY what you want here.
I would think it would seem obvious now that anyone who would scoff at you for thinking you could wheel and deal with VZN (or even that you should *consider* doing so), is simply just not informed of how VZN does business or assuming that isn't the case is just too lackadaisical to bother to open their mouths and ask for something the company has officially acknowledged being willing to give to them.
Good Luck and let us know what transpires (or not).
Bruce in Ocala, FL
IMO you are 100% in the good wanting VZN to "work with you" on retaining your business and I think I can fully substantiate that.
Consumer advocate Clark Howard has said on many occasions that the carriers themselves have said that it cost them approx. $400 in marketing and advertising to sign on every single new customer. THAT $400 is *precisely* what places you the wireless customer at probably your only one situation where YOU will ever have a possible superior bargaining position with a carrier.
If it were not a completely accepted practice, than pray tell why would VZN have OFFICIAL separate departments/buildings whose sole job is to work with customers who are attempting to or thinking about jumping ship?
Wantin, VZN's name for this group is the Loyalty and Retention center. (In the South East U.S. the Loyalty and Retention center is in Ackworth, Ga. <suburb of Atlanta>)
Those are you first magic code words when you call VZN to dicker. You want to be transferred to a "Retention Representative" at the "Loyalty and Retention center". Now, apparently some of the L&R people also take the regular 611 calls as I dialed 611 and was once told that clerk was in the same building in Ackworth.
Here is a recent thread where I detailed my most recent wheelings and dealings with Big Red. I'll recap a couple highlights here.
http://androidforums.com/verizon/303397-wheelin-dealin-data-plan.html
-IMO, you need to get any deal either in writing on or tape or both. If push comes to shove and VZN wants to back out later, they will do so if YOU can't prove what you and they decided on in a prior call. It is against their policy to send you a live substantiating email from the clerk as you are speaking to them but in my case they DID still send me that email. (Which was Completely The Trick when VZN attempted to weasel out of the deal we'd priorly agreed on.) VZN tells YOU they may be taping the call, YOU tell THEM the same thing and DO IT. I think most decent MP3 players have a voice record function and the one on my Sansa Fuze worked great to tape the call while on SPKR. The phonecall is even then in an emailable file form.
The deal I negotiated with VZN for my 2 year re-up was a $10 a month reduction in the unlimited data plan for my full 2 years and unlimited text for the same 2 years. They also tossed in one month free of my basic ($39.99) phone plan. Now, when it came down to actually making what they agreed to happen, they ran into difficulties (according to them). They WEREN'T actually able to load all they proposed into their system for me. But they did the next best thing. The one thing they cold load in was the unlimited text but just for one year (meaning they still "owed me" for 1 year). So, they PAID me CASH MONEY for All The Rest They Had Agreed To. Yes, a $399.99 CREDIT to my account. [My, my, it surely must be just coincidental that is EXACTLY the amount Clark Howard said they usually spend to get a new customer (or retain one?)]
So, in closing Wantin, not only are you right on course with your thinking (IMO) but VZN DOES HAVE an official group of employees tasked with talking to you about EXACTLY what you want here.
I would think it would seem obvious now that anyone who would scoff at you for thinking you could wheel and deal with VZN (or even that you should *consider* doing so), is simply just not informed of how VZN does business or assuming that isn't the case is just too lackadaisical to bother to open their mouths and ask for something the company has officially acknowledged being willing to give to them.
Good Luck and let us know what transpires (or not).
Bruce in Ocala, FL
esn
Android Enthusiast
I would stick with Verizon by far they have the best coverage and service. The building I work in has metro pcs , sprint, att , and tmobile towers on the roof. Every time a tech comes in to service the towers I always ask them what cell phone they use and 99% of them use Verizon!
3devious
Android Expert
I have to agree with the gentleman in FL. VZW charges all that money because they know a lot of people will pay it. There is nothing wrong with respecting your money and trying to save some of it. It has less to do with giving a company more money because the network is worth it and more about the free market. If VZW couldn't afford to reduce your rates, they wouldn't. If people were unable to get significant value from any other carrier, they'd have to suck it up and pay.
medwa
Well-Known Member
I only see one drama queen in this thread, and its not the OP.
Because internet forums, often times are places people can come to for advice.
Big difference between advice, and validation.
That's how the free market works: Consumers pit product providers against each other in the only marker they can: Dollars.
I do it daily in my work: I get more than one provider at the table, so they can undercut each other price/services/care packages.
And so what is Sprint outsourced their towers? They still have SLA's in place with each vendor. Hell, as a business owner, I outsource lots of work.
No, it's not. It's shopping time. And, in the free market, the time to get the lowest price for a product or service is when you are in the market to do so. In free markets, it's a rule that consumers will go to the lowest price for the best value. Nothing inherently wrong with that.
I can see at least one drama queen, and it aint the OP who is here looking for advice on how to get the best service he/she can for the lowest price.
I'd call the OP a smart consumer.
Hey guys I appreciate all the thoughts and responses.
Not sure what the outcome will be, but if you don't ask, you don't get. So I plan on checking out my options in a month or so.
I love this place by the way. It makes me realize there are far smarter brains than mine. (Which is not hard to do.)
On the other hand, I now want a gazillion phones I didn't care about before. Now only if I had that many friends to talk to on them...I'd be golden.
Thanks again for your advice...
Not sure what the outcome will be, but if you don't ask, you don't get. So I plan on checking out my options in a month or so.
I love this place by the way. It makes me realize there are far smarter brains than mine. (Which is not hard to do.)
On the other hand, I now want a gazillion phones I didn't care about before. Now only if I had that many friends to talk to on them...I'd be golden.
Thanks again for your advice...