A couple of weeks ago in the hope of getting my hands on an iPhone 3G on release day, which is another (long) story, I called my current phone company to get a PAC code to transfer my number. I’ve been thinking of changing phone companies for a while now mainly due to the fact that I’ve been on the exact same call plan for over 5 7 years and have never really been offered anything by the company.
I called up and asked for my PAC code and was asked why I was considering leaving, I said quite plainly that I have been on the same call plan for over 5 7 years and it is quite expensive for my usage and doesn’t offer me anything like free texts etc.
He then said “Have you ever contacted us to ask?”.
“No”, I said, “You’ve never offered me anything.”
“Well you need to contact us and we’d probably be able to do something for you” he replied.
“Don’t you think that’s a bit strange?”, I said, “That I as the customer have to ring you to see if you’ll give me a better deal. Do you not think that as a loyal customer you should be offering me better rates if you notice that I’m on something that is a little expensive for my usage.”
“Oh we do have a loyalty scheme” he said, “you just have to contact us to get it”.
At this point I knew I wasn’t going to get my point across so I said I was going for an iPhone and they didn’t do them, but is it just me or is this the wrong way to go about things? What do they want, me to call once a week with a:
“Hi. Yeah it’s me again.”
“You got any deals you can do for me this week?”
“No?”
“Okay, I’ll call next week.”
I’ve come to the conclusion that it must be either:
- The guy I was talking to was a moron
- He was towing the company line, but secretly agreed with me deep down inside
- I’m some kind of free-radical thinker who believes in an idyllic world
And I’m pretty sure I’m not a free-radical thinker.