I’m ready to upgrade to a smartphone, and I like the BlackBerry Bold 9700. Thing is, AT&T wants $200 for it.
If I’m willing to go to another carrier, I can get it for the “new customer” price, which is closer to $50.
How can I best use this information to get AT&T to give me a better deal? My options seem to be:
[ul][li]Go into an AT&T store and hope that I’m there when someone who can actually do something to help me is there.[/li]
[li]Call AT&T customer service and pretend to cancel my account and hope they transfer me to customer retention, then let them “talk me into staying” by giving me a better deal.[/li]
[li]Forget AT&T and change carriers.[/ul][/li]
What other options are there?
Offer to re-up your contract for an additional two yeats or whatever. That’s about it - if there’s substantial time left on your currnt contract, they still make money if you jump to another carrier, thanks to the termination fees.
are you out of contract with AT&T? (Is $200 the already discounted price?)
From my own experience with AT&T, they don’t negotiate on set equipment pricing. That is set by their corporate offices. Sometimes you can get different deals online than in the store though, like refurbs, although sometimes those are only offered to brand-new customers, and there are usually more phones to choose from online. If you are close to being out of contract (within 6 months or so) you might be able to get the out-of-contract pricing but you would have to go into the store for that I think. Online reps can give you retention offers on your plan pricing but I don’t think they do on equipment.
Things you can possibly negotiate on are the upgrade fees. I went into an AT&T store last month to switch from a regular phone to the iphone, and asked a manager if he would waive the $20 activation fee for me, and he said he would (although I have to call him to retroactively credit it when it shows up on my bill). My parents, however, who are also on my family plan, also got new (regular) phones and another manager would not waive their fees.
You: give me a more reasonable offer for the Crackberry, or I’m leaving.
Them: well, $xx.xx is all I can do for the phone
You (calling competitor): AT&T can do $xx.xx for the Crackberry. Can you do better?
You (calling other competitor): AT&T can do $xx.xx for the Crackberry. Can you do better?
You (calling AT&T): [Competitor] can do $xx.xx for the Crackberry. Can you do better?
Escalate. You’ve got to get a manager or supervisor - and a real one, not just another rep that’s been assigned field escalated calls/customers.
You have to be polite. The more one raises hell the less they will want to help.
Know your ammo. Tell them how long you’ve been a customer. Tell them to look at your excellent payment history. Tell them how many more lines of service you may bring to them from your family or, preferably, your business. Also tell them how likely/unlikely you would recommend them to a friend. All of these things are terribly important to every major carrier. Stay polite, but let them about the enticing deal you’ll get from their competitor. Also remind them that you’re out of contract and not obliged to stay with them - but you’d prefer to. You can even let them know that you can easily port your mdn (your #) to any other carrier in less than 24 hours, so there’s no real inconvenience for leaving.
Lastly, be ready to try this multiple times. It’s not impossible.
Go to a store (not an agent store, but an honest-to-god AT&T corporate store) and build some rapport with a sales guy. Make sure he knows that you’re ready to renew that day if the deal is right. He’ll tell you there’s nothing he can do. That’s when you tell him to call customer relations (or whatever AT&T calls it) or you’re walking. If he doesn’t call then walk out the door.
When he does call make sure he escalates that call as high as it will go. If you’ve been a customer for a long time and have a great payment history someone will do something for you. If they don’t then don’t worry because you’ve now got the label that all wireless providers fear–churn risk. Leave but don’t cancel your service–you need to keep your ace in the hole.
Go back about a week or two later and try it again. Make sure you have prices for Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile. Not just phone prices but plan pricing. Show them how you can save money by switching to another provider. If they don’t do anything for you at that point then walk out and head to the competition.
Just keep in mind that if it works this time it will not work in the future. It’s a one time shot–they won’t do it for you again.
Ask the sales guy this:
What would happen if you cancelled your AT&T service, waited a week, and then went back in to an AT&T store and signed up as a newcustomer?
Problem is that if he cancels his service, unless he ports the number somewhere, he loses it, yes? Not a problem if the OP doesn’t care about keeping number, but it could be a concern to some people. If it’s ported to another carrier, then he’s got termination issues over there. I’d follow the advice from Cell Guy, but being completely ready to switch carriers if it comes to that.
Well, Verizon and other ocmpanies have a guarantee of service, so he could just port the number to Verizon, then return everything and port the number back to AT&T when done.
Go to AT&T’s website and click on the store locator. Agent stores will be listed as “AT&T Authorized Retailer” while corporate stores will be listed as “AT&T.”
Unfortunately “New Activation Price” usually refers to new customers, not customers out of contract and renewing.
This may not work. At my company if you come back within 6 months of canceling you are considered a renewing customer, not a new one. Most service guarantees expire after 30 days.
If customer relations is unwilling to budge there is one other thing you can try. Once you build that rapport with the sales guy you work him for service credits. Instead of knocking the price down on the phone try to get your monthly service fee reduced. The sales guy should be able to do this, especially if he sees you as a renewal with new equipment (he won’t want to lose the commission). A couple of goodwill credits here and there spread over a few months will make up for the price of the phone. It’s not the best solution but it may work.
yup - when AT&T says ‘new customer’ they mean new, and not just out of contract. I found that out when trying to buy a refurb iphone.
Trying to get discounts on the service or fees to help make up the price of the phone is probably your best option. I just got off the phone with the manager I mentioned upthread. I had called and left him a message stating that I got my bill and would he remove the activation fees as promised. He called me back and not only had he removed those fees, but my parents’ activations as well (and it seems some other fees too…I can’t see the line by line of what he did yet). Overall, it looks like I got about $100 in credits.
So yes, managers do have the option of giving discounts on service. I went into an AT&T store in the mall and talked to a manager there, FWIW, and I was very polite/friendly with him so that may have helped. (I specifically asked 'is there any way I could get my activation fees waived? I have been a customer a long time and I am upgrading my phone and my plan, adding data, etc. I also pointed out that I was an AT&T u-verse customer
for my home phone, tv, and internet, and that seemed to help things as well.)
But I am sure it depends a lot on the manager. Like I said, my parents asked for a discount and no dice. (It must be my charm )
Well, I did the math and have come to the conclusion that AT&T really is, in the long run, the cheapest deal for me, even with the phone costing so much. It breaks down like this:
Given these numbers, I’m not going to sweat too much what the phone itself costs me. I am probably going to buy online, though, because to one degree or another both of the two AT&T stores I went to today pissed me off.
HA! I had previously tried to do my upgrade through Amazon Wireless and been unsuccessful, but I figured out what the problem was, and wound up getting my phone for $99.99 instead of AT&T’s $199.99
when I bought mine there was a rebate card that came by mail after the purchase price (plus I had another one left over from buying my kid’s phone), plus I happened to be vacationing in a state with no sales tax. In the end it only cost me $40.
)