So, my cell phone was stolen out of my car, parked in the driveway, back in April. I canceled it right away and then made the mistake of mentioning to my wife that I was going to get a replacement. Oh, says she, I need a new phone too so I’ll come along. All I needed was a phone. A replacement phone. A free replacement phone if I committed for another three years.
But, alas that was too simple. No, we needed a family plan apparently, because our daughter’s phone is coming up for renewal too. But the people at the actual phone store can’t give you any “deals.” No, the special deals are available, but you need to call the customer support line for that and then threaten them with leaving for another service provider if they don’t agree to all of your special terms and conditions. You’re supposed to tell them that you want free text messaging, free calls between family members, free beer, pizza, and gasoline too, for instance.
So we didn’t get phones. And to be quite honest I’ve been enjoying my leisurely drives home from work, and time spent browsing at Canadian Tire without being at the beck and call of others. But that’s all coming to an end this weekend. Apparently we are all now getting new phones this weekend. The deal has been struck and apparently for a measly extra $5 each a month we will have smart phones, which I’ve never owned and swore I never would. But it’s only $5 more per month, you see.
Why does it all need to be this complicated really.
Does anyone just buy the “off the shelf” cell phone package, or does everyone need to haggle endlessly and threaten to leave for greener pastures if demands aren’t met?
Whenever I’ve done it, I checked what plans were available, how much they cost, and then chose the plan and features I wanted. It wouldn’t occur to me to try to finagle free stuff or a cheaper rate plan, but I’m not fond of haggling. Some people are, or have a pathological need to feel like they’re putting one over on The Man before they can be satisfied.
Well, from what I understand this is the status quo in Ontario. Simply looking for a plan and then signing up is not what you do. You threaten, cajole, and haggle till you get a better plan.
I was wondering how wide-spread this was.
OP is right. I had a state-of-the-art root canal last week and it was less of a PITA than any cel phone contract I ever had to deal with.
Leaffan, my mother has always haggled our family plan. We had free family texting for a few months, bigger discounts on phones, and an upgrade in peak minutes. All were for different reasons, mostly threatening to leave or threatening to downgrade the whole plan. It works, if you’re willing to do it. I’ve haggled on behalf of my SO’s family plan as well. Bite the bullet aand haggle- or just look online, piece together a plan, and go from there. It’s not the same price difference as haggling for a car, so you shouldn’t feel guilty if you don’t want to do it.
I just did, for my daughter. Bought a Virgin Mobile Internet-enabled phone for $90. Signed up for their monthly unlimited Internet and text with 400 minutes (plenty for her) – $25 a month.
Oh, and no contract.
Jeesh. My contract will be $35 a month per phone for 3 phones on the same plan. Apart from being web-enabled I have no idea what other bells and whistles this comes with; my wife did the cajoling.
I’ll report back Saturday: possibly on my phone.
Jeez, tell me about it. My partner lost her phone - or rather, her son left it behind but swears he didn’t - and do you think you can just walk up to a phone shop and buy just a freakin’ phone? No way, you get bombarded with crap about minutes and plans and texts and email and downloads and call credits and the freak knows what else. There is simply no way to sensibly compare two of these “plans”, IMO they deliberately make them as impenetrable as possible to make comparisons impossible.