The phone rang and I answered by saying, “Hello.” Then again, “Hello… hello??” Finally, the silence that greeted me was interrupted by a Sprint salesperson.
“Hi, I’m calling from Sprint. Don’t worry, this call is not using up any of your minutes and is completely free. We have reviewed your account and would like to let you know about special offers that you quality for.”
Like many of the cell phone companies, Sprint tries very hard to get you to sign a 2 year contract. When your 2 years are almost up, the offers start coming in. I know that my 2 years is almost up because I recently received an offer in the mail, and now this phone call.
The salesperson continued. “Do you know how much you pay per month for your service?”
“Yeah, about $40 per month.” I said.
“I’m looking at your account now and your last bill was $50. Well, we’d like to let you know that you quality for a free phone AND you can get 500 minutes per month for only $59.”
I responded. “I current use a Palm Treo 650, and that unless the free phone was a Treo 700p, then it’s not an upgrade to me. Is the free phone a Treo 700p?”
“Oh no sir, of course not.” she said.
“And another thing,” I continued. “If you have my bill in front of you, you’ll see that I only used about 200 minutes last month. My $35 per month bill is $50 after adding $10 unlimited Internet and taxes. You’re now offering me 500 minutes for $59, which will become $75 after the extras for minutes that I won’t even use. I don’t see now this is a good deal for me.”
Silence.
“Why would I even consider taking this offer. The phone you want to give me is inferior to the one I use now and you want to charge me more for minutes I won’t use. If Sprint makes me a real offer that is better than what I have, then I will listen, but until then, don’t try and make me an offer that is clearly inferior.”
With nothing to say in response, the salesperson hung up in me in a polite way. “Ok sir, if we have a better offer for you, we will let you know.” Long pause. <click>
Josh
NICE!
Vartan Christopher Simonian
My father (a great mathematician 😀 ) keeps finding these kind of “offers” everywhere – not only about cell phones. lol They’re trying to get some money – and I think that’s all they care about. 🙂
Hilary
I am an out-of-contract Sprint Treo 650 user who pays about $50 p/mo and have experienced this same unimpressive offer. The only difference was that instead of a free call, they got the local Sprint store guy to call me, using my minutes. =/
My guess is that they want to get rid of all the old cheap accounts that are out of contract and grandfathered in to a reasonable monthly plan.