Why not more attractive multi-phone plans?

Edwards Finance > Phones

Q. one would think that there would be a niche for selling a plan to somebody who would pay a few bucks extra to have, say, three phones on one plan for the same monthly rate as one - but have a restricted number of "free" minutes. That way whoever holds those two extra phones (wife, children?) would be potential sales generators to the extent that they would tend to use them and the account would get charged for the minutes. Sounds logical to Yours Truly - but I'm guessing there is a fallacy in it somewhere since Cingular used to have such a plan and has shut it down in favor of plans that charge extra per month for each additional phone. Where have I gone wrong?

A. I did not work FOR SBMS/Cingular, I bought cellular equipment from various third-party vendors and distribitors (sometimes Cingular itself, but I usually could do better elsewhere), and was paid activation fees by Cingular for signing customers. As an indy, I controlled my own pricing, and chose what makes and models of phone I carried. Occasionally, I had to play advocate for the customer against Cingular, because they were MY customer, and my business loyalty was to them- (not just because I was a "nice guy", but also for my own self-interest! If a customer cancelled service and was hit by an ETF, Cingular chargedback my activation commissions, meaning I handed out a free phone and got nothing for it! This is the "dirty little secret" of the cell industry if there is one- cellular carriers assume very little risk activating customers through dealers- the dealers do, even though the dealer had no say in credit decision.) I was a happy Cingular (SBMS) customer long before I became a dealer (my good experiences with SBMS' customer service is what led me to choose them as my carrier to represent when I added cellular sales to my small retail store in 1997.) I was also a happy Cingular customer well after I dropped cellular service from our product mix four years later. See, Phillipe, not everyone in the cellular business, or business in general, is evil. It's often, in fact usually, economically sound to be customer service oriented- a large portion of my business came from referrals, which you don't get if you screw people. Similarly, cell carriers aren't entirely comprised of weasels in suits trying to liberate you from your last dollar while intentionally dropping all of your calls on that defective handset they knowingly forced upon you. They, like all businesses, have a vested interest in keeping customers happy, while maintaining profitability. Unhappy customers leave, and more importantly, tell their friends to stay away. If Sprint, or ATTWS, or whoever else is your poison-pen "target du jour", was nearly as bad as you rant, they'd have been driven out of business by natural market forces long ago.

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