[BNM] [OT] Phone company tactics

[Dave Phelan]

On Jan 17, 2008 3:38 PM, Grant Turner <Grant.Turner at i2i-technology.com> wrote:
> I know there's occasional phone talk on this list, but I'm coming to the
> end of my first contract (O2. Always was PAYG up until the start of this
> contract) and am gonna start looking around and hopefully negotiating a
> better deal.


Charlie Stross (an rather good SF author, and interesting blogger)
recommends spreadsheets:
http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2008/01/marketing_mayhem.html

Snippet of the post:
Want a twelve month contract? You might as well buy an eighteen month
contract — if you decide to switch telco, the break-even point is
thirteen months. At that point you might as well buy a new phone, set
call divert on your old number, take the old sim out and cut it up so
you can't run up any additional charges, and get going: you're still
ahead of the game. The system is loaded insofar as it relies on
customers fixating on the contract lock-in period and not realizing
that they can "buy themselves out" at any point by cutting up a SIM
and making a note on their calendar to remind them to close the
account when the lock-in expires. And on most people not running the
total cost of ownership through a spreasheet before they buy

Dave Ph

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 Dave Phelan CCIE#3590   skype:davephelan/0208 1445720
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