My contract recently ended with Nextel, and being very dissatisfied with their service for the past 2 years, I started shopping around with some different carriers. I have had grudge against SBC ever since they began buying up every small company around the country and stifling out the competition a few years ago. I decided a few years ago never to support SBC with my money, and as a result, Cingular was not an option for me.
First I checked with T-mobile, to see if I could add a line to my dad’s account. He had just signed a new contract with them a few days ago, and they gave him a free RAZR after $50 Mail In Rebate. But alas, they wanted a $250 deposit which I was by no means prepared to give them. So then as I was driving towards the Verizon store, I felt a Still Small Voice telling me that I should get over my pride and check out the Cingular store also. So I surrendered to that Voice and I stopped by the Cingular store. I told the salesmen that I was shopping around for new phone service, and I wanted to know what they could offer me. He showed me the various plans they offered, then I asked about military discounts. He revealed that they would give a 19% monthly discount which sounded much better than Sprint/Nextel’s 10%.
Then I asked him about phones, and he showed me some shoddy phone that was most likely made in some garage in China. I told him, “T-mobile offered me a free RAZR after rebate.” To that he said, “Well, let’s see if we can do them one better.” He disappeared for a minute and came back with a paper in his hand. “How does that price look,” he said as he pointed to the paper. Their was a picture of a RAZR and next to it said FREE. I said, “That looks real good.” With that, I had all the information I wanted and I told him I had a couple other things to consider and I would be back. So he gave me his card, and we went our separate ways.
Now, to wrap this story up. I visited Verizon thinking that if they offered me the same thing Cingular did, then I would not hesitate going with them. Well, their rate plan was about the same, and their Military discount was only slightly less at 17%. When I confirmed that I could get a $50 dollar rebate on the RAZR phone, I told the Verizon salesman that I would be back the next day. I did come back the next day after church. And I was prepared to sign two years of my life away to Verizon. When we were almost done with the contractual process, the salsemen revealed to me that the $50 rebate he had offered to me the previous day was $50 of of $100. I told him, T-mobile and Cingular both offered me a FREE RAZR. He said, “Well let me ask my manager real quick.” He went in the back of the store and returned fairly quickly shaking his head. I told him, “You just lost a customer. But thank you for all your help.” So after that I went over to Cingular and signed two years of my life away to them instead. And now I have a new RAZR phone, a new phone number and my fingers are crossed hoping that I will not regret this decision.
