Do you think you should pay for what you get?

You may or may not know but I work for a mobile phone company in the UK talking to mobile phone customers and trying to retain their custom.

I enjoy my job, no matter how much I might moan about it because where else will I get paid to sit on my arse and talk to people all day.

Something which does annoy me is peoples inability to pay the price before them and I feel that the mobile phone companies set up the very problem themselves. When you purchase something from a shop you go in see the price pay for it and then leave with said item. If you don't like the price from one outlet you will shop around to see if you can find it cheaper elsewhere.

You wouldn't think of going to do your weekly shop at a big supermarket chain be told by the checkout operator what the bill is and then refuse to pay it and ask to speak to the manager, as you have shopped at that store for years and so feel you should get a bigger discount than other customers paying for the same items.

But a mobile phone customer does. They don't want to pay for the phone no matter how expensive it is, they dont want to pay full price for their usage of the phone no matter how excessive it is. They feel if they have signed up for a contract of 18 or 24 months and become bored of the phone after 12 months we should exchange it. My most amusing customers are those who manage to use the phone for over 3,000 mins a month and then complain that they have poor coverage and feel they cant use the phone fully. I do feel like saying it is not a coverage issue it is the fact that your battery is dying.

As for customers with poor coverage, they soon forget all about that if you offer them the very latest phone at a dirt cheap price. Once had a raging customer come thru who was going to leave and disgusted how he could never use his phone. I said sorry and advised on differing things we are doing to improve coverage, but did he know he was entitled to the very latest phone out for only £7.50 a month where it should be £30 a month. He snapped my hand off and took the phone. Silly really because if the coverage is so bad he will only have the status of carry a phone which will soon become outdated.

That is another thing, phones become outdated so quickly. Sorry Ropcorn but your I phone 4 will be superseded probably by a few other phones just in time for Christmas and by I phone themselves in the new year. But what does a customer do? You have a phone which you have to sign up for, for two years as it is the only way you can afford it. But it will be out of fashion sometimes after 6 months. Go phone me in retentions and moan about it and make my day LOL....

Moan over and thanks for reading.