Looking for tips on negotiating new cell contract after completing old one.

[bensong1]

Our Verizon cellular contract has been up for a while and I remember seeing an entry that someone posted here on LJ some time (maybe a year) ago about having negotiated much better terms based on having completed their prior contract. We're probably going to be calling in the morning to set up a new contract and increasing our family plan from two

Comments

[punzel]

Sometimes they'll give you things like $100 towards you future bills, but over two years, it doesn't mean much. You might be able to get better new phones, or some rolling 'extra' minutes for when y'all go over your peak time plan minute allowance. I doubt they can do much for you about dropped calls or coverage areas if it's a network+geography problem, but I've heard rumors that some phone units are better than others for getting and holding a signal

[bensong1]

Thanks, Punzel. I think we are going to see if they can match AT&T's rollover minutes deal (especially since the plan prices are the same and there really isn't anything stopping us from switching).

Thanks, also, for your phone call last month. I've been intending to give you a call since. I was already at the event that I had been driving to when you left the message and had a lot of responsibilities on my hands and a lot of fund stuff to do during moments when I was free. Plus I had a lot of loving community around me (yay)! I would love to talk with you and will try to reach you soon.

[yip95]

Well, if you call to re-up and sound wary about whatever price they're quoting you...then you should ask if there are any special rates for returning customers and if they give you the runaround, say that you're thinking that you'll probably just switch to another carrier (you could say AT&T, since they have rolling minutes...or Sprint, because they have earlier "nights".)
Then they'll offer to transfer you to "customer retention" and *they* will give you a slightly better deal. We did this with T-Mobile and got a family plan for $10 off what they had initially been offering.

So, yeah, that's my suggestion - say what you have to say so they'll transfer you to customer retention.

[bensong1]

Thanks. We didn't get to it today, but I think getting switched to "customer retention" is definitely the plan. We're even hoping that they might be able to offer AT&T's rolling minutes deal which would be perfect for us since most months we use way less than our minutes but one or two months a year (generally while we're in WA) we've gone over by a bunch. If not, it's possible that we might switch to AT&T (although, a number of other folks in our lives are on Verizon so it would be hard to lose the whole "incalling" thing even though AT&T has something similar).

[rabjeff]

No solution for this, but I would think the 3rd phone is for G. How will you deal with the Ed Dept ban on cell phones in school?

I think most of the metal detectors are in HS, but still....

I ask out of curiosity, but also because A has been asking for a cell phone, and we've told her she can't because she can't take it to school, which is the main advantage. Also, I think she's kind of young, but the world is changing.

Can't talk about when I got a cell phone, but even for R, it was a different time.

[bensong1]

Your assumption about 3rd phone is correct. The principal of the MS there has a different policy from that of the the dept. We probably wouldn't have given him a cell at A's age but now it feels important to us that he have one.