Why????

Why is Sprint pushing these Fair and Flexible plans soooo much? In my
Sprint Store last night (looking for a car charger), I overheard a very
disturbing conversation where a new potential customer was asking about
rate plans. The Sprint rep pulled out the F&F brochure, and the
customer said that he thought the rates seemed a little high in
comparison to VZW and T-Mobile. The rep then stated that those were the
newest and greatest plans were offering at the current time. And
despite the customer saying that he had not worries of going over his
alloted plan minutes and mainly wanted a lower priced plan to use the
free nights and weekends, the rep made *no* mention of the regular,
lower-priced, fixed rate Free and Clear plans. The customer ended up
leaving empty handed.

Why is Sprint psuhing F&F so hard? O/Siris says that Sprint is pushing
F&F as consumer plans, and F&C as business plans. Why not promote them
equally -- by having the brochures side by side and the reps trained to
offer both plans like what Verizon does?? I've said before that I
think the F&F is a good option for low end users and an innovative rate
plan structure... but I think Sprint is making a huge mistake if they
put all their eggs in this basket and ignore the fixed rate plans for
private consumers.

Eric

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› See More: Why????

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Eric <[email protected]> wrote:
> Why is Sprint pushing these Fair and Flexible plans soooo much? In my
> Sprint Store last night (looking for a car charger), I overheard a very
> disturbing conversation where a new potential customer was asking about
> rate plans. The Sprint rep pulled out the F&F brochure, and the
> customer said that he thought the rates seemed a little high in
> comparison to VZW and T-Mobile. The rep then stated that those were the
> newest and greatest plans were offering at the current time. And
> despite the customer saying that he had not worries of going over his
> alloted plan minutes and mainly wanted a lower priced plan to use the
> free nights and weekends, the rep made *no* mention of the regular,
> lower-priced, fixed rate Free and Clear plans. The customer ended up
> leaving empty handed.
>
> Why is Sprint psuhing F&F so hard? O/Siris says that Sprint is pushing
> F&F as consumer plans, and F&C as business plans. Why not promote them
> equally -- by having the brochures side by side and the reps trained to
> offer both plans like what Verizon does?? I've said before that I
> think the F&F is a good option for low end users and an innovative rate
> plan structure... but I think Sprint is making a huge mistake if they
> put all their eggs in this basket and ignore the fixed rate plans for
> private consumers.
>
> Eric
>

It is simple. They think they will make money. So, marketting is going
to market it. It is Sprint's plan to push. It is their own foot to
shoot and it is their own wallet to fill. As a stock holder, you have a
say, as a customer you have a say, but as a newsgroup poster you do not.

- --

Thomas T. Veldhouse
Key Fingerprint: 2DB9 813F F510 82C2 E1AE 34D0 D69D 1EDC D5EC AED1

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In article <[email protected]>,
[email protected] (Eric) wrote:

> Why is Sprint pushing these Fair and Flexible plans soooo much? In my
> Sprint Store last night (looking for a car charger), I overheard a very
> disturbing conversation where a new potential customer was asking about
> rate plans. The Sprint rep pulled out the F&F brochure, and the
> customer said that he thought the rates seemed a little high in
> comparison to VZW and T-Mobile. The rep then stated that those were the
> newest and greatest plans were offering at the current time. And
> despite the customer saying that he had not worries of going over his
> alloted plan minutes and mainly wanted a lower priced plan to use the
> free nights and weekends, the rep made *no* mention of the regular,
> lower-priced, fixed rate Free and Clear plans. The customer ended up
> leaving empty handed.
>
> Why is Sprint psuhing F&F so hard? O/Siris says that Sprint is pushing
> F&F as consumer plans, and F&C as business plans. Why not promote them
> equally -- by having the brochures side by side and the reps trained to
> offer both plans like what Verizon does??

I can only guess SprintPCS basically doesn't like dealing with
Consumers. (doesn't its Customer Service prove that?), wants to have
fewer Consumer customers except with high dollar plans, and make its
money as a cellular wholesaler - Virgin Mobile, Quest, and maybe AT&T
and MCI and Walt Disney.

Thomas T. Veldhouse <[email protected]> wrote:

> It is simple. They think they will make money. So, marketting is going
> to market it. It is Sprint's plan to push. It is their own foot to
> shoot and it is their own wallet to fill. As a stock holder, you have a
> say, as a customer you have a say, but as a newsgroup poster you do not.

I think it's stupid. Not everyone is a casual user. I'd wager that for most
of the people who post here on a regular basis, F&F does NOT make sense, for
example.

--
JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, Apple Valley, CA PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / [email protected]
Domain Names, $9.95/yr, 24x7 service: http://DomainNames.JustThe.net/
"someone once called me a sofa, but i didn't feel compelled to rush out and buy
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Steven J Sobol <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> I think it's stupid. Not everyone is a casual user. I'd wager that for most
> of the people who post here on a regular basis, F&F does NOT make sense, for
> example.
>

I couldn't agree more. My wife and I average 350-400 minutes per month
between us, so it seems that at best we would break even (we have a 500
minute plan that we exceeded once or twice by a few minutes over the
course of 2 years).

- --

Thomas T. Veldhouse
Key Fingerprint: 2DB9 813F F510 82C2 E1AE 34D0 D69D 1EDC D5EC AED1

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Robert M <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> I can only guess SprintPCS basically doesn't like dealing with
> Consumers. (doesn't its Customer Service prove that?), wants to have
> fewer Consumer customers except with high dollar plans, and make its
> money as a cellular wholesaler - Virgin Mobile, Quest, and maybe AT&T
> and MCI and Walt Disney.

Well, I for one can't complain about their customer service over the
last couple of months (I did have troubles with long hold times over the
winter). Everything goes 100% perfect when I call lately. Now, Verizon
on the other hand, screwed up my terminate and charge me two ETF for
$350 when I left them after 6 days of service. The rep that reversed
the charge the first time didn't actually do it and I had to call back
and verify ... when I found that it wasn't done. So, the second time
was a charm. Further, I had online billing, but I couldn't access the
bill after my account was terminated ... so there was no way to pay (I
had no account number yet). I had to call to get them to mail it to me.
Still, overall, I can not complain about their service either, as they
were pretty friendly (average hold time when I called was about 3
minutes with about a 7 minute length today).

- --

Thomas T. Veldhouse
Key Fingerprint: 2DB9 813F F510 82C2 E1AE 34D0 D69D 1EDC D5EC AED1

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Robert M <[email protected]> wrote:

> I can only guess SprintPCS basically doesn't like dealing with
> Consumers. (doesn't its Customer Service prove that?), wants to have
> fewer Consumer customers except with high dollar plans, and make its
> money as a cellular wholesaler - Virgin Mobile, Quest, and maybe AT&T
> and MCI and Walt Disney.

Well, none of the carriers want people that spend $30 per month. I'm sure
Sprint would be very pleased that I'm going to add a line and finally get my
final bill (including taxes) up over $40-45 in the next month or so. Once
you factor in billing, customer support, etc., those people who are on the
lower-priced plans are making the carriers very little money.

I don't think it's that they don't like dealing with consumers, just that
they want to maintain decent margins on the services that they sell.

--
JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, Apple Valley, CA PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / [email protected]
Domain Names, $9.95/yr, 24x7 service: http://DomainNames.JustThe.net/
"someone once called me a sofa, but i didn't feel compelled to rush out and buy
slip covers." -adam brower * Hiroshima '45, Chernobyl '86, Windows 98/2000/2003

[email protected] said

> As a stock holder, you have a
> say, as a customer you have a say, but as a
> newsgroup poster you do not.

Anyone who wants a say may have one. Stockholders and customers **may** carry
more weight, sometimes those bringing a lawyer or with access to the media can
carry weight.

[email protected] said:
> I think it's stupid. Not everyone is a casual user.
> I'd wager that for most of the people who post
> here on a regular basis, F&F does NOT make
> sense, for example.

The plan fits very few. Someone who normally uses 250 to 300 minutes a month
Anytime minutes, but **KNOWS** that once or twice a year (visiting relatives or
kids at college) they'd go way over.

I think promoting 7 PM Nights makes more sense for SprintPCS, but maybe they
just want to be a wireless wholesale company.

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Phillip <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> Anyone who wants a say may have one. Stockholders and customers **may** carry
> more weight, sometimes those bringing a lawyer or with access to the media can
> carry weight.
>

A lawyer will coerce them to change their plan? Yep, alright. Profits
{or stockholder votes} are about the only thing that is going to sway
their opinion on this.

- --

Thomas T. Veldhouse
Key Fingerprint: 2DB9 813F F510 82C2 E1AE 34D0 D69D 1EDC D5EC AED1

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> Once you factor in billing, customer support, etc., > those people who are on
the
> lower-priced plans are making the carriers very
> little money.

Depends how you view it. SprintPCS needs to up its average revenue per customer
to like $65 to break even, but the incremental income from $30 customers adds
up if your support costs can be kept low by CSRs getting it right the first
time.

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Phillip <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> The plan fits very few. Someone who normally uses 250 to 300 minutes a month
> Anytime minutes, but **KNOWS** that once or twice a year (visiting relatives or
> kids at college) they'd go way over.

So Phillip, what makes you thin the plan fits very few? You are one
person with a huge chip on your shoulder and clouded judgement. Don't
you think Sprint PCS researched this? Only time will tell if it is
successful, but if it is not, it won't be because you said anything
intelligent about it.

>
> I think promoting 7 PM Nights makes more sense for SprintPCS, but maybe they
> just want to be a wireless wholesale company.

Apparently, their market research suggests otherwise at the current
time. If you were an industry analyst, I might take you more seriously


- --

Thomas T. Veldhouse
Key Fingerprint: 2DB9 813F F510 82C2 E1AE 34D0 D69D 1EDC D5EC AED1

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Phillip <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> Depends how you view it. SprintPCS needs to up its average revenue per customer
> to like $65 to break even, but the incremental income from $30 customers adds
> up if your support costs can be kept low by CSRs getting it right the first
> time.

That wasn't his point. His point was that the margin is very low on $30
customers, and thus, they have to make it up in volume. Unless you are
Cargil or another commodities trader, it is not likely that you want to
rely on volume to make a profit.

- --

Thomas T. Veldhouse
Key Fingerprint: 2DB9 813F F510 82C2 E1AE 34D0 D69D 1EDC D5EC AED1

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In article <[email protected]>,
"Thomas T. Veldhouse" <mailman@www.veldy.net> wrote:

more drivel trying to make personal attacks on anyone he disagrees with.

Such immaturity.

In article <[email protected]>,
"Thomas T. Veldhouse" <mailman@/www.veldy.net> wrote:

> So Phillip, what makes you thin the plan fits very few?

I thin, therefore I am?