Another Cost Cutting Idea

I really like T-Mobile! We have 5 phones with them, for our company. If you have one or more cell phones, it may be very worthwhile to ask them if they can lower your rate. What I like about T-Mobile is that I didn't even have to ask. With this company, and this is probably true with some others, I found that if I needed to replace one of the phones I could often get this done for free by extending one of the contracts.

At the beginning of 2009, my cell phone bill was generally around $300 per month, give or take a few dollars. In the fall, one of our phones broke, so I called to work a deal for a new phone. At the end of the call, the T-Mobile representative asked if I would like her to take a look at our bill and see if see if she could save any money. I agreed, and she was able to lower the cost to about $260 a month, just by switching me to a new plan they had for long-time customers. The plan was actually better than the previous plan, so it was a no-brainer, as it provided added minutes and features, AND saved us $40 a month.

About a month later, I called again because there is one area where my signal is weak, and I wanted to see if they could look into it. At the end of the call, the rep said that he would like to take a look at my plan to see if he could save me some money. I didn't expect much, since I had just been through this with them, but I concurred. To my amazement, he was able to lower my monthly bill by a large amount - last month it was $177.08. Even better, this new plan, which they had just unveiled, did not have a contract! This plan has 3 phones with unlimited minutes and free long distance, plus two phones with 200 minutes (which is all those phones really need). And it includes free text messaging for all phones, which my previous plan did not have.

So, over the course of the last year, we are now saving $120 a month (40%) on our cell phone service. If you have a cell phone with T-Mobile, or another company, it is definitely worthwhile to call and ask them to take a look at your calling patterns to see if the could do the same for you.

As a side note, T-Mobile has also given me extra minutes a couple of times during months when I went over my allotted minutes. This was done after the fact, when I called in to ask them about the surprise high cost of a bill. I have tremendous loyalty to them for how they have treated me, and wholeheartedly recommend them whenever the subject of cell phones comes up.

So - there are two things that can be learned from this blog:
1. Check your cell phone provider to see if you too can save a ton of money on your bill.
2. By going the extra mile for your customer, you can create a ton of customer loyalty and goodwill towards your company. I would not even consider switching now, because I truly appreciate all that they have done for me.