My Cellphone My Terms

Don’t make these mistakes on your next cell phone upgrade

It’s been 2 – 3 years and you want to upgrade and get a better deal with your existing carrier or maybe you want to pay less and just get a better deal, either way, don’t make these common mistakes we all make when trying to get a deal with our existing carriers.  We know the process, we have to call or visit a store and negotiate a good deal for that new iPhone or Android or BlackBerry that we’ve had our eye on for a few months now.

1. Speak to the right person

When you call your carrier the first person is usually a general client service rep and can help you with most things, fixing your bill, adding a feature etc, but they are not the person who can get you a real deal and do they do not have much leeway to give you much discounts. You need to speak to a retention rep.

So ask to speak to the right person – “may I speak to a retention rep, I not happy with my existing plan or phone”

When you get the retention rep verify “are you my retention rep?” then ask them to provide the best deal for the phone you want.

2. Go in Prepared

The only way to know that you are getting a fair deal is to know what’s in the market, so after you ask for the best deal know whether the response is actually a good deal.

The easiest way to do this is to do your research – leverage myCELLmyTERMS to get offers that are better than your existing plan and use this information to get a great deal.

So when your rep presents a plan you can confidently say that Carrier X is offering me a better deal can you match that.

3. Say that you are a loyal client

Loyalty is good in most cases, but saying that you are a client for 10 years means that you are less likely to leave even if the deal isn’t very good. A client who has been with another carrier a short time ago is more likely to be a flight risk than
someone with over 5 years with them – the result is that the less loyal customer ends up with a better deal. Don’t let this happen to you.

While this seems counter intuitive loyalty isn’t rewarded, new customers get better deals and customer who switch often are always ahead. So when negotiating with your carrier remember these common mistakes, and if after this process you aren’t happy, don’t be afraid to hangup and just walk away.