I'm changing mobile phone operator, and I received my new phone, complete with new SIM-card and confirmation of the changeover in the post last Friday. With all the papers came a note asking in big bold type whether I'd want to have my new mobile phone subscription with my new carrier opened as soon as possible. If so, I'd just need to call their customer service and ask them to speed up the process. The catch? By doing so I agree not to be covered by my statutory 14 day right to return the phone and SIM card and cancel my subscription. I didn't see any problems with this, so I called up my new operator and asked them to speed up the process.
Today, on Monday I get a SMS from my old operator, where they note that I’m about to change operator, but they urge me to call their customer service and get a better offer.
So what’s going on here? If I hadn’t surrendered my 14 day right of return (and whether I actually have done it in a legally binding way is a bit doubtful I guess, as this is a statutory right, granted by the consumer protection law, whose rights in general aren’t surrenderable), my old operator, receiving notice of my plans to change from my new operator, could contact me and make me a counteroffer, so as to avoid having me poached by the new operator. However, my new operator, by ensuring that they do not initiate the process of transferring me from my old operator before I’m on the hook with them (with a two year agreement), can avoid having my old operator “repoaching” me.
Further, I’ve experienced more or less exactly this kind of repoaching about eight years before. I had already signed up online with a new operator, who initiated the transfer process, after which my old operator called me and offered a better deal than the potential new operator, with the benefit of not having to change SIM-cards, etc. So I didn’t change operators that time. So I see the operator have become smarter at this game since that episode.
No comments:
Post a Comment