Blog Jordan

At the time this article was written over 60% of global wireless users prepay their bills. The majority of people on our planet leverage pay as you go plans instead of the monthly rate plans offered by the major service providers.

And in recent years all major wireless providers have rushed to not only implement pay as you go plans, but also to place this option at the fore of their marketing campaigns. It is entirely possible that monthly postpaid plans will become a novelty item within the next half-decade.

The thing is, consumers are tired of being taken to the cleaners month after month by wireless providers. Taxes, fees, and hidden charges make the average wireless bill 20% higher than what customers were told by sales reps, and overage charges are borderline extortionist.

It’s odd, to say the least, how the wireless talk industry went from a high priced luxury to an out-in-the-open game of “rip off the consumer” in just a few short years. The technology is not new, and handsets are being given away by every company with airtime to sell.

In fact the global tower network is so strong and well-maintained that experts estimate only a tiny portion of access fees go toward new equipment and labor expenses. Wireless phone services are rolling in huge profits and still nailing their customers to the wall with outrageous monthly rates, overage penalties, and countless nickel-and-dime charges on every bill.

The mass migration to prepaid service could well be the average consumers’ way of taking control of their mobile communication by not giving the wireless companies a penny more than needed for their monthly usage. Once thought of as the poor mans’ cell phone alternative, pay as you go options are now being embraced even by consumers who have the good credit to acquire their choice of postpaid plan.

Most of us are happy to pay for a quality product or service. But there’s just no excuse to find new ways to shake a few extra bucks out of your customer base every time they turn around.

In many cases customers are being locked into new contracts each time they buy car chargers, carrying cases, and other minor accessories, and often the sales reps don’t even have to tell them this is the case! Fine print on the initial service agreement indicates a contract extension with all new purchases, and thus the average user finds themselves legally obligated to pay their bill for a few years longer than expected because they bought a few service enhancements.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 at 6:12 pm and is filed under Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.