The Wacky World of a Lazy Pig (AKA Simon)

Haggling for more from Fido Retentions

My little brother's Fido agreement had expired over the Christmas of 2007 and my contract was going to be at the beginning of February. Joseph's Fido bills have always been more than mine because he pays $8 for Call Display and Voicemail (which he doesn't use). Also, it is not uncommon for Joseph to use some long distance minutes and text messages and add a little more to his bill.

As for me, if you have read a previous post from me, found here, you can remember that back in 2006, I signed a 2-year contract with Fido for the following features:

• regular fido to fido (100 any time minutes, 1000 eve+weekends)
• System Access Fee (6.95) waived for 6 months
• Call Display and Voice mail for free 1 year
  
• Extended Fido Coverage free for 2 years
• 6-months unlimited local calling and receiving
• $5 credit towards my bill for 6 months ($30 credit in total)
  
• $75 (will be $4 after applying the $30 from the previous point and the $41 fido dollars) for a black RAZR V3
  
• All the above for $25 for 2 year agreement

As had said back then, this offer overall wasn't anything special. Nothing on the plan actually lasted the entire 2 years, with exception to the Extended Fido coverage. But in a sense, the extended coverage shouldn't be mentioned because I never really felt that there was really an extra coverage or better reception. That, and I never saw anything about extended coverage on my billing invoice. The plan never really changed because I got the basic Fido to Fido plan and some extra temporary bonuses and a cheaper RAZR. To be honest, I am very happy that I only signed a 2 year contract, because my RAZR is falling apart.

Roger's Wireless Retentions have always been very good at giving really good agreements that included many features for the entire agreement. And with my previous experience with Fido Retention, I really wasn't looking for much. But when I started looking at the Fido Retention Plans Forum Thread from RedFlagDeals.ca, I found that Fido retention plans had changed significantly in the past 2 years. I don't know what might have been the cause, but now, they were offering things that I would have expected at least from Rogers. You can actually see my user posts at post #1516.

This time around, I was determined to get way more out of Fido by meeting certain criteria for a plan which are listed in the following:

• 200-250 daytime minutes
• Unlimited evenings and weekends starting from 6-7pm
• Unlimited Fido to Fido and Fido to Rogers (in network calling)
• 1000 text messages Canada Wide
• Call display for the entire agreement
• Samsung A736 phone
• $25 for the entire 2 year agreement

But let's not forget why I was doing all this research in the first place. The primary reason I was doing all this work was because of my little brother. I wanted him to get more out of his plan and also get him a good new phone that he can work with. For Joseph, I wanted him to get the following:

• 150-200 daytime minutes
• unlimited evenings and weekends
• unlimited fido to fido and fido to rogers
• 1000 text messages
• Call display for the 2 year agreement
• Nokia 6300 phone
• $20 for 2 year agreement

Doesn't the above lookin similar to mine? Yes, but the primary difference is the price. I have no idea if I can get this at all, I will try though.

With no intention of screwing up my little brother's account, I decided to use my account as a testing ground for negotiations with Fido Retentions (1-888-259-3436). I waiting for 15 minutes in the call center before the first agent picked up, her name was Christina. She was very nice and polite when I spoke to her. Here is a break down of our conversation:

1. Introduction of me and my concerns for my upcoming expiry my 2 year agreement.
2. Told her that I was looking around and had the option of 2 corporate plans which I hoped that Fido could match. If they couldn't match, I told her that I would cancel my account with Fido.
3. I told her the first offer from telus:

• 200 day time minutes
• unlimited evenings and weekends starting from 6pm
• Call Display for 2 years
• VM10 (Voice mail) for 2 years
• Unlimited Text messaging in Canada
• Unlimited Web browsing
• $25 per month for 2 years
  

1. She asked me to hang on a bit while she comes up with an offer. Unfortunately, I never got to mention my Roger's corporate offer.
2. She came back and offered the following:

• 200 daytime minutes
• unlimited evenings and weekends starting at 7pm
• Call Display for 2 years
• Voicemail for 2 years
• Unlimited Text messages in US and Canada
• 1000 Fido to Fido minutes
• $26.45 per month for 2 years (includes the $6.95 (SAF) and $0.50 (911))
  

1. I told her that it was not really up to my expectations and went on to tell her about the Roger's corporate plan:

• 250 daytime minutes
• Unlimited evenings and weekends starting at 6pm
• Call Display for 2 years
• Voicemail for 2 years
• 2500 Text messages
• 1000 sent picture/video messages
  
• Unlimited Rogers to Rogers
• $25 per month for 2 years
  

1. She sounded a little confused or frustrated and asked me specifically what I was looking for in a contract.
2. I gave her my following requests:

• 200-250 daytime minutes
• Call Display for 2 years
• Unlimited Fido to Fido and Fido to Rogers
• Unlimited Text messaging
• Unlimited evenings and weekends starting at 6-7pm
• $25 per month for 2 years.
  

1. She came back and confirmed my request.
   
2. When I said it was ok for now, we went on to talk about handsets. I was interested in the Samsung A736 that had 3G support. Which was originally going for $275 on a 2 year agreement.
3. Christina went off for a minute or so again, putting me on hold while I waited, and came back and told me that she could give me the phone for 181.33 taxes included.
4. HOLY CRAP!!! $181.33 for a phone? I don't even spend that much money on a DS Lite. I told her that it was way too expensive.
   
5. Surprisingly, she asked me how much I wanted to pay for the handset.
   
6. I told her that I would pay $50 for it.
   
7. She gave a counter offer for $75 dollars taxes included.
8. I was little interested and then proceeded to try to get it for even cheaper, but she didn't seem to budge.
   
9. Another surprise was that she recommended to me that I DON'T get the Samsung A736 because it really wasn't that good or was not very reliable. She went on to give details on why she wouldn't take the phone and suggested that i take the Motorola KRZR K1 or the Nokia 6300 because they could do the basic things and was more reliable. She would give me the Nokida 6300 for $17.48 taxes included.
   
10. I told her that I would reconsider the Samsung and would hang up so that it would give me time to review the offer that she had given me and also think of a better phone to choose from.
11. Before I hung up, I had to make sure that Christina had not actually applied any offers or plans to my account yet until I was fully sure that I wanted that offer. And after that, she told me that the offer would only be available to day. But I still hung up.

Wow, that was long an complicated. Anyway, I hung up and tried to think over what phone I wanted. The plan actually seemed not bad, because it met my requirements and it had most of the features that i wanted at the same price I was paying for.

Over the course of the day, I looked up reviews of the Samsung A736 and the Nokia 6300. I didn't look at any of the Sony Ericsson (SE) phones because there weren't any good ones from Fido. All the good SE phones were with Rogers. It turns out that there were a lot of mixed reviews of the Samsung A736. The primary problems that bugged were:

• lower battery life because 3G is constantly used and can't be turned off
• can't use MP3 ringtones because you need DRM protection on mp3s before you can use them for listening or ringtones.

Those above 2 are some very important things on phones that need, battery life and mp3 ringtones. And after hearing so much problems with people trying to get music onto the Samsung A736, I sort of gave up and looked at the Nokida 6300.

Many reviews of the Nokia 6300 were very positive and most of they were saying how it was one of the better phones from Nokia that had the regular features and nothing too fancy. The main arguing point for Nokia at this point was that it was able to perform so well on these basic features that I would be using most often and not things like 3G and web browsing.

The was 1 single concern about the Nokia 6300 that did pose a problem. It was that the phone needed to be DeBranded in order for me to put mp3s for ringtones. Compared to the Samsung A736, the task needed to do something like this was much simpler. So ultimately, the Samsung lost and I would be on my way to try my first Nokia phone.

At the same time that all this was happening, I posted my offer on redflagdeals and howardforms to see what other thought about the plan and asked for recommendations on what phone I should get instead of the the Samsung and the first reply came back several hours later saying that I should be able to get the Nokia 6300 for free if I sign right now. The person also said that the plan was pretty good and just lacked the unlimited receiving, which would be nice but I don't think is a deal breaker.

I called back to Fido Retentions and this time got a new agent, Jessica. Trying my luck this time, I tried to ask for unlimited incoming calls for the 2 year agreement but she wouldn't really budge there. She said that Christina was already giving me $21 dollars in credit per month. And honestly, I think I was pretty happy with their offer already, I was just being very greedy to get more.

When we got to the topic of choosing handsets, I told her that I wanted the Nokia 6300 phone. Jessica told me that it was a good choice because many other people at her office use it and are happy with it. I asked her to give me the phone for $0/free and she actually didn't really refuse this at all. She readily gave it to me for free and I was a happy camper.

I am so glad that Fido has changed in this direction this time around. I got what I really needed in my cell phone plan and I got a phone for free this time, literally. Not like last time where I had to pay $75 and then use the credit from other bonuses to sort of pay off the phone. I am expecting to see my phone coming in the next week and my plan will kick in on January 8-9th, when the new billing cycle starts.

What does this all mean? Well, I think that if you put the effort in this time, you can really get what you need and are looking for. This time around, Fido will be more nice and can give you more. The thing I love this time is that the bonuses last the 2 year agreement time, the phone was free and the agents were much nicer.

posted by lazypig @ 10:47 AM