Dear Viaero,
I just wanted to tell you that I love the fact that after two years of being with you that you are now finally able to offer the Blackberry in your cell phone lineup. I applaud this and am really happy…it’s been the one reason that I think of switching to Alltel once every 3 months or so. I then remember how great Alltel’s coverage is and decide that not having a blackberry is much better than not being able to use my cell phone when I need it. Heck, I wanted a blackberry so bad that had you NOT introduced it when you did (3 months later than when I was initially told it would be available), I was going to go get an AT&T cell phone with a Denver phone number just so I could have a Blackberry (please keep this comment in mind, it will come back up here soon).
Now, I personally do not yet have a blackberry (YET), I’m second on the list at my company to get one. I make the list on who gets what, I wanted the boss to have one, him having one is great because we all just email AND it helps me sell the technology so I can get more of them…..thereby making YOU(Viaero) more money. However, the one feature that I want is tethered modem, and after getting the bosses new phone and all the people I’ve talked to, I am holding off on getting anymore.
Now, I am ranting about how much I want this feature, and I do, however, I want this feature because I don’t NEED internet access while I am on the road all that much. I drive back and forth to Scottsbluff and Denver, on a rare occasion we have equipment problems and I need to remotely go in and work on equipment. This doesn’t happen very often, thus why it is NOT worth $40.00 a month and screaming fast service. However, it IS worth $10.00 a month and somewhat slower service.
Back to the story, the boss needed a new cell phone anyway so I went ahead and got a BB8800 (or 8810…I can’t remember). The sales guy shows up, does a great job activating it and getting the blackberry going and all that. I then ask about tethered modem support, point out that AT&T, Verizon, Sprint & T-Mobile ALL offer this service for between $10.00 and $15.00 extra a month. Sales guy says, yeah, I asked they said we have no plans now or in the future to do this. However (and here’s where I start getting upset), for only $99.00 and $40.00 a month I can get a PCMCIA card that goes into my laptop and I can get internet with that. Good try on the up sell, while I somewhat understand the thinking there I have one problem with this. I don’t want to pay $40.00 a month for my blackberry unlimited plan and ANOTHER $40.00 for unlimited internet access…that’s $80.00 a month for something that I can get for about $55.00 from any other carrier all while only needing to have ONE device that I carry around. I want a blackberry, I want to have email at my fingertips, and my laptop is kind of bulky to do that with. The sales guy said he understood my point and apologized that Viaero didn’t offer that feature/service. I’m not mad at him, it’s not his fault…he’s just selling what he can.
My next idea is to jump sales and just call the customer service center. Jackpot, I talk to the “Blackberry Guru”, he says that you guys aren’t going to offer tethered modem because in speed tests it is slower than using the PCMCIA cards. I tell him that it’s great but I outline WHY I want tethered modem instead. He’s nice but tells me that if I want internet I must get the PCMCIA card.
This brings us to today, right about 4:30 PM MT. Viaero calls me and my Viaero contract is up for renewal in October but I am such a great customer that I can pick out a new phone and contract now. I then notice one thing…my cell phone number is the main number for our ENTIRE contract for all 15 phones that we have at the company. So, I COULD re-up all 15 phones for the company for a year or two, or I could just drop them to their own plans, and move to someone else as the contracts come up. I ask the sales rep to review our last 6-8 months worth of bills…most of our calls are mobile-to-mobile so I have no NEED for the 15,000 minute plan and I would like to look at dropping down to a few less minutes (10,000 instead). Nothing major, you’ll still get a pretty big chunk of cash if I do re-up, and I like that you’re giving Alltel a run for their money, you have local stores, and your people at least pretend to care when I have a problem vs. Alltel who just tell me to go take a hike and always argue if they actually provide service in Nebraska.
All I’m asking is to hear why I don’t need the $40.00 a month always on internet and realize that I understand that tethered modem is slower…I would love to see how much slower and make the determination myself. I don’t need to use the service all that much. I have no use for a local in-state number, I work for a phone company, and I have a different number that forwards to my cell phone…this way if I change carriers nobody has to know. Which brings me full circle; AT&T has a really nice roaming network here in Nebraska. Their data services are pretty quick, I know this because one of my bosses has a brand new iPhone, and low and behold when he’s here, it works really nice. Now, if you read down a little more you will see that I don’t want an iPhone…just tethered modem. However, AT&T also has that to offer. So, please read this and let me know. Leave a comment or figure out my cell phone number, anyone in your Imperial, NE should know who I am. And please, be nice to the sales people, they really are great!!!
Sincerely Yours,
Nick C
Cell: 3-6587 (you should be able to figure it out from this)
