T-Mobile cellular service - My Faves new phone?

Author

My Faves new phone?

Steven J. Sobol

2006-11-13, 3:33 pm

OK, so My Faves requires a contract extension and a compatible phone. The
contract extension I can understand; they could potentially lose a lot of
revenue on off-network calls. But a compatible phone? WTF wouldn't they have
implemented this feature on the backend instead of in the phone?!

--
Steve Sobol, Professional Geek ** Java/VB/VC/PHP/Perl ** Linux/*BSD/Windows
Victorville, California PGP:0xE3AE35ED

It's all fun and games until someone starts a bonfire in the living room.

Todd Allcock

2006-11-13, 10:33 pm

At 13 Nov 2006 20:47:25 +0000 Steven J. Sobol wrote:
> OK, so My Faves requires a contract extension and a compatible phone.
The
> contract extension I can understand; they could potentially lose a lot
of
> revenue on off-network calls. But a compatible phone? WTF wouldn't they
have
> implemented this feature on the backend instead of in the phone?!

They actually did. Tracking the calls to your designated five "free"
numbers is handled by T-Mo's billing department, of course. The phone
software allows you to create/modify your 5 favorite numbers list from
the handset. You can also manage it on the web from your PC.

I suppose the phone requirement is to ensure a faves customer has the
ability to create and modify their list ("you must have a PC with a
compatible browser and internet access" would be a strange requirement
for a wireless plan!), it also gives the customer a greater sense of
value- forcing an existing customer into a new contract just to take a
faves plan without giving them something tangible, like a new phone,
might create ill-will, and lastly, (in my opinion) to convince the
customer that the equipment is somehow part of the "magic," like that
"Fast Forward" service Cingular used to sell.

(In case you forgot, Cingular used to sell a cradle "device" that
forwarded your Cingular calls to your home phone for a monthly fee,
without their normal per-minute forwarding charges. That service was
handled on the backend as well, but Cingular forced you to buy the "Fast
Forward" cradle in order to subscribe to the service. The cradle was a
charging stand that "told" your phone to forward all calls to your home
number when you plugged the phone in, and cancelled forwarding when you
pulled it out, saving you the trouble of activating/deactivating
forwarding manually. The service worked exactly the same if you
forwarded manually, but Cingular liked to pretend the magic was in the
cradle (which spared them 40,000 "how do I turn call forwarding on
again?" support calls!)
Having said all that, they could've (and should've) placed the My Faves
management software on a secure WAP site rather than make it phone
software dependent, (particularly since T-Mo offers a free limited WAP
service to all customers anyway.)

BTW, many folks on HowardForums have reported success in getting the plan
without getting a compatible phone, so the service does "work" even w/o
the faves-compatible phone.

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

babolat

2006-11-25, 3:33 pm

I talked to a sales rep at a T-MO store and told him that apparently
some people have had success getting my faves on a non-approved phone
(I have a Samsung T-809 which does not have the my faves feature
built-in). He said that he could switch me at my own risk. Before I go
ahead and try the new plan (and risk losing my existing promotional
plan which is no longer offered), I was wondering what experience other
people have had with this? It would seem to work as long as one manages
the 5 faves via the web? Any questions, comments?

Todd Allcock wrote:
> At 13 Nov 2006 20:47:25 +0000 Steven J. Sobol wrote:
> The
> of
> have
>
> They actually did. Tracking the calls to your designated five "free"
> numbers is handled by T-Mo's billing department, of course. The phone
> software allows you to create/modify your 5 favorite numbers list from
> the handset. You can also manage it on the web from your PC.
>
> I suppose the phone requirement is to ensure a faves customer has the
> ability to create and modify their list ("you must have a PC with a
> compatible browser and internet access" would be a strange requirement
> for a wireless plan!), it also gives the customer a greater sense of
> value- forcing an existing customer into a new contract just to take a
> faves plan without giving them something tangible, like a new phone,
> might create ill-will, and lastly, (in my opinion) to convince the
> customer that the equipment is somehow part of the "magic," like that
> "Fast Forward" service Cingular used to sell.
>
> (In case you forgot, Cingular used to sell a cradle "device" that
> forwarded your Cingular calls to your home phone for a monthly fee,
> without their normal per-minute forwarding charges. That service was
> handled on the backend as well, but Cingular forced you to buy the "Fast
> Forward" cradle in order to subscribe to the service. The cradle was a
> charging stand that "told" your phone to forward all calls to your home
> number when you plugged the phone in, and cancelled forwarding when you
> pulled it out, saving you the trouble of activating/deactivating
> forwarding manually. The service worked exactly the same if you
> forwarded manually, but Cingular liked to pretend the magic was in the
> cradle (which spared them 40,000 "how do I turn call forwarding on
> again?" support calls!)
> Having said all that, they could've (and should've) placed the My Faves
> management software on a secure WAP site rather than make it phone
> software dependent, (particularly since T-Mo offers a free limited WAP
> service to all customers anyway.)
>
> BTW, many folks on HowardForums have reported success in getting the plan
> without getting a compatible phone, so the service does "work" even w/o
> the faves-compatible phone.
>
>
>
>
> --
> Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

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