T-mobile isn't too bad. $44 for 600 anytime minutes and unlimited nights and weekends. No roaming within the states.

 

Can you hear me now? Good!

Love that line.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Kekoa
[B]T-mobile isn't too bad.

 

That probably has more to do with the dealer commissioning and equipment pricing structure and less with the quality of service, carriers provide different equipment prices and activation incentives to different companies. If Best Buy was unable to negotiate a pricing structure they found adequate they may well have just walked away from the deal.

Here's a common scam that takes place in the industry:

Company A is a big national "warehouse" direct to consumer store. Company A gets a fantastic deal on handsets, usually prepaid handsets.

Company B is a small mom and pop shop; they have to pay 40 dollars per unit MORE than company A.

Company B realizes this and starts buying phones from Company A and reselling them as their own in order to turn a bigger profit.
Arbitrage costs the carriers tens of millions per year and yet oddly I have not seen a single one who could serialize their inventories to the levels necessary to legally go after those doing it. Heck, I have even heard stories of kids working in one store, walking out the back door with boxes of phones and selling them at their own shop down the street, and getting away with it for years.

 

unfortunately, in this case, that is not true. Since it would be safe to assume that Best Buy is company A.

Best Buy, and other Warehouse store that get volume discounts from carriers still get paid the same way as small mom and pop stores. Unless the warehouses are selling the phones at or above what they purchase the phone for, they will lose money. How they survive is the carriers will pay each activation a set amount.

That is why you have to sign up for service when you buy the phone, otherwise, you have to pay a whole lot more for the phones.

Employee theft of the phones have no bearing, because well, that is simply theft. real Mom and Pop stores will not want to sell phones that have been stolen. Carriers do track the serial numbers and will know right away who has what phone.

You can't steal a T-mobile phone, and activate it on a suncom store... phones are good on that system. Some can be crossed over, but most of them can't.

Granted, these large contracts are probably based on what the carriers will do for the company. If T-mobile promises to pay best buy $100 for each activation, and other carriers will pay $150, i would sell the other carriers, but i don't know why they would just simply stop selling the service. I went to best buy the other day, and saw a lot of empty spaces for phone displays.

On that note, that is why a lot of times, i don't trust those sales people. If you ask them which carrier is the best, they will tell you most likely which one will pay them the most.

 

i will throw my hat into this ring......

i work for cellular infrastructure group within a network provider....name to be left mentionless here....but i work in CDMA which is Verizon, ALLTEL, and Sprint......

I can tell you that a lot depends on location and coverage.....you can go to KC at my parents place and have horrible PCS coverage but have great coverage everywhere else because the world headquarters is there.....Bill Esrey has a BTS in his attic.....long story......

anywho, I can also tell you that sprint and verizon neither want the portability...that will just add to churn and drive down prices...we all know this......and it will make more of me and my coworkers leave......

I can also tell you that a lot of customers....national and international do the stringing along of payments.....verizon, KDDI, etc.....with all of their suppliers.......

and right now the only provider i know that operates at a no debt is ALLTEL....but who cares....if i were you, i would go with Nextel....push to talk is amazing and the next big thing to hit the streets.....

are you looking for data or just voice? if you just want voice, you can go with anyone and get the same thing pretty much......most carriers operate about 93-97% good call rates......and the rest are just unlucky bastards that drop.....

 

I don't mean to be a contrarian here, but commission structures are also varied by region and seller.

I think you are missing the point of what arbitrage is. One seller (A) gets a better deal on the price than seller B. Seller B buys the product from seller A (who is still turning a profit) for less than they could buying directly from the source. Thus the phone company has lost the difference in price it would make was seller B to buy from them.

Not really, at least in the GSM world, many can't track the IMEI from an inventory nor an activation perspective. At the switch you can tell which IMEI's are in use and in theory black/grey list them as needed. This was conceptually a great idea but something that has not really come to any fruition on a large scale yet.

Sure you can. In the GSM world the handset (IMEI) is just a shell device. You don't activate the phone, you activate the SIM. You are your SIM and can travel from handset to handset (or other device) as you wish.

 

I might be bias, b/c I work for Sprint as a Sales Manager, but in all honesty Verizon is a great as well, but Sprint is too. If you get a lot of drop calls, make it priority to get the phone updated if you have Sprint. It's free and takes less then 30 minutes of your time. If you still have problems call customer service and they'll credit you often enough 100-150 for a new phone. Also *2 TALK, hit 1, say Drop Call, and they'll credit you .50 back up to 5 dollars each month. Great way to make your bill less. I have the Sanyo 8100 *Camera*, and have yet to get a signal faded or drop call. If anyone wants advice on what Sprint phone to get or what plan. PM me and i'll help you.

-Trung

 

it all truly depends on your location, what you are using your phone for and how much you use your phone.......not all networks are the same.....

and i will say, i have been to verizon in the east and the west and verizon in the east is much more responsible and on top of their network then the guys are in the west.....they know their stuff and like to O&M things in a quicker manner than the guys in the west......

 

i do have to confess that i am not up to speed on the whole SIM card and GSM service...but it is hard to imagine you allowing to purchase a phone from suncom, which is now GSM /TDMA.. and using it on Tmobile.. i don't think it would completely work...

As far as store 2 buying it from store 1. why would store 1 sell it to the mom and pop store, take the loss on the equipment.. and not get credit for the sale?

The carriers won't pay commission on the phone, because it wasn't activated, the big warehouses won't get paid.. they lose money on the equipment.. so. basically.. everyone loses, except the mom and pop...

Anyway, we aren't going to get anything cleared up...

what was the point of this post anyway? was it to help someone out? or was it to debate the best carrier? i forgot...

It is good to see so many people in the wireless business. I think if we had some sort of forum to ourselves, we can help potential customers out... if someone wants Sprint, they can go to SpEeDxXxRaCeR, Suncom, they can go to Airgate, Verizon.. me... and so forth.. and we can answer any questions you might potentially have... we all know everyone is going to say their carrier is the best.. and yada yada yada.... so.. that aside... can't we just get along!!! haha...