"there is a discrepancy between what AT&T said what "qualified" and what a customer could theoretically do to be qualified."
No - they were quite clear with what criteria they set for eligibility. They didn't imply or make any gestures to imply that someone who did NOT meet those requirements would be able to "make it up after class" to qualify.
Understand?
As for best business practices - let me share something with you. For a few years I designed websites for people in the entertainment industry. I loved ALL of my clients and consider them (still) great friends. I also dropped or politely declined those people who I knew to be (or presented themselves to be) liabilities or extremely high maintenance. Sure - I lost out on their income - but MY bottom line was not only providing services to my clients, but also maintaining sanity for myself.
Conversely - imagine after you fulfull your contract in 2 years, ATT sent you a note saying "thanks for being a customer. We no longer wish to continue your contract" Would you be OK with that. If you're unhappy - you can leave. ATT doesn't really get that luxury...
Actually, just like your web design business, I'm fairly certain that AT&T has the right to refuse service to me. They're not legally obligated to be my wireless service provider.
If they wanted to cut their ties with me, they could do so. I suppose, depending on the contract, they might have to wait until my two years was up.
No - they were quite clear with what criteria they set for eligibility. They didn't imply or make any gestures to imply that someone who did NOT meet those requirements would be able to "make it up after class" to qualify.
Understand?
Perfectly. Never said there was a "make up after class".
I'm saying, any person can look at the numbers and realize that they were $120, $90, $80, maybe even as low as $24 dollars away from meeting the requirement, and would have certainly preferred to pay that amount over the previous 12 months, rather than pay the extra $200 at time of purchase.
In no way am I saying that they legally obligated to listen to me. In no way am I am saying they are legally obligated to
obey me. In no way am I saying they bait and switched me. Or tricked me. Or did something unjust.
I'm just saying, they should've realized this and created some way to allow the customer to pay the difference and be eligible. You can't spring some special exemption on your customer base that only applies to a select few and say "suck it" to the rest and expect to have droves of satisfied customers as a result. Had I known this memo would be the case on my contract on day one, I would've made arrangements to be eligible the legit way.
It's a simple good faith gesture. Just like the $200 credit on the original iPhone, the $30 iTunes cards and so on. I work at a theme park, where we make good faith gestures all the time to keep our guests happy. Because we realize that a lifelong satisfied guest is inherently more valuable than a guest that just blew $1000, but left unhappy. Even the guest that have ridiculous complaints (as many of you feel mine is), we go out of our way to keep happy. This idea that a customer sometimes isn't worth the trouble is just bad business. Unless they're breaking laws or wreaking havoc, every customer counts. I certainly did neither. I called, pointed out my reasons and made a case. I wasn't rude. But I certainly didn't joke. I can't fathom how I'm no longer "worth it" to AT&T, as there must be hundreds of thousands of people in my same situation with my same rate plan and same desires. And if only a small fraction of them feel the way I do, it still represents a good chunk of change.
updates their lineup each year.
