alanwashere.com

Fido Retentions plan – Negotiating Power

This post is in reference to a Fido Retentions thread on RedFlagDeals.com/forums.  In particular, please see:

http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/showpost.php?p=8522790&postcount=3764

[QUOTE=sw1ft;8522790]Took about 5-6 calls with Fido.  They goofed big-time and my account showed that I signed a 6-year contract (negotiating power).

200 minutes
Unlimited E/W from 5pm
2500 text messages
VM/CID
F2F
$17.10 (EPP)

+ $10 to add F2R/F2RHP
+ $15 BIS/Email (Blackberry plan)
+ $10 Unlimited incoming
- $10 credit
No SAF/911 Charges
~ $43 + taxes[/QUOTE]

This is EXACTLY what I’ve been trying to get (minus F2F) from retentions for the past 2 days, but they won’t budge on the VM/CID.  What was your technique in negotiating?

The 1st agent I spoke to offered me the regular $25 and $17.50 retention plans – I said I’d think about it.  The 2nd agent kept insisting that he can’t modify the other agent’s offer and that I need to speak with the other agent. I asked him to just make me a new offer and he flat out said he can’t. Do I have to straight-up say that I decline the previous agent’s offer before a new agent can offer me something else?

I tried the “playing dumb” and being polite route, but that didn’t get me anywhere. I’m so close to using the “I know you can do it, I know people who have gotten credits” method but my only proof is this thread and HoFo…

I’ll have to admit, this one was really tricky to do and I’ll say that I got lucky.  This involved a minor issue on my last billing cycle, which eventually turned into my advantage.

Fido call #1:
I upgraded to 2.2.1 on my 2g iPhone, without realizing that the jailbreak would restore the default EDGE settings.  Low and behold, I downloaded 7.8 MB on that same night and my data charges were through the roof ($230 in data).  I called Fido to see if the could do anything about this and mentioned that depending on how they handle the situation, I would cancel my contract and would NOT renew with them.

The CSR was very understanding and offered to add 500MB data onto my account retroactive to the beginning of the billing cycle.  This way the $230 data charges would be $25 instead.  I was happy and hung up.

Fido call #2:
The next day when my bill notification arrived and the balance still showed $230 in data charges + $25 in data charges + a $1 pro-rata charge for data.  I knew at this point that the original CSR must have keyed in the dates incorrectly so I called back to have this rectified.  After I confirmed that my account had been corrected, I left it at that.

A few days later
============

Retention Call #1:

I called Fido and told the CSR that I was cancelling my plan –> transferred to the ‘loyalty department’ (AKA retentions).

I mentioned that my contract up was expiring in a month and I was considering switching to Rogers.  I noted that I was looking to buy a Blackberry Bold, but would reconsider now that Fido has BIS and I would make other arrangements to buy an unlocked phone.  (I eventually bought an iPhone to sold it to buy a bold).  I then hinted that if they could give me unlimited network calling at a good rate, I would reconsider resigning with Fido.

The CSR asked me what price range I was looking for and I said “$35″.

He came back at me and said that this was impossible for unlimited network calling but could do F2F (unlimited Fido to Fido calling) for $31.50.  I insisted that that F2R (unlimited Fido to Rogers) calling and F2RHP (unimited Fido to Rogers Home Phone) was the critical factor here and could not do without it.  Anyways, he came back and told me that this would cost $47.50 (NO SAF/911).

Believe it or not, I agreed to this ($47.50) and was ok with the price.  I figured that this is what I normally pay (now) but I get what I really wanted:  unlimited network calling.

Fido call #4:
After I bought the Bold, I called back to add BIS/Email to my account.  (Note:  This was another $15 on top of my current plan.)  Out of curiosity, I asked if the CSR could review the notes on my last call to see what the price would be on my new upcoming renewal.  He advised that he couldn’t see any notes on the account aside from a “new plan starting April 16, 2009″.  In any case, my goal was to simply add BIS/email to my account.

Two days later, I checked my online account and my contract now read April 2009-April 2012.  I had been monitoring my account daily with expectations that Fido would screw up and this held true.

Fido Call #5:
I spoke with the CSR and mentioned that I upset to find that my contract had been re-newed on top of my re-renewal.  The CSR made the correction and mentioned that this had been done in error.

I simply said at this point that if I had not paid any attention to my account standings, this may have been missed entirely.  It would also be a breach of contract since I did NOT agree to a new 6-year term.  My concerns were that if I ever decided to cancel after 3 years, this may cause future problems.

At this point, I asked the CSR to review the notes on my account and to confirm all the changes on my account.  I had mentioned that every call that I’ve ever made with Fido results in numerous calls to correct the issues.  (i’ve had similar problems with my previous renewal and had to escalate to a supervisor).

The CSR then reviewed my account and mentioned that she could see that a $17.10 base plan had been added to my account, but this had only been for [B]F2F[/B].  This was frustrating at the least… note that earlier that I agreed to F2R/F2RHP and that was my original reason for renewing.  I brought this up to the CSR and she had added it back to my account.

I then asked her to tell me the cost of my new account and to repeat all the options that I had been entitled to.  I also asked for a goodwill credit (one-time $20 credit) for all the calls that I had to make to get my account cleaned up.

In summary, the original Retentions rep may have just given me the EPP plan even though it was technically “no longer available”.  After a few calls and starting to get really annoyed with Fido, I made them give in to my demands.  A few mishaps with Fido Retentions turned into immense negotiating power.

It’s also important to keep your eye the goal:  don’t take any bullshit  and fight for your rights.

Tags: EPP plan Fido, Fido loya, Fido Rention plan, Fido Retentions problems, Fido screwed up my account, Iphone data charges, Mishaps with Fido, Unlimited Network Calling

Re: Major cyber spy network uncovered

I came an interesting article this morning, which comes to show that national security is a threat at the hands of a hacker. In this day and age, technology plays a role in nearly all aspects of the world.

We are all connected, one way or another, through the Internet. This also explains why social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace have become ever so popular. This brings me to the larger picture: privacy data is being stored on an online medium.

Let’s examine Facebook.

Upon signing up, a user must agree to Facebook’s EULA (End User License Agreement) which specially states that all content on the social networking site is property of Facebook and can be shared with 3rd parties. Now, if you think about it, most Facebook users tend to list their personal information, educational background, work history, websites, and even their contact numbers.

This in turn makes them great candidates for identity theft. If the above information had been filled in, an indentity thief could easily use a person’s information in applying for obtaining information on a specific account. Let’s say for example that you are looking for billing information on your phone bill. Your phone provider will likely as you for your date of birth and postal code.

What worries me about the article is that there tends to be a degree of separation when it comes to tech savvy individuals and the rest of society. The level of comfort and understanding on security is one area that people tend to disregard. For instance a tech savvy person tends to create strong passwod; whereas a non-techie may pick something as simple as their own last name!

With that said, if a political leader has highly classified information on his/her laptop and uses a poor password schema, this potentially could be troublesome and dangerous!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7970471.stm

“Major cyber spy network uncovered”

An electronic spy network, based mainly in China, has infiltrated computers from government offices around the world, Canadian researchers say.

They said the network had infiltrated 1,295 computers in 103 countries.

They included computers belonging to foreign ministries and embassies and those linked with the Dalai Lama – Tibet’s spiritual leader.

There is no conclusive evidence China’s government was behind it, researchers say. Beijing also denied involvement.

The report comes after a 10-month investigation by the Information Warfare Monitor (IWM), which comprises researchers from Ottawa-based think tank SecDev Group and the University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies.

They were acting on a request from the Tibetan spiritual leader’s office to check whether the computers of his Tibetan exile network had been infiltrated.

Researchers found that ministries of foreign affairs of Iran, Bangladesh, Latvia, Indonesia, Philippines, Brunei, Barbados and Bhutan appear to had been targeted.

Hacked systems were also discovered in the embassies of India, South Korea, Indonesia, Romania, Cyprus, Malta, Thailand, Taiwan, Portugal, Germany and Pakistan.

Analysts say the attacks are in effect industrial espionage, with hackers showing an interest in the activities of lawmakers and major companies.

Compromised

The researchers said hackers were apparently able to take control of computers belonging to several foreign ministries and embassies across the world using malicious software, or malware.

“We uncovered real-time evidence of malware that had penetrated Tibetan computer systems, extracting sensitive documents from the private office of the Dalai Lama,” investigator Greg Walton was quoted by the Associated Press news agency as saying.

They say they believe the system, which they called GhostNet, was focused on governments in Asia.

By installing malware on compromised computers, hackers were able to take control of them to send and receive classified data.

In this case, the software also gave hackers the ability to use audio and video recording devices to monitor the rooms the computers were in. But investigators said they did not know whether or not this element had been used.

According to the New York Times, the spying operation is the largest to have been uncovered in terms of the number of countries affected.

In an abstract for the report entitled The Snooping Dragon: Social Malware Surveillance of the Tibetan Movement – posted on the IWM website – investigators said while such attacks were not new, these particularly stood out for their ability to collect “actionable intelligence for use by the police and security services of a repressive state, with potentially fatal consequences for those exposed”.

Increase Page Rank

Tags: cyber spy network, identity theft, security, social networking sites