While that certainly is a nice way to position it, it is not actually the case. The fact is, Fido suggested waiting for a Black Friday sale, indicating it
could decide to mark down the phone. I don't need a new phone right now, Im happy to wait. But the response that indicated zero change to the full retail price of the phone until a possible sale, is essentially devoid of loyalty.
Here is how Fido should handle things like this: put customers with loyalty whom want the latest phones such as myself, onto a list of people for whom can receive phones once the initial burst of enthusiastic customers has waned. You don't need to promise anything beyond looking at past trends and seeing when that general timeframe might be... tell loyalty customers "usually in about 2 months following release" or whatever the case may be, and then they either have a choice. If they have qualified for the loyalty option, then they can wait or they can buy it now at full price. They should, of course, receive it before a Black Friday sale that discounts it and the sale shouldn't discount it more than they are paying, so obviously you would want to make sure your threshold for those that qualify for loyalty would be such that their phone cost fairly is below any upcoming sale cost so as not to upset them by feeling like their loyalty really didn't matter if they had just waited for a sale.
The options for me, are limited. I won't go to an Android as I can't stand the platform. Apple offers a level of security that they claim is superior to other brands. I'm not sure if this is true anymore but if it is, I only have the one option to upgrade to. So for me, being put on a list for a phone once Fido is confident the initial burst of enthusiastic sales has waned and stock of the phone starts to be in surplus, that is fine for me.
I might get impatient and inquire still in a month or two, but ultimately nobody with 23 years loyalty would want to pay full price for a phone that the retail cost is bringing large profits to the retailer from the sale of a device of any kind that is needed in order to utilize the services of Fido Mobility. Nobody with 10 years loyalty would want to either, and the scale between these two examples of years of loyalty, 10 and 23, would determine the level of which a phone should be discounted from the retail price. Ultimately, Fido is still making money from the phone and from the plan/services.
These are reasonable ways to conduct mobile business. It is unreasonable to suggest that this isn't possible. A friend of mine works for Fido, he told me that the mobile industry has changed a lot and Fido doesn't care a lick about loyalty anymore. I don't know whether that is true or not, this interaction seems to suggest it is, but I don't accept that as a principle and if Fido believes that and engages like that now, it should become widely known as I don't think many people would stick with their provider if they knew that their loyalty meant as little as my friend suggested Fido (and Rogers to be fair, he said), deem it to mean.
In any case, while the invitation to discuss this via PM has been made to me, in doing so there was a flat out refusal to connect me with OOP. While you have cited that they don't do negotiations, this may or may not be true and I suspect Fido will make every attempt to stand behind that now, but there are many reasons one wishes to speak with superiors and the assumption is that I only want to speak about my phone.
It is unprofessional to say no, you won't engage someone with your superior when they ask, because it indicates something to hide. I'm sure some directive has come down to try to eliminate calls like mine, as the corporate mentality does over time, but it is those who supported back in the early days who got Fido in the position it is in today. Over the years I have brought Fido numerous customers, probably a couple dozen personal clients, who bring in other people them self and so on. Fido has enjoyed those benefits, at least one of which became a corporate client through me.
These forums are meant for customers to discuss, to exchange freely their ideas and thoughts and experiences. I already have the number for OOP and several of the people who work there. I have their emails and whatnot, many of them would refer me to customer service if I engaged them on this discussion anyway. Some would likely not, I know of one or two who would probably handle it differently. But I don't like to abuse their help, and have no issue with going the regular channels as I know how to reach them if I need to. I'm confident that rather than that, there is a solution that meets both of our needs and business objectives but for that, it's going to take a different approach. The current one from Fido doesn't work for either of us, I'm confident.
