should change the title now to I :wub: tmob.
been tmob customers for about 8 years, closing in on 4 without contract. lately the bill has been going up for messaging charges as I don't have any message plan and the cheapest per line being $5 didn't matter since it never went much above that. got the wife a nuron as her latest phone and first full smartphone category and the text charges have started to grow.
so i called retention and said wanted to look at getting my bill down and I finally managed to snag the ever elusive $10 family unlimited text plan. on top of that he bumped my way old grandfathered 400min family plan up to 600min at the same cost. I did have to agree to a contract extension, but they threw in a month free and I asked first about upgrading my phone (which would have ticked on an extension anyways). after verifying that $99 after rebate for the 9780nc I said I wanted to stop by the local store first before getting one shipped.
local place was OOS and the chick that was there said everyone in the area was out (hello, clue to you providers, people do want and need top of the line no camera choices). so i call back once i get home and use the call me option since they were busy. seems the person calling back wasn't in the retention department though. first she asked me what the first guy quoted me on the phone ($99 after MIR) and then went through the order process...but did so for the w/camera version. after I corrected her she said they didn't have a no camera version. I questioned her and she put me on hold then came back saying the same so I hung up and called back.
This time I waited on hold to get retention, and not surprisingly the guy knew about the phone. He did take a moment to find some supply of stock (if I were to guess since they've been selling so well they probably have a limited on hold reserve for replacement/warranty stuff and loyalty program deals). The best part and what makes the previous guys screwup ok, is he didn't ask me what the original quote was. So when he took my card info he quoted a price of about $75 total (he did say he was doing the MIR automatically). So seems I went from a 199-100 MIR to a 199-150AIR. (roughly about a $60 savings after calculating the MIR)
woo hoo, good times and the phone will be here by tuesday.