How not to show customer appreciation
Showing that you appreciate your loyal customers is a good thing to do, but doing it the T-Mobile way is not very appreciated. I just received a promotion from T-Mobile for being in the top 5% of their most loyal customers. It gives me a free companion plane ticket if I buy one from them at regular price. What a nice thing for them to do, right? I decided price out a flight from Oakland, CA to Tampa, FL for March 2009. The cost of a single round trip ticket was $815! Then I thought maybe it was spring break week for college students and Florida is a popular destination and therefore would drive the price up. So I checked Expedia.com and found the exact same flight for two passengers at $845. So what T-mobile is telling me is that my eight years of loyalty is worth, $30. The fact is that I was more content with them before they sent me this promotion. Now that I know my loyalty is only worth $30 to T-Mobile, I should shop around for a higher bidder. Maybe I can get $35! 