I laughed out loud when I saw a commercial for Sprint PCS' new "Fair and Flexible" plan. A woman asks a bunch of children, "tell me exacltly how many minutes you plan on using this ball every day for the next two years. If you guess to few then you'll get slammed with overage charges, if you guess to many then - well, that's just a waste isn't it?". So true!
So, like a good consumer I checked out their new plan. It's nothing but overage charges, rounded up! They start with $35 for up to 300 minutes. Up until the 700-minutes per month mark, they hit you with a $2.50 cost bump for each additional 25 minutes, and then it's $2.50 for every 50 minutes extra. It's like paying .5 - .10 in overage charges but 25 minute chunks at a time. If you just stuck with their standard plan, you'd save $15 less per month using 500 minutes, $22.50 on 700, and going on up. If you occassionally go over on the standard plan, .40/minute is much easier to swallow than this lump sum silliness.
I Can't say I'm surprised, but I am disappointed. The only thing worse than shafting your customers is airing a commercial about how your customers are getting shafted and advertising a product that shafts them just as badly.
"How does your cell phone company make you feel?"