Rob Cottingham

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15 Nov 2005

Telus loses Derek Miller

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Category: Technology

Derek is switching:

[T]he company is offering new ADSL customers a free 2 GB iPod nano for signing up to a three-year term at a monthly rate similar to, or a bit less than, what I’m paying now (two- or one-year terms will get you an iPod shuffle, but I already have one of those). Notice that’s new customers. I phoned up to see what better offer Telus has for existing, loyal customers like me.

Guess what? Nothing.

As he points out, it’s far more expensive to land a new customer than to keep an existing one — a lesson that Telus seems to have forgotten.

They lost us a while ago, and while the switch to Shaw wasn’t completely trouble-free, I haven’t regretted it yet.

Is this just a monopolist’s mentality that hasn’t yet caught up to a competitive marketplace? Or does Telus figure that for most people, the transaction costs of moving to a competitor are enough to keep them loyal?

  • http://islandofdoubt.net James Hrynyshyn

    Let me get this straight: Derek wanted Telus to give him $250 in merchandise as a way of making up for unethical web-blocking behavior? While I agree Telus behaved abominably, seems to me that to switch to Shaw just because you didn’t get something for nothing suggests a motive that has as much to do with greed as anything. Why not simply call Telus and tell them you are leaving because you are unhappy with their actions w.r.t. blocking pieces of the web. To say, “I think you guys behaved unethically, but I will overlook that if you give me a bobble or two” is hypocrisy, pure and simple.

  • http://www.penmachine.com/2005/11/farewell-telus-you-blew-it.html Derek

    I left another response on my site too:

    http://www.haloscan.com/comments/penmachine/113201036790577279/#219140

    What I’m saying is “I think you guys behaved unethically. AND you’re treating me and other long-term customers like you don’t care about us. Together, those two things have made me leave.”

    Sure, maybe I’m hypocritical. I’m self-interested. I am a typical customer in that respect, and I have been loyal to Telus for years because…well…I don’t really know. Because Rogers @Home cable (Shaw’s predecessor) sucked when I first got broadband, and because it’s a pain to change, I guess.

    I didn’t like the web-blocking behaviour and it made me think of leaving. But it didn’t quite push me over the edge. Had Telus shown me that it had some interest in my staying — some financial or service incentive that showed that it cared more about me as a long-term customer than its latest new-customer pursuits — I might have stayed on. Or maybe not. I was pretty fired-up about switching in July, but I have young kids and lots of other stuff I do, and it sort of slid by the wayside.

    Now Telus has reminded me that it’s taking me for granted. So I’m gone. Straw that broke the camel’s back and all that.

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