Mike Andrews <mikea@chinet.chi.il.us> (06/14/91)
On Sunday of last week I spotted an ad in {The Chicago Tribune} for an
unusual cellular phone deal:
"Dads and Grads! Buy a Motorola phone and get a Motorola bag phone
free!" Triangle Mobile Electronics and Phones Plus "Ameritech Mobile
5-Star dealers" offered to install a Motorola car phone for $99, a bag
phone for $149, a portable handheld phone for $299, or a flip phone
for $499 with each including a free Motorola bag phone. All that was
required was a six month Ameritech Mobile service activation for each
phone.
I called and asked if everything was included, expecting that the
required antenna would be priced at $200, but I was assured that $99
was the full installed price. On Monday, I had the Motorola 250 car
phone installed at the Triangle store in Lincolnwood. I planned to put
CP-250 the "carry phone" in my wife's car. The phones were identical
internally and carried Ameritech labels. I watched carefully as I
signed the forms, waiting for the catch on the deal but there was
nothing unexpected. There is a $35 activation fee to Ameritech that
is billed with the first service bill. I signed a contract agreeing to
pay the dealer $300 each if I cancelled the Ameritech service before
the six months were up. The total paid to the dealer was $105 with tax.
The manager of the Triangle store had an interesting observation.
They had been selling this phone at $499 just six months ago. It sold
incredibly well for that price. Then lowered the price to $299 and
sales actually slowed. At this $99 price with free bag phone the
sales were almost dead. It seems that nobody wants to buy a "cheap"
phone! Most customers were skeptical like me and were looking for
hidden charges. At the same time I was buying mine other customers
were buying a Gold Star phone for $99 without the free bag phone. I
suppose it doesn't make sense to commit to the expense of two cellular
phone numbers if you only need one phone.
I think this is an incredible deal in any case. The offer ends on
June 18th. Some dealers are advertising "free" phones on the radio,
but I'm sure they will charge for installtion. I wonder if the dealer
gets a continuing commission on your service usage. If his end is only
$300, I don't see how it could be profitable enough.
BTW, My phone seems to have a intermittent quirk where it thinks it is
out of the service and indicates that it's in Roam mode when it is
actually well within the service area. The first time that happened
was right in my own driveway where the bag phone worked fine. I had to
move the car to clear it up. When the same thing happened while on
the road recently, I powered off/on the phone to clear it. I'm
planning to have the phone serviced to check the receive sensitivity.
Does anybody else have any experience with this phone? Is this
problem typical?