Your mobile talk plan may hold a nasty surprise
Sidin Vadukut -
Monday, July 14, 2008 4:24 PM
There is no denying it. The economy is in tatters. The sensex is in doldrums and my mutual fund investments evoke two words: Bear Sterns. Good times, though, for HR people everywhere who can't wipe the smirks off their faces as they begin long, sorrowful all-employee emails with the line: "Now that ICICI Bank has slashed bonuses we have decided to rationalise our compensation structure by..."
In stunning irony, this will lead to an immediate saving in manpower cost which is the number one deliverable on your Vice President HR's performance evaluation this quarter leading to a 100% bonus for him or her.
But for those among us who are not in HR and not loaded with inherited wealth it is a time tighten those purse strings and hunker down while the winds of recession and inflation blow past.
So today I have a tiny little tip for those with mobile phone connections they have been loyal to for many years.
Now I've been using my particular cellphone connection for around three years now. In order to prevent any legal issue I will not be referring to said service provider by name. But we will only refer to it by the ambiguious, fictional name: "Sodafone".
So I'd picked up a Sodafone connection many moons ago, way back when it was still known as "Mausambi" as part of the corporate package of my then employer. I was given a nifty talk plan with cheap rates, free STD/ISD and all that. Of course back then there were so many talk plans and confusing options that I once had the memorable opportunity to inform my mobile salesman the benefits of the plan he was trying to sell me:
Sidin: "So I get free roaming?"
Salesman: "Yes. I think so. The brochure must have it?"
Sidin: "Does it?"
Salesman: "Doesn't it?"
Sidin: "Wait yes it does. It says so here!"
Salesman: "See! I told you."
And then, like most of us I am sure, I kept using the phone number over the years without ever giving a thought to my talk plan and tarrif rates. My bills seldom surprised me and I am not a huge mobile user anyways.
So last weekend I decided to log on to the Sodafone website to switch off my clogged and unchecked voice mail service and decided to give my talk plan a quick look see.
I was paying, dear reader, a criminal two bucks a minute for local calls to other mobiles. And had been doing that for years and years. It was most shocking. Here I am beaten and broken by the economic downturn and my mobile provider slyly overcharges me for my patronage. I'd never bothered to keep a track of latest talk plans most of which had become much cheaper over the years. And Sodafone had no incentive whatsoever to tell me either.
So if you want to immediately shave a few bucks of your monthly expense budget I suggest you give your talk plan a look see. If you've been using the same plan for years... you're probably wasting precious currency that you should use to subscribe to mint instead.
Which will eventually lead to bigger bonuses for me. Alternately you can be nice and just send me the cash.