Nashua Mobile Sucks

An agent from my cell phone service provider (Nashua Mobile) phoned the other day to advise that I was legible for an upgrade if I was prepared to sign-up for another 24 month contract. Standard practice. No objection. I asked him what my options were; I had had my eye on the new Nokia 5800:

	Current	Option #1	Option #2a
	MTN MyCall 100	MTN AnyTime 200	Vodacom Weekender
Monthly Included Minutes:	85 off peak mins 15 peak minutes	86 any time mins (approx)	120 off peak mins
Once off cost:	R0.00	R0.00	R1,799.00
Cost/month:	R135.00	R257.50	R135.00
Cost/24 months:	R3,240.00	R6,180	R5,039

Unfortunately, MTN have discontinued their popular MyCall 100 package, so my preference was for the Vodacom Weekender; it offered the most similar package to my current package, which had always been adequate for my needs, at a similar monthly cost. What I didn’t like was the once off charge; it seemed excessive for a mid-range phone.

So I shopped around:

	Option #2b
	Vodacom Weekender
Monthly Included Minutes:	120 off peak mins
Once off cost:	R299.00
Cost/month:	R135.00
Cost/24 months:	R3,539.00

That sounded a lot better. Phone Nashua Mobile back and sent I wanted to give notice on my contract asap, and port my number to Vodacom and a new service provider. “That early termination, and will incur a penalty”, I was informed, “there’s still 4 weeks until the end of the contract.” Now I was prepared to pay the monthly subs until the end of my contract, so why the penalty? Because I wanted to port my number (retain my number, despite switching to Vodacom). OK, how bad could it be, there’s only 4 weeks remaining (I didn’t want to miss the offer I had been quoted on):

R2,622.00! You’re kidding me, right?

Well, screw ‘em. I have been a customer with Nashua Mobile since my very first cell phone all those years ago, except for the 2 years I was overseas, and even then I went back to them when I returned, and now they’re pulling this petty ‘early termination’ crap because they can’t match the deal their competitor’s offering. Times are hard, and loyalty takes 2^nd place to price I’m afraid.

So on Friday I filled out the cancellation form, and next weekend I'll sign a new contract with Vodacom, via the VodaShop. I thought that was the end of it. No way! This morning I received the following SMS:

"From Nashua Mobile at 01/06/2009 09:07 Your subscription discount of R50.00 expires on 01/06/2009. Please note that standard charges will now be applicable."

This discount was part of the agreement when I renewed my contract 2 years ago, so I'm pretty sure they can't change the terms, but it's just not worth the argument. 

Come on Nashua Mobile, you’re better than this. Keep your customers with good service and the best prices. Don’t resort to underhand tactics to try and keep your customers; you’ll lose every time!

Thanks for reading.