Why Wind Mobile lost two customers today

Actually, in this case I think the main problem was incomplete information posted here. To get the HAITF you have to go to a corporate store and you have to have the brochure with you. These are things the poster in the other thread failed to mention.

As far as I can tell, they don't have the brochure in stores. I don't know how you get the form, other than online or from a Wind CSR with whom you are either friends or family. A bulletin went out about this two weeks ago, but many of their in store CSRs don't read the bulletins regularly.

This is probably a silly way of doing things, but I can sort of understand why. Wind doesn't want to advertise this too much because they devalue their own product. They put the form out there, leaked the information on it to MobileSyrup, and put out a bulletin for their CSRs. In this case, it sounds like the CSR at the corporate store didn't read her bulletins properly. As for the lengthy wait time on the phone, I suspect that's due to their boxing day sale combined with the imminent end of the Holiday Miracle Plan. I recommend using their online chat service anyway, whenever possible.

You also would have run into the issue that you can only have one HAITF per person, so unless you made it pre-paid in your kids' names you would only be able to activate one account.

I checked with a couple of people and it looks like the CSRs can't give the forms out. What happened was Wind offered this plan up to a few organizations to offer internally to their employees (this kind of thing happens all the time at my work). Of course, since this isn't 1985, someone leaked the form online, but it was never meant for everyone.

The idea is that Wind CSRs aren't supposed to give the form out because you need to get it from the organizations who are supposed to distribute it. That's why it doesn't seem to be on their website. At one time they didn't need a referrer, but since they discovered the form was leaked, you're now supposed to list the organization who gave you the form.

Wind is at fault here for not realizing that this would be leaked online within minutes, and the CSR is at fault for not explaining how the HAITF works.

I get offers that come across my desk all the time for discounts on theatre tickets, theme parks, vacations, etc. One of my friends, who works for one of the banks, gets discounted tickets and products through his concierge service all the time.

It's arguably shady, but it is the reality of doing business in Canada. You can't buy off officials (or at least not as many of them) like you can elsewhere in the world, so companies use these kind of tactics to beat the system instead. I guess the takeaway here is that Wind is no different than any other wireless carrier. I'll continue to use them, but only for the same reason I used them before: they're cheap and unlike the other three they haven't screwed with me yet. I have no illusions of their higher moral code.

I'd recommend taking a look at Mobilicity. Their $25/month plan probably covers the needs of your kids (unlimited local calling and texting) and if you're willing to commit, if you pay 6 months up front the price drops to the same $20 as Wind. Also, if anyone is likely to hold to a higher moral code I'd say it's them.

Edit: If you sign them up for a family plan the total bill would be $45/month for the two lines, without any upfront commitment.

On reading that form I'd say that Wind should have stated clearly on it that the special deal is available only to [insert name of target group here] and that the offer can only be processed at [insert store location(s) here]. A simple mail merge would accomplish exclusive delivery to only the targeted people named. If someone is not in that group, too bad.

As to whether giving special deals to certain groups is appropriate, it is one of the foundational principles of business, commerce, and capitalism. As an example, think of the principle of the "loss leader" and how it is selectively targeted to achieve other profits that are expected to exceed the immediate loss in revenue. In this case I don't see what Wind has done as any sort of problem, but the implementation and the staff behaviour was terrible.

They offer deals to some (some undisclosed organizations) but not others.

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I don't know about who they offered it too, but special plans for members of certain groups is nothing new. Several years ago, when I first got a cell phone, I was working for Unitel and was able to get a special plan from Rogers (they were part owner of Unitel at that time). Later on, when I started working at IBM, I was able to get a better deal, as IBM had made arrangements with both Rogers and Bell. Then, a few years later, with another employer, I was able to get an even better one. However, in each case, I got the deal as an employee of some company and could not have arranged that deal on my own. I believe the CAA also had some deal for memebers a while ago.

I can't believe the dealer couldn't provide the necessary form.

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As I indicated above, those deals might be available only to members of certain organizations. At IBM, I filled in the info on a web site that was only available internally to IBM employees. On another occasion, I had to provide an employee number.

JamesK, where on the form does it say its restricted to a specific organization?

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I didn't say it did. I just pointed out that as a member of some group you may be able to get a better deal, provided you can show you're a member. However, I agree there should be some mention of what group it applies to, if not on the actual form, then from the place you obtained it from. I suspect, in this case, someone made public something that wasn't intended to be. In my own experience, I don't recall seeing any form that said only a specific group (This could be some offer the carriers make to business customers in general), but the info about the deal was made available to those members and proof of membership was required.

So, in the case of Wind, it might be assume that since it was offered directly to a specific group (friends & family of Wind employees) then such a limitation might be assumed. The problem was caused by someone publicly posting the offer without stating the limitation. By way of comparison, when I was at IBM, I was able to buy IBM products at a discount for myself and at a lesser discount for family. When my sister bought some software, she didn't see anything from IBM, until she received her order. I placed the order for her. I would never dream of taking the IBM employee price list and posting it on a public site.