[C Youngblood]

Over 50,000 BlackBerry users have upgraded to a new device since April's "loyalty offer" | TmoNewsTmoNews

Back in March/April T-Mobile and BlackBerry had something of a public fallout. T-Mo had been reaching out to existing BlackBerry-toting customers offering them an upgrade to an iPhone. BlackBerry’s chief responded, calling the marketing effort “inappropriate and ill-conceived”. After various back and forths involving a trade-in offer and a $100 ShopBlackBerry discount, T-Mobile launched a new “loyalty offer” in April.

Customers upgrading their BlackBerry phones for a Samsung would get a $200 prepaid credit card sent to them in the mail. In short: T-Mo really wanted customers to swap their BlackBerry for a Samsung-made phone. But, if you happened to go with another manufacturer’s device, you’d get a $100 rebate.

In an internal memo today, it’s been revealed that T-Mobile has since upgraded 50,000 BlackBerry users to new devices. And if I had to guess, I’d suggest not many of those 50,000 upgraded to a new BlackBerry, since the two companies have ended their professional relationship.

“The BlackBerry Loyalty Offer launched in April and has provided savings to over 50,000 customers who have upgraded to a new device! In order to keep the momentum going and provide the best customer experience possible, the fulfillment of the offer will be changing from a bill credit to a Mail in Rebate beginning August 6.”

T-Mobile has also changed the method of getting the rebate. In the first week (April 4-10), customers got the credit directly on their bill within 90 days of purchase. Anyone taking advantage between April 10 and Aug 5th (today) got a prepaid MasterCard sent out automatically. Between tomorrow (April 6) and the the end of the year, customers will now have to download a submission form available at http://www.t-mobile.com/promotions using code ‘Loyalty3Q4′. The form must be downloaded and submitted within 30 days of the upgrade.

Customers should receive their rebates within 8 weeks of submitting the form.

“Offer Details

Eligible customers who upgrade from a BlackBerry to a qualifying device will receive the following promotional savings via a Mail in Rebate:Note: Customers who upgraded on or before August 5 will receive a Mail in Rebate in the form of a Prepaid MasterCard automatically.
$200 Prepaid MasterCard for customers who upgrade to a Samsung device
$100 Prepaid MasterCard for customers who upgrade to other devices
Must upgrade with EIP.
No trade-in required.
No migration fees for qualified BlackBerry customers.Account must be active and in good standing at the time of payout.
Billing Responsible Party will be liable for migration fees charged to lines not qualified for this offer.
Note: Customers who upgraded on or before August 5 will receive a Mail in Rebate in the form of a Prepaid MasterCard automatically.
The credit cannot exceed the price of the handset.
To redeem the customer must download the promotional request form from http://www.t-mobile.com/promotions using promo code Loyalty3Q4.
Submission form must be downloaded and submitted within 30 days of upgrading.”
To sum it up, T-Mobile has managed to turn an event which could have damaged its reputation in to a very successful campaign of upgrading customers’ old BlackBerry phones for brand new shiny Samsungs.

[raino]

What's conveniently missing is the number of phones that were eBay/Craigslist/pawn shop trade-ins.

Also, a comment from the editor of TMONews:

[The $100 offer, vs. the better known $200 offer] wasn't a heavily marketed offer. They kept it kinda secret. They didn't want BlackBerry seeing they were offering a cash incentive for customers to ditch their BB's.

[Denise in Los Angeles]

What's conveniently missing is the number of phones that were eBay/Craigslist/pawn shop trade-ins.

Also, a comment from the editor of TMONews:

Very few people knew that particular detail. On FatWallet.com, the folks were laughing it up about buying used BBs for $50-60 in order to trade them in for the $200 credit.

[sentimentGX4]

What's conveniently missing is the number of phones that were eBay/Craigslist/pawn shop trade-ins.

Also, a comment from the editor of TMONews:

Very few people knew that particular detail. On FatWallet.com, the folks were laughing it up about buying used BBs for $50-60 in order to trade them in for the $200 credit.

You are confusing the April onward loyalty offer with the initial, Twitter feud Blackberry trade-in offer from February. The February offer was notorious for bringing in eBay Blackberries due to the gaping loop holes allowing a customer to trade in multiple devices.
T-Mobile $200 Trade In Credit For Your Blackberry 02-19-2014 - Slickdeals.net

T-Mobile had another Blackberry trade-in promotion April onward. This is a long term promotion and this trade-in offer had more modest/restrictive terms.
http://slickdeals.net/f/6834602-t-mo...blackberry?v=1

Limited time offer; subject to change. Taxes and fees additional. $200 Offer: Offer for current customers using BlackBerry devices as of 4/3/14.

http://www.t-mobile.com/offer/100-do...62&PID=4485850

There were NO random, unactivated eBay devices in the second promotion. The user had to be using a Blackberry on T-Mobile and the deadline for the usage pre-dates the offer announcement.

The memo is in clear reference to the April promotion. So Blackberry lost roughly 50,000 subscribers in the April promotion + the subscribers it lost in the February promotion.

[raino]

So Blackberry actually did lose roughly 50,000 subscribers

How can this be said even under the more "restrictive" terms? What constitutes a subscriber? TMO's a GSM carrier, so if I bought an old BB or had one lying around, swapped my SIM into it before the 4/3 deadline, am I a BB subscriber too? Those who want to game the system know how to do it.

Also, I love how they're actually making the promotion more difficult to avail of (bill credit to a mail-in rebate.) I thought this was about the customers, Legere?

[lift]

“Offer Details

Eligible customers who upgrade from a BlackBerry to a qualifying device will receive the following promotional savings via a Mail in Rebate:Note: Customers who upgraded on or before August 5 will receive a Mail in Rebate in the form of a Prepaid MasterCard automatically.
$200 Prepaid MasterCard for customers who upgrade to a Samsung device
$100 Prepaid MasterCard for customers who upgrade to other devices
Must upgrade with EIP.
No trade-in required.
No migration fees for qualified BlackBerry customers.Account must be active and in good standing at the time of payout.
Billing Responsible Party will be liable for migration fees charged to lines not qualified for this offer.
Note: Customers who upgraded on or before August 5 will receive a Mail in Rebate in the form of a Prepaid MasterCard automatically.
The credit cannot exceed the price of the handset.
To redeem the customer must download the promotional request form from http://www.t-mobile.com/promotions using promo code Loyalty3Q4.
Submission form must be downloaded and submitted within 30 days of upgrading.”
To sum it up, T-Mobile has managed to turn an event which could have damaged its reputation in to a very successful campaign of upgrading customers’ old BlackBerry phones for brand new shiny Samsungs.

With no trade-in required, how do they know you are a BlackBerry user?

[Denise in Los Angeles]

With no trade-in required, how do they know you are a BlackBerry user?

Your phone is listed on your "My T-Mobile" page.

Posted with the Diva's Z10.

[raino]

Your phone is listed on your "My T-Mobile" page.

Lol that listing is woefully inaccurate. Mine still shows the 9780--the last phone I bought through TMO

[lift]

Lol that listing is woefully inaccurate. Mine still shows the 9780--the last phone I bought through TMO

True. When I had T-Mobile postpaid account I used to swap my SIM into different phones all the time and the T-Mobile site had no clue what phone I was using.
So what is the deal? You just tell T-Mobile you are not going to use your BlackBerry anymore and then they just hand you a credit? This promotion I thought ended long ago. Now that I know there is a new promotion going from April to the end of the year, I'm going to just let my prepaid account expire and I'm done with them. I cancelled my postpaid account long ago.

[alternator77]

What's interesting is there utter silence on the iPhone test drive numbers lol
We're hearing numbers on everything else but that... kinda makes you wonder.

"I love when people boast about their phones...like its a pissing contest"