Horror Story of the Week: Surprise Pay-Per-Use Charges.

Surprise, Surprise – You Have Pay-Per-Use Charges

Having the right plan for your company’s mobile devices can hugely impact your mobile expense management. The right plan, can help reduce overage charges, or, in the case of features, pay-per-use features. What would happen if the features or plans you had in place, were to disappear?

 

Here’s the Situation:

While going over your company’s bills, you notice a user who would benefit from a higher messaging plan. You email your corporate rep with the change you would like to make and leave it at that. A couple days later you receive your confirmation from the carrier that the change has been made. 

 

The next month your receive and open your bill, then nearly die of a heart attack. Where you had expected to see savings from changing the plan, you are now seeing thousands of dollars in usage charges on the same line. Somehow the users data plan had been removed, and has been paying for the 200+ MB of usage at pay-per use pricing!  Maybe it’s a mistake you think.   [Read more...]

Travel Pack Combos

What’s In Your Travel Pack Combo?

As the Cellular Carriers continue to tweak their mobile plan offerings, one thing they are selling a lot of  is the Travel Pack Combos for travellers going to the US from Canada.

These combos offer Voice and Texting, Voice and Data, or Voice, Texting and Data allowances, at reduced rates.

 

But are these offerings the best option? 

 

[Read more...]

What to do When You’re Not Eligible for an Upgrade.

Ineligible for Upgrade – 5 Tips to Reduced Cell Costs!

 

Is one of your fleet’s cellular phones broken, worn out, malfunctioning, or just completely not working?

Lets face it cell phones just do not seem to last the full -2 or 3 years of the contract – when you would normally be eligible for upgrade.

However – don’t despair. There are a few things that you can often try – so that you can avoid having to pay the full price of the replacement costs of new hardware.

[Read more...]

Horror Story of the Week: When Devices Won’t Connect.

4 Steps to Solving Cellular Device Connection Issues

Does your company’s Cellular fleet include mobile Internet Devices?

 

Imagine a situation like this:

You have just ordered a new Internet device for an employee, and are about to set the unit up. You take it out of the box, pop in a SIM, turn the device on, get it set up on your computer and open your Internet browser.  

 

Except you aren’t able to connect.

 

You check your new device, it’s on, and your computer detects it, so you try again, this time keeping your eye on the device. 

There is a glimmer of hope when the “connected” light comes one, only to be immediately squashed when it goes out a second later. [Read more...]

Knowing the Ins and Outs of Your Mobile Carriers

Do You Know the Ins & Outs of Your Mobile Carrier?

Knowing the ins and outs of the Mobile carriers that your organization uses, is always the best way to beat them at their own game. I am sure that you have at one point in time had a very frustrating call to a Mobile carrier that left you angry and pulling your hair out!

You are not alone. This happens to the best of us – however – knowing the ins and outs will help you with your quest for cost reduction &  control of your mobile expense management.

[Read more...]

Handset Insurance Programs

Know What you’re getting with Handset Insurance!

Handset protection programs seem to be available in some way shape or form through most of the North American carriers however each one is different and some are not as good as they may sound – so do your due diligence!

 

Before you decide to purchase an insurance or protection plan from any Cellular Phone carrier make sure that you read the fine print of what is covered and what is not , among the standard legal garble including incidents caused by Terrorists some plans also exclude things like – Abuse, misuse, or intentional acts as well as scratches or incidents that were caused by computer viruses leaving lots of  loop holes to refuse replacement.

[Read more...]

Travel Saver Options

Mobile Plan Management with Travel Saver Options

Business trips are nothing new, and have long been a part of how we do business.  Cell phones have become an integral part of our business too… but these two realities of business when combined have for too long been a huge expense with few options for relief.

 

Large company’s with fleets of employees travelling around the world on their behalf  have had to pay upwards of $4 per minute for using their phone when outside of their country. Bills for upwards of $1,500 would not be uncommon for making and receiving calls while travelling.

 

[Read more...]

How to avoid Cancellation fees with Conversion Credits

Avoiding Cancellation Fees with Negotiated Conversion Credits

In business today there is a lot of push from the mobile carriers/providers to get your business. In some cases there are great cost reductions to be had by moving from your current service provider to a new Mobile carrier. However – you may be reluctant to change, due to still having 2 years left on your current service agreement, that will carry a hefty cancellation fee and in the end eat up your savings moving to the new provider. Therefore, not making it a wise mobile expense management decision.

[Read more...]

Horror Story of the Week: Enormous Roaming Bills

Roaming Bill Mishaps – Imagine yourself in this situation:

If you have ever been in charge of the mobile expense management, chances are there have been times when you have cringed opening your wireless bill. Based on usage, the charges fluctuate, big one month, small the next. If you have ever had a user with roaming charges, then you know how much of an impact usage can make. Those charges can get high, however imagine yourself in this situation:

One of your sales persons, or VP’s are travelling outside of the country on a business trip. They tell you that they anticipate using their phone frequently. In an effort to help reduce the potential costs you make a mental note to call the carrier and add some roaming packages. A few days pass, the user leaves and returns. You don’t think much of it until your wireless bill comes in….. and you nearly die of a heart attack. [Read more...]

Flex Rate Plans

Which Mobile Plan is Best for Your New Employee?

When a new employee is issued a phone, you are often left guessing as to what their usage will be like.  Putting a user on a low usage plan when the user actually is a high volume consumer can result in HUGE charges for additional minutes.  I have seen bills where a new user was put on a 100 minute plan, then used 450 minutes.  These additional minutes were billed at $.35 / minute… that means the additional usage cost the company $122.50 on one month of billing.

 

If you are looking to set up a new user and are not sure what their usage will demand, consider one of the Flex Rate plans.   [Read more...]