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"Those who recommend T-Mobile can get more stock. For every friend who opens an account, customers get another share (up to 100 shares a year.)" So T-Mobile sh

"Those who recommend T-Mobile can get more stock. For every friend who opens an account, customers get another share (up to 100 shares a year.)" So T-Mobile shares are currently going for $43~. I could earn over $4k each year from referrals? Edit: looks like you need to know the persons name and number of who you are referring. No Adwords campaign after all. http://i.imgur.com/m3QfIpr.png http://i.imgur.com/m3QfIpr.png

Analemma_ 10y ago
You could, but you won't. Referrals are a great way to lose friends in a hurry, especially with something like cellphone plans where everyone already has one and so the only way to get the referral bonus is to convince someone to switch from their existing plan, (as opposed to brand-new services where they just have to sign if up they find it useful). Ever unfriended a bunch of people on Facebook because they wouldn't stop pestering you to help them out in some stupid game, or about this great nutritional supplement program they wanted you to try? This is kinda neat, and if any friends of mine express independently express interest in switching to T-Mobile, I suppose I'll bring this up and make a little cash (I'm a current customer), but don't think this is going to be a huge deal. I'm sure T-Mobile knows this, and are counting on the nice PR of this announcement as much as its actual effectiveness in signing up new subscribers.
- snuxoll 10y ago
  People switch carriers all the time these days, very few people are loyal to their cell phone company as they all have their flaws (for as much as I love T-Mo, once I leave a metropolitan area I have shit for service, but without phone payments I pay $180/mo for 7 lines including insurance on most of them). I don't pester my friends with referrals, but if someone expresses dissatisfaction with their current carrier I am almost always one of the first to give them advice on A) what to do to resolve the issue (if possible) with their carrier, and B) alternatives that may work just as well for them. Personally, 3 years ago I switched my whole family from AT&T to T-Mobile because of AT&T's constant price gouging and the extra $100/yr they wanted to collect in additional "Administrative Fees" that they added to my account and claimed it wasn't a materially adverse change to the contract. I'm not paying less than I was with AT&T because I usually buy new phones every time I pay one off (with some exceptions), but I'm much happier with a company that doesn't gouge me, is more transparent (they've raised rates on unlimited data, but they didn't beat around the bush about why they did it), and with better customer service (I have a T-Mobile @Work account, to be fair, so I get better service than normal personal accounts).
- post_break 10y ago
  I un-friended like 20 people back in the day for some burger king on facebook.
  - koolba 10y ago
    > I un-friended like 20 people back in the day for some burger king on facebook. What do you mean? Did you unfriend 20 people in exchange for Burger King giving you a burger? Or, did you unfriend 20 people because they were trying to get you to go buy a burger?
    - post_break 10y ago
      The first one. http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2009/01/unfriend-10-people-on-facebook-get-a-free-whopper-burger-king.html http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2009/01/unfriend-10-peop...
      - koolba 10y ago
        Haha. That's awesome.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
- SparkyMcUnicorn 10y ago
  I was thinking along the lines of paying for an adwords campaign, similar to how people max out their dropbox referrals.
  - jonknee 10y ago
    T-Mobile spends much more than $43 to acquire a customer, if you could figure out how to do it with AdWords you shouldn't be doing it for a share of stock at a time.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
- noer 10y ago
  >Referrals are a great way to lose friends in a hurry It depends on how you do it. Some referral (and affiliate) programs explicitly forbid you from advertising your referral code or affiliate link (Uber is an example, they'll shut your account down if they find you advertising your referral code on the internet). Others allow to advertise on AdWords/Facebook/Whatever, the problem is that many people don't have the ability to quickly calculate a cost/referral to make advertising work. You could gamble on spending and assume someone uses your link, but you might end up wasting your spend.
  - astrange 10y ago
    I see people spamming their Uber referral codes all the time on Facebook. Usually comes as a post saying "Uber is offering free rides for this event, here's a first-time coupon code!" with their own referral... Lately I've been seeing people actually handing out Lyft business cards with codes outside conventions, was wondering if those were actual employees or just really motivated referrers.
heimatau 10y ago
Also, if you have been a customer with Tmo for less than 5 years you can only get 80 shares (limited to 20 shares/refs per 3 months). And if you've been with them longer than 5 years, then you'd only need 50 refers to get 100 shares, since they double it[1]. [1] my reading of the fine print.

Analemma_ 10y ago

You could, but you won't. Referrals are a great way to lose friends in a hurry, especially with something like cellphone plans where everyone already has one and so the only way to get the referral bonus is to convince someone to switch from their existing plan, (as opposed to brand-new services where they just have to sign if up they find it useful). Ever unfriended a bunch of people on Facebook because they wouldn't stop pestering you to help them out in some stupid game, or about this great nutritional supplement program they wanted you to try? This is kinda neat, and if any friends of mine express independently express interest in switching to T-Mobile, I suppose I'll bring this up and make a little cash (I'm a current customer), but don't think this is going to be a huge deal. I'm sure T-Mobile knows this, and are counting on the nice PR of this announcement as much as its actual effectiveness in signing up new subscribers.

snuxoll 10y ago
People switch carriers all the time these days, very few people are loyal to their cell phone company as they all have their flaws (for as much as I love T-Mo, once I leave a metropolitan area I have shit for service, but without phone payments I pay $180/mo for 7 lines including insurance on most of them). I don't pester my friends with referrals, but if someone expresses dissatisfaction with their current carrier I am almost always one of the first to give them advice on A) what to do to resolve the issue (if possible) with their carrier, and B) alternatives that may work just as well for them. Personally, 3 years ago I switched my whole family from AT&T to T-Mobile because of AT&T's constant price gouging and the extra $100/yr they wanted to collect in additional "Administrative Fees" that they added to my account and claimed it wasn't a materially adverse change to the contract. I'm not paying less than I was with AT&T because I usually buy new phones every time I pay one off (with some exceptions), but I'm much happier with a company that doesn't gouge me, is more transparent (they've raised rates on unlimited data, but they didn't beat around the bush about why they did it), and with better customer service (I have a T-Mobile @Work account, to be fair, so I get better service than normal personal accounts).
post_break 10y ago
I un-friended like 20 people back in the day for some burger king on facebook.
- koolba 10y ago
  > I un-friended like 20 people back in the day for some burger king on facebook. What do you mean? Did you unfriend 20 people in exchange for Burger King giving you a burger? Or, did you unfriend 20 people because they were trying to get you to go buy a burger?
  - post_break 10y ago
    The first one. http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2009/01/unfriend-10-people-on-facebook-get-a-free-whopper-burger-king.html http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2009/01/unfriend-10-peop...
    - koolba 10y ago
      Haha. That's awesome.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
SparkyMcUnicorn 10y ago
I was thinking along the lines of paying for an adwords campaign, similar to how people max out their dropbox referrals.
- jonknee 10y ago
  T-Mobile spends much more than $43 to acquire a customer, if you could figure out how to do it with AdWords you shouldn't be doing it for a share of stock at a time.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
noer 10y ago
>Referrals are a great way to lose friends in a hurry It depends on how you do it. Some referral (and affiliate) programs explicitly forbid you from advertising your referral code or affiliate link (Uber is an example, they'll shut your account down if they find you advertising your referral code on the internet). Others allow to advertise on AdWords/Facebook/Whatever, the problem is that many people don't have the ability to quickly calculate a cost/referral to make advertising work. You could gamble on spending and assume someone uses your link, but you might end up wasting your spend.
- astrange 10y ago
  I see people spamming their Uber referral codes all the time on Facebook. Usually comes as a post saying "Uber is offering free rides for this event, here's a first-time coupon code!" with their own referral... Lately I've been seeing people actually handing out Lyft business cards with codes outside conventions, was wondering if those were actual employees or just really motivated referrers.

heimatau 10y ago

Also, if you have been a customer with Tmo for less than 5 years you can only get 80 shares (limited to 20 shares/refs per 3 months). And if you've been with them longer than 5 years, then you'd only need 50 refers to get 100 shares, since they double it[1]. [1] my reading of the fine print.