Do you ever get the feeling it’s all too good to be true?  You know, like those mobile phone plans and how the retailers lure you with catchy deals?  Like when the advert says, ‘pay $29 per month and you get a free handset’. Or, I’m sure you’ve heard the ‘pay $29 and you get $150 of free calls’. 

 

As with any deal, whether it’s for personal use or you’re negotiating a 3000 handset mobile deal for a corporate, there’s nothing in life that is free. At some point in time, someone will pay for it.

 

Every deal has it’s swings and roundabouts. The key to getting a great deal is understanding what’s on offer (the swings and roundabouts) and maximising one against the other. So, in the case of selecting the right telecommunications deal, you need to understand what you’re getting and, more importantly, what you need.

 

I’ve performed several enterprise telecommunication-spend reviews. I’ve found that it’s very easy to get fixated on a certain part of the deal, like free handsets, whilst there’s something in the background that costs a lot more than it should.

 

For example, free handsets are normally off-set by terrible rates or long terms. Then there might be free on-net calls off-set by terrible off-net rates, or the fact that your actual call patterns do not make a lot of on-net calls thereby diminishing the value of the on-net call bonus.

 

Another I’ve experienced is where you get an unbelievable deal and you’re happy to lock yourself into a 3-year term only to find, 6 months later, the call tariffs drop resulting in a premium being paid in the last 2.5 years of the contract. In this case, the carrier would have known well in advance of the tariff changes, as some are controlled by the Australian Communications and Media Authority, and were trying to lock you in on a soon-to-be-outdated rate.

 

Remember the old adage, caveat emptor: let the buyer beware. Spend the time to understand what you need and how the seller is funding the great deal on offer. Once you understand the fine print you can treat everything as a financial transaction: will I pay upfront to get cheaper on-goings, or less upfront with higher on-goings? It’s the same approach to financing cars, furniture and other higher-value items.

 

However, if you do find something for free, be sure to tell me about it!