Disclaimer: The content of this article is written with authoritative information combined with personal opinions, and the source of the literature and screenshots have been marked at the end of the article, please be aware.
Have you ever used China Mobile's 8 yuan insurance package?
Recently, this package has been controversial. It is said that some staff members even played a game of words in order to prevent customers from downshifting, what is going on?
The 8 yuan insurance number package almost disappeared
Strictly speaking, as early as 2018, this 8 yuan insurance number package caused a lot of trouble.
On August 31, 2018, China Mobile suddenly announced that it would officially stop the sale of 8 yuan insurance number packages and change the minimum monthly rent to 18 yuan.
As soon as this decision came out, it immediately caused controversy in the outside world. Many people have denounced: "China Mobile's move obviously does not take into account the needs of special user groups."
For example, the elderly, students, and people in poor areas. Although 8 or 10 yuan is not much for ordinary people, it is obviously a "big expense" for their special groups.
After being widely discussed by the outside world, on September 20 of the same year, the State Council inspection team simply held an event. Let the 3 major operators and 10 netizens meet face-to-face to discuss the package.
After some verbal war, China Mobile said on the spot that the 8 yuan insurance number package can be re-launched, and will also increase the promotion of other low-threshold packages, including the 8 yuan package.
This "showdown" seems to have ended with the "victory" of the majority of netizens. However, is it really that simple?
Downshifts are limited by layers
Judging from the current situation, the 8 yuan insurance package is still quite difficult.
According to the actual measurement of relevant reporters, this 8 yuan insurance number package cannot be handled on the APP. It can only be handled in the offline business hall, or call 10086 and let the operator handle it.
Still, journalists have been hampered.
For example, when the reporter called 10086, the other party directly said that it would be handled only after 48 hours of registration. As for whether the reporter finally received a "special callback", it is unknown.
Coincidentally, Mr. Chen, from Guangxi, has also experienced the problem of downshifting.
At that time, he wanted to change his package of more than 70 yuan to an insurance package of 8 yuan. However, the staff told him that he did not have the authority to handle this package, and he also needed to wait for a call back to handle it.
Faced with this situation, Mr. Chen went directly to Taobao and Xianyu, and found some stores to do it. After the other party charged an agency fee of 5.9 yuan, it was completed after only a day or two.
It can be seen that there are still a lot of "routines" in this 8 yuan insurance package. If you handle it normally, it's hard to say whether you can achieve it in the end.
Downgrade Taobao agency business rises
Due to the difficulty of handling the 8 yuan insurance number package, countless e-commerce platforms have emerged on the Internet to handle the business of the 8 yuan package. After you place an order, you only need to provide your mobile phone number and answer the call back, and you can get this 8 yuan package.
Some stores have even exceeded 100,000+ sales because of their business methods.
According to the people concerned, many people have experienced all kinds of "persuasion" tactics when applying for the 8 yuan insurance number package.
For example, "you need to bring your ID card to the business hall of the place where you belong for processing", "you need to deposit 300 yuan in advance". Some are even more excessive, directly saying "this package is gone".
In short, between the operator and the user, the cat and mouse game is played every day. And their purpose is to dispel the idea of changing to a "low-cost package".
Every time you want to change the package, the other party says that you don't have the authority to deal with it, and then asks you to find a downshift specialist. And most of these downshift specialists are trained and have first-class sales skills. As you talk, you'll be upshifting in no time.
If you force a downshift, he will tell you to keep an eye on your phone for the next few days, wait for the downshift specialist to call back, and you won't be able to reach you if you miss it. It's really frustrating to do something like this, after all, who would stare at their phone all day?
It is precisely because of the difficulty of downshifting that consumers have to adopt a series of coping tactics. For example, making a complaint, or "porting the number if you don't do it".
Like the Taobao agency mentioned earlier, it is through the official complaint channel to submit a complaint ticket. In this case, the other party "knows the difficulty".
From the above analysis, it can also be seen that the problem of difficulty in downgrading tariff packages has indeed troubled thousands of households. If you want to upshift, the other party can get the business done in an instant. But if you want to downshift, the other party will start to excuse yourself in every possible way.
Why is it so difficult to downgrade a package?
It stands to reason that upshifting and downshifting are both within the business scope of operators, so why is it so difficult to downshift packages? Could it be that the operator is short of money?
Strictly speaking, the three major operators are really not short of money. You must know that in 2023, China Mobile's gross profit margin will reach 28%. In the past 10 years, China Mobile's gross profit margin has reached 80%.
In addition, like China Unicom, its gross profit margin in 2023 will also be 24%, and its gross profit margin has also remained around 30% in the past 10 years.
It can be seen that these operators are completely the masters who are not short of money. After all, the gross profit margin of the manufacturing industry is only 20%, and the three major operators can earn so much, which is already a splash of wealth.
So why are they reluctant to downshift? On this issue, the concept of "market development" is involved.
To put it simply, the three major operators make money to make money, but there is no market to develop. If you put it in the past, such as phone bills, SMS fees, CRBT fees, traffic fees, etc., are all cash flow.
For example, in the 2G era, some business bosses can't support their monthly phone bills when they call or send text messages. In the 3G era, it is normal for some people to burn hundreds of yuan a night in order to watch pictures, videos, and games.
But now, that phenomenon is gone. With the popularization of infrastructure such as base stations, optical fiber, and broadband, everyone has wifi at home.
People can use WeChat to make calls and send messages. Not to mention looking at pictures and playing games, even if you watch videos for a day, it won't cost much.
Many users don't know what the mobile phone card is used for a year? Except for binding individual accounts, it's almost useless. In that case, why not downshift to the lowest monthly rent?
It can be said that in the past 10 years, the traffic consumption of our mobile phones has increased thousands of times. However, the average tariff has dropped by 95%. When the era of "big wool" is over, won't it be possible to only carry out "micro wool"?
In this case, the problem of difficult downshifts is more prominent. After all, no one wants to make less money, and if you downshift, the operator will "lose".
Of course, while times are changing, customers and operators are constantly competing. However, I believe that the tariff will continue to fall in the future.
In the past, tariffs were high because operators had to invest in infrastructure and equipment, as well as pay salaries to employees. Now all kinds of infrastructure and equipment are saturated, and even the village has pulled fiber optics. And over the years, the three major operators have also made so much money.
Therefore, in the future, the tariff on the mobile phone is bound to continue to fall, which is nothing more than a matter of reducing more and less.
Doing a good job in service is king
Of course, since the three major operators can't make a big deal of wool, they have to be meticulous in service. If the service is better and better, it can actually attract more users and increase customer stickiness.
After all, not all Chinese have time to surf the Internet every day. For example, some elderly people, workers in remote areas, and laborers in border areas, all they need for mobile phone cards is to make calls and send messages.
Operators have done a good job in this area, which is actually a means of attracting customers. After all, even Pinduo has successfully realized "rural areas surrounding cities", why can't the three major operators?
Therefore, improving service is king. When the service is done, how can you worry about customers not coming?
Information sources:
The surging news [China Mobile's "8 yuan insurance package" was accused of setting restrictions at various levels, why is it so difficult to downgrade tariffs? 】
Oriental Fortune Network [China Mobile (600941) 2023 Annual Report Analysis: Revenue and Net Profit Increased Year-on-Year]
Sina Finance [People's Daily commented on the chaos of communication packages: "free traffic" does not live up to its name, and it is easy to upgrade and downshifting]
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