The Unofficial 7-Eleven Speak Out Wireless Canada Consumer Page 
Facebook
Twitter
Email this
Log In
Register
Home
Topic RSS
10:54 am
In July 2008 we will be offering our Speak Out customers 50 free minutes with the purchase of a $50 of Speak Out airtime card.
I am not happy
11:56 am
Really? Disappointed again!!!!!
How long can I wait? I don't know, maybe will go to Petro this July and get the flip phone.
1:44 pm
I called SO and they said they don't know what the July special is yet. Nothing has come through.
5:13 pm
The way I see it, with the completion of the recent Canadian wireless spectrum auction and the arrival of new wireless carriers in the 12 - 18 month timeframe we're all going to have better (cheaper) choices in the future.
Unless of course Speak Out wants to to do a pre-emptive promotion.
You listening Speak-Out?
11:30 pm
March 31, 2007
Offline
I've given Speak Out enough free referrals over the past year and am currently feeling no loyalty to them if they wish to make their offering less appealing.
11:58 pm
All a new player has to do is offer free or inexpensive SIMs plus cheaper airtime than SO or PCM and they'll soon get a raft of new customers who decide to switch and port their numbers as soon as they've used their SO or PCM airtime. Again, what was 7-11 thinking?
12:57 pm
Guys, you have to think from a business perspective. If SO offers the "free phone with $100 air time" deal again this year, I'm going to buy another phone. I'll resell it for $40 once the promotion is over, giving me $100 of airtime for only $60+tax. That's a great deal for me, but a lousy deal for the company. They have to make money to stay in business.
Peter, I'm disappointed to hear your comment about "feeling no loyalty." Speakout and Petro Can are both excellent deals that save casual users a lot. My wife and I have saved about $500 since discovering your forum last year.
Ztar has done an excellent job of providing low cost phone service across canada, but aiming to be the dominant low cost provider is a challenging business model. At the end of the day, they have to have sufficient projected cash flow to allow them to offer heavily discounted phones.
Bylo, SO's contract with Rogers probably prohibits the sale of SIMs without a phone. After all, the only compatible network in Canada is Rogers/Fido so they'd be poaching customers directly from Rogers.
1:22 pm
March 31, 2007
Offline
james said:
Peter, I'm disappointed to hear your comment about "feeling no loyalty." Speakout and Petro Can are both excellent deals that save casual users a lot. My wife and I have saved about $500 since discovering your forum last year.
I do feel that many people have come to trust me on this site and on my blog. And thus I feel a certain level of responsibility to provide my honest opinion on what I think is the best deal. If I continue to effectively "promote" 7-Eleven if it is no longer the best deal, then I've failed many people.
2:00 pm
Bylo, SO's contract with Rogers probably prohibits the sale of SIMs without a phone. After all, the only compatible network in Canada is Rogers/Fido so they'd be poaching customers directly from Rogers.
That has been my assumption as well, however, consider that the winners of the current spectrum auctions will most likely use GSM. They will have no ties to Rogers, SO or PCM. SIMs are cheap to manufacture. If they offer free SIMs, over even if they charge a nominal $5 or $10 fee, and are competitive on airtime rates, they'll be able to immediately attract anyone who has an unlocked GSM phone. That would include all of SO's and PCM's customers as well as many Rogers and Fido customers. They would be crazy to pass up such an opportunity.
So rather than look at PCM as an alternative to SO, I'm looking forward to Yak winning the bulk of the spectrum auctions and making me an offer I can't refuse 😉
2:07 pm
I do feel that many people have come to trust me on this site and on my blog. And thus I feel a certain level of responsibility to provide my honest opinion on what I think is the best deal. If I continue to effectively "promote" 7-Eleven if it is no longer the best deal, then I've failed many people.
Our trust in you Peter is not affected by SO's move. Rather, our trust in SO is affected by their move. As I've said before this makes even less sense in light of the spectrum auctions than it would otherwise.
I think you're being too hard on yourself. The purpose of this site is to share information about low-cost PAYG offerings in Canada. You are not responsible for telling people what is the best plan for them. Only they can determine what is best for them.
Further, I disagree that PCM is now more attractive than SO. That may be true for some people but hardly all. Consider for example someone who wants a phone for emergencies only. They don't care as much that airtime is now 25¢ as they do that their $25 vouchers still last 365 days.
So to the contrary, you haven't failed anyone. You continue to provide a valuable service for which we are all grateful.
2:30 pm
Peter,
I'm very grateful of your site. It was here I learnt about the $100 free phone deal, and got my first cell phone.
During my first year, I used <50 minutes local and <10 minutes LD, and saved a lot of money by choosing SO.
I'm disappointed about the rate increase. However, even with the new rate, if I use 50 minutes lcoal and 10 minutes LD in a year, the total cost would be $.25*50+$.45*10+$.99*12=$28.5
still a very good deal for me.
Thank you Peter, I highly appreciate what you've done for us.
3:14 pm
I was personally shocked to discover that cell phones can operate without a SIM since in Europe all the providers work on GSM. I guess another reason why Europe is number one.
I do hope other companies will break the market on GSM of course because this is the hole reason for SIM. To be able to switch phones/carriers without a problem.
3:17 pm
Peter said:
I do feel that many people have come to trust me on this site and on my blog. And thus I feel a certain level of responsibility to provide my honest opinion on what I think is the best deal. If I continue to effectively "promote" 7-Eleven if it is no longer the best deal, then I've failed many people.
My comment was poorly worded. Your site and informative style encouraged me to jump from Rogers to Speakout, and I'm extremely happy I did. I did my homework before making the move, though, and took a careful look at PCW and the various other prepaid plans out there.
I think you've done a consistently great job of letting all of us know about competitive deals (especially PCW). 7-Eleven is still a fantastic deal, and I really appreciate your efforts to keep us up to date on the latest news.
3:21 pm
In regards to loyalty towards a business, you can't think of it in the same way as loyalty to a friend.
In fact, the the word loyalty should not even be used.
When SpeakOut came out, it had plenty of advantages and thus created a (loyal??) fan base. By creating word of mouth (like this site) and informing the general public about smaller players that offer a better deal, it encourages people to search out the best deal for themselves (a cornerstone of capitalism) and hopefully encourage the industry to offer fair rates.
Creating the best product creates users and fans, which can be mistaken for loyalty. Sometimes companies offer the best product, and sometimes they take a step back.
In my line of work I offer similar products from a variety of companies, and I can pick and choose which one I recommend. A few years I loved a product from a specific company, I was very loyal to it and constantly recommended it to my clients. Then the company changed the product a little, and it was no longer the best product in its category, so I stopped recommending it.
Can you imagine if I said "Well Mr. Client, even though this product from company ABC is the best for you, I'm going to recommend this product from company XYZ just because I'm loyal to company XYZ and they USED TO have a good product years ago." How stupid would that be?!?
SpeakOut made a business decision in changing their rates. They don't owe anyone any loyalty. SpeakOut is still the best product for those who need 365 day expiration. But now the group of people for whom SpeakOut is the best product has gotten considerably smaller, and I'm sure SpeakOut will lose some clients.
Don't take it personally, and start recommending PetroCanada if you want.
5:01 pm
Hi Peter,
Thanks a lot for your excellent service. We saved a bundle. Speakout wireless was an excellent plan for occasional users and it worked out well for us.
Key thing to note is we all have benefited thus far from speakout (thanks to you). 7-11 changing its pricing to render it not to be the best cannot undo the benefits we got so far because of you.
Regards,
Nirvana
5:39 pm
March 31, 2007
Offline
Thanks for the input, everybody. I'll continue to maintain this site as long as there is demand for it. We have quite a good community here and we'll see which providers will demand our attention.
In the meantime, I think we all agree that the July promotion doesn't really merit being called a promotion. Also, the rate hike is a bit baffling, considering the industry situation and the fact that no service improvements (new features, online account access, etc.) have been made since Speak Out Wireless started.
If I worked for 7-Eleven, which I don't, I'd implement some sort of opt-in e-mail list for service updates (hint hint).
7:23 pm
If I worked for 7-Eleven, which I don't, I'd implement some sort of opt-in e-mail list for service updates (hint hint).
You'd think they could send everyone a short text message to inform them of the new rates and refer them to a 7-11 store or their website for more info. That way at least they could try to explain why they had to raise rates, how the new rates work for low and high dollar refills, etc.
Instead they're going to get a lot of puzzled and then irate calls from customers who wonder why they're suddenly being charged 25¢ per minute.
I just checked my balance to confirm that they're charging me the new rate. They are. But again, they missed an opportunity to add a short message to the Balance Check script to tell people what is going on 🙁
