CREDO Mobile, Warren Buffett, and the Limits of Progressive Business

[marmar]

from Dissent magazine:



CREDO Mobile, Warren Buffett, and the Limits of Progressive Business
Josh Eidelson - August 25, 2011 11:45 am


Two web petitions showed up in progressive inboxes last week. One, organized by Daily Kos in support of striking Verizon workers, was blasted out by “alternative” cell service provider CREDO Mobile. The second, organized by MoveOn, was a call for taxing the rich, piggybacking on a recent op-ed by billionaire Warren Buffett. Though neither petition itself is objectionable, together they illustrate a harsh reality: It’s easier to get the wealthy to share their money than their power.

CREDO offers customers wireless service with an added appeal: a small fraction of each phone bill gets donated to progressive organizations. The company gives customers the chance to vote on which liberal group gets a cut of their check and employs a campaign manager who emails customers with e-activism alerts, like the one promoting the Verizon strike. CREDO runs an aggressive media campaign calling out its competitors’ right-wing donations. What it doesn’t advertise is who gets the rest of your check. CREDO re-sells mobile service from Sprint, which is as right-wing as AT&T or Verizon and viciously anti-union when it comes to its own employees. There are no Sprint union members on strike right now, because there are no Sprint union members at all.

While Sprint executives may not thrill at pennies siphoned off to the Rainforest Action Network, re-selling to CREDO is an excellent business model, given CREDO’s ability to peel off progressives who might otherwise choose unionized AT&T. (Verizon’s landline division is unionized, but almost none of its wireless employees are.) In an ironic moment on Tuesday, Mother Jones magazine (whose namesake was a labor organizer) sent out an email from its president urging readers to “consider getting your mobile phone service in tune with your progressive values by switching over to CREDO mobile today.” ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.dissentmagazine.org/atw.php?id=541

[onehandle]

1. Sprint should be getting the iPhone in a few weeks, thus CREDO should.

When our contract is up in January, I will hopefully be switching from AT&T.

[JustAnotherGen]

4. iPhone?

They male the Carriers send their defects/warranty devices back to China to fix and refurb . . . Because it's cheaper to ship air freight and have the Chinese fix it, then air freight them back - than to have Americans fix them say in like oh - Detroit.

[patrice]

2. So, why doesn't unionized AT&T adopt a CREDO-like business model for those of us who are with

CREDO because we like their services?

[JustAnotherGen]

3. They have to pay for

network development, R &D, and network optimization. Credo doesn't pay for that - Sprint does. And if you understand the reseller business - you'd be sick at he mark up you pay at Credo. In addition - the only people at sprint benefitting are the Wholesale / Carrier Sales teams. No one else is.

[patrice]

5. Yeah, I was a technical writer in Sprint's broadband network management development group for a year

VERY expensive effort indeed and that was just one such area in their enterprise. We were expected to sell our services within the enterprise, but mostly to ops, not only for general operations, but also to support implementation of provisions for various kinds of service packages.

Yes, I have figured the CREDO mark up IS pretty high. I choose to pay it, again, because I like their unique services. Have been a member for about 20 years, I guess, ever since their WALD days.

[JustAnotherGen]

6. I was in carrier services at Global Crossing

I used to love when people would say - I'm dropping Paetec for Choice, or Frontier for Paetec. Seriously dude - it's all the same.

Me - I work for the 'so-called' bad guys here. Originally in marketing then moved to Finance. It's important to understand - wireless has nothing to do with landline. Seriously - entirely different work ethic over there, culture. Example - their marketing groups walk around in their little blue suits -

After they get in at 9:15 a.m.
Then turn on their lap top.
Go down to the cafeteria and SIT there and eat breakfast for 30 minutes to an hour.
Come upstairs. Do a few emails.
Go downstairs to the gym for an hour, hour and a half.
Go to lunch for an hour.
Come upstairs and do email for an hour or so.
Sneak out at 4:00 p.m.

Point blank? I'm irked that people are willing to take out their frustration at landline and senior management on the wireless employees.

We bring in between 94% and 96% of the revenue.
This year - we had a big boost in what we have to contribute to our health insurance program. HUGE boost. We had to pay the difference. And you all really believe we ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL make 300, 400, 500 a year? That's so laughable - not even fucking close.


And now we learn that those land line people who just fuck around all day don't pay ANYTHING into our health insurance? You're kidding me right. They do nothing. Their marketing group did this smoke and mirrors bullshit with FIOS and built in on a freaking wireless model - you know that two year contract thingy? It makes no sense - none of us in the FIOS area have it. We don't even get a discount on it as employees (landline gets crazy sick discounts on wireless). And now it's sitting there.

At it's current take rate - it could be 7-9 months before what is already 'there' is sold out. In the meantime, the techs and installers and customer service folks on LANDLINE are pissed about having to carry the weight of THEIR marketing, finance, sales teams. I don't blame them. They've done a shitty job of bringing it to market . . . at Wireless' expense. Literally - we've had to make money to prop them up.

We do it working 10-12 hour days. We don't just get to 'not go into work' in severe weather. We don't get to eat lunch. The gym? Ha! Only landline has time to do that.

Yet the wireless employees are these lazy good for nothing 'richie rich's' who have 'done this'. Guess again - seriously - we've also learned that many of these landline folks make a LOT more than us. A lot more!

So since landline sits separate from wireless - how about they fire all but a handful of their 'marketing, sales, finance' types and let the union keep what they have - while at the same time NOT increasing what we in wireless have to pay into health insurance to carry that side of the house's asses.

Every quarter it's the same thing - Go go go go go go wireless. Well we're freaking tired. We're just tired.

And no one gives a shit about us, our families, how we'll survive when the landline's union kills the business. Maybe next time they strike we need to sit out there with our laptops and cell phones and work on the other side of the street - so they can see . . . it's not this cushy little world we live in.


If the union REALLY cared about everyone outside of upper management - they'd not only demand what they demand for them - but for EVERY SINGLE VERIZON employee. . . .

What I've written is probably not popular at D.U. - but now that the Union has done this - we're under terrible amounts of pressure to perform on the wireless side and the landline side just gets to keep floating along on their lunch breaks. They laugh at us while they sit in the cafeteria while we are walking past them eating a sandwich at the same time because we don't get to do that. Take even 15 minutes for lunch that is. . .

And one more thing - I don't want to read 'get a job at CREDO' - they pay shit and want people in poverty (just like VZ landline wants wireless in poverty) . . . because look at where all of their jobs are. It's super expensive to live there. And their pay sucks.