My dad is all about good deals! He hates bills and does all he can to eliminate any extra charges. When he first told me about this I thought he was crazy, but his cable bill is definitely lower than mine and he has way more! I just had to know his secret. My dad literally calls his cable company every few months or so, when some sort of deal or arrangement he has is coming to an end. He has the sweet, innocent voice thing going and starts to just "let them know" that he's no longer interested in doing business with them and will be switching providers soon. He's extremely nice and ask why their prices are so high and how come they don't do anything special for existing customers. They only reward the newcomers. After all this, he makes sure they know he loves the company but just can't pay that much for so little. The person on the other end begs him to stay and after a while they start offering free services and upgrades for a certain amount of time. Then my dad goes from saying no to saying he'll think about it, but it's still not exactly what he's wanting. They just add more and more to the mix and when he's happy with an offer he'll tell them that it sounds great! He tells them if they do that then he'll stay... This works every single time he does it. Some of the offers are better than others, but he's still getting more for his money. They always believe they've done what they had to do to get a customer to stay when he wasn't even going anywhere It's his creative way of saying "Upgrade my cable for free....or else"! I don't know how I feel about doing this.... It's not bad, just makes me feel weird. Would you or anyone you know consider doing this?
Actually, I have worked for Netzero before (as a call center agent) and this is what the retention team does; bribe customers with deals just so they would stay as subscribers. They would even give free months or a High-Speed internet for $4.95 for the next 3 months. Well, not everyone can bargain with these retention agents. But I assure you, they will give you deals just for you to stay as customer (because these agents have their targets or metrics to pass and retaining a customer is one). Give it a try but make sure that you are no longer in their lock-in period because if you still are, you would end up paying more and not have a cable. haha
We do this. We find the best deal offered for what we need (high speed internet and really nothing else) and then we call our current provider and say we're going to switch unless they can match it. They've always matched it. I think the above poster gives a great word of truth. Cable providers simply want customers, so yeah, they can afford to match rates to keep people on their roll call (so to speak). I don't think it is wrong to ask for a good deal. It is called consumerism.
It's a hassle, but yes I've done this. You need to be pretty thorough about what it is they are changing to get you that lower price though. Time Warner was hitting me up big time last time I moved. I had to temporarily get rid of their service while I was in between places. They kept calling me telling me they would knock my bill down from $140 a month to $87 a month and that I would get the same channels and services. Turns out I did not get the same channels, and they shaved off a lot of the channels I do specifically watch. In addition, that $87 price was *before* they tacked back on all the extra hidden charges and goofball service fees, taxes and other crap. So it was right back to where I started, plus they wanted me to pay more to add back the channels I previously didn't have to pay extra for.
Oops. That didn't turn out well for you at all, did it?. Sad to hear that. Did you already terminate your subscription with Time Warner? I forgot to mention, if in case a company is offering you a deal, say you'll get a discount, most of the time they give you another "lock-in" period wherein if you decided to cancel your account within the lock-in period, you'd end up paying penalties. Clever.
I have tried this for my cable service, and it didn't work. I might try it again though. Maybe I was not forceful enough or asking the right questions. So glad to hear it works for others!
I've been doing this for years. Every time my deal runs up I call and threaten to go with a competitor at a lower price. They generally transfer you to what is called the retention department and these are the people that look over your account and get you a new deal. It's worth doing. Nobody should have to pay the crazy prices your cable raises to after you deal. They need to just give the deals as the normal price and move on! It's a waste of my time to call them every 6 months or so.
If you haggle for better prices you have to be thorough. Some offers are only good for a couple of months and if they will lock your service in for another 12 months then your savings if any will be minimal. Make sure you have their offer in writing, have them send you an email stating what they are offering and send them a clarifying email back. State in your email the price they are offering to "retain" your subscription, that the services you will be getting will still be the same as what you have or better if you are offered a better deal. Make sure to list the channels you'll be getting and not just the number or you might get channels you don't watch, like what happened to ohiotom. Make sure to state that the price is the total price you will pay and no other charges will be billed to you for the service on a monthly basis. Remember the devil is in the details.
Actually, this only worked once for me; I had been a customer for over 3 years with a local internet provider, called them up and told them a competitor was offering such and such rate, and they sweetened my plan. When huge competitor rolled into our neighbourhood a few months later with a crazy good deal on a 1 year contract, I switched to them. However, when I called them up at the renewal period and tried to "threaten" them with a better competitor deal, they pretty much let me go without a hassle, as they noted that I was only with them during their initial deal, and wasn't really worth keeping as a loyal customer.
I did that once and they did give a slight discount. I have never tried to price matching thing though. I would try again but my bill is behind and they won't do any changes or upgrades once that is paid. Sucks! lol.
Thank you for this DealHunter1! I have never thought of doing this before. I would probably do this in the future. Thanks a lot for the tip.
