I got my internet bill and was informed that my promotional period ends next month. My bill will jump $20 per month. There are no data caps and the speed is decent considering I use cable internet. However, I have been able to keep this $20 price hike at bay for 2 years, which I think is pretty good.
I picked up the phone yesterday not having good vibes about it and called. I was told no by a rep and a supervisor. There are no other deals available. Yeah okay so I found out when the new price goes into effect and that’s later in the month of May. So I have time.
I have no plans to actually cancel at this point. I would be required to change email addresses and considering this monopoly I am probably going to do that anyway. I own a few domains and so long as I pay my bill each year the domain and internet mail are mine.
I tried using a bot to negotiate service but even the bot got turned down. Those services might appear to be free but they take anywhere from 20% to 40% of what they save you and charge that to a credit card. It’s a small price to pay if they really are able to save you big bucks. I figured it out and for me considering if they got the same deal that I have right now that would be like $50, which is well worth it to save time on the phone trying to debate the issue.
If I had another person living here, I would cancel and then get internet in that persons name. They would be a new customer and entitled to promotional price.
What I find discouraging is they tell me that the only way they can lower the price is if I add on services. Now if I add on services that makes my bill go up and not down. The whole purpose of my call is to lower my bill. I’d be happy to add as much service as they wanted so long as it didn’t make my bill go up. I only have so much money and $20 won’t break me but I may have to give something else up in order to accommodate for it.
Where I am at. The bot says it will try again soon. My plan is to call on Friday and plead my case again. Statistics show that people are more willing to work with you or do you a favor if you ask them on a Friday. They are likely in a good mood and more willing to accommodate. If I get no where, then my plan is to suck it up for a month. Then call back and plead my case again. Sometimes if you pay for a full month of service at the regular price there is magically a deal available. Funny how that works.
I don’t like negotiating, price your service or goods fair and help me to not feel like I am taking it up the ass without lube and I am more likely to pay you. I’m never late and have paid faithfully for years and just recently enrolled in automatic payment so they charge my credit card.
They want to keep me as a customer but they want me to pay full price, which I feel is outrageous. They have a monopoly in that no one in the area offers greater speed. I could switch to AT&T but they have data caps and that is not something that I want to tangle with. Chances are that I probably wouldn’t go over but I like the freedom of not having a data cap and having to fear that my bill will be larger than I plan on.
The other trick I learned from on-line surfing is that if you can go a month without internet and actually cancel service. The cable company will welcome you back and consider you a new customer. You have to go turn in your equipment and have no service for 30 full days. With my job that wouldn’t be feasible, plus all of the streaming I do there is just no way I could go 30 days.
Here’s hoping that my Friday plan works and that I can put an end to this. They don’t have contracts which is a selling point but I am going to ask if I commit to a contract if they would guarantee their price that could be a way to lock them in. I am not big on contracts but 1 or 2 years goes by really fast and there is usually an escape clause that allows you to separate if you pay a fee.
Next year I will get to go back to negotiating my home phone & TV, which I really don’t look forward to.
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