The Dreaded Annual Call

[fly girl]

You know the dreaded annual call, to keep your internet (cable, phone, or whatever it may be) bill rates the same. Every year the same song and dance of, "I'm switching if you cannot keep it the same because your competitor can!" Then the multiple holds to find a "deal" which isn't the best deal and I have to say not good enough. On hold ... again. A better offer then appears and it still stinks so I tell them I will call them back to cancel after I set up new service with the other provider. To which the magical supervisor gets involved and my rate doesn't change.

I hate these calls. I cannot be the nice version of me. I have to play hardball and waste 30 minutes to get the deal I should have had in 5 minutes. P-I-T-A.

I get why they don't keep the same rate, people won't or forget to call. I get why they make us jump through the hoops, many won't. But please put it in my file I fight every stinking year for the best rate so just surrender and don't waste your time and my time when there is no need.

*deep breath*

Ok, vent over. I know my fellow Dis'ers understand this hassle. I know you have to do the same. We can commiserate in knowing you have to fight for good rates as a loyal customer.

 

[GAN]

There's always YouTube TV -they won't harass you and it will probably save you money in the long run. I've had YT since day one and never regretted it for a moment -even with their increases over the years. There is nothing better.

 

[MIGrandma]

And when they won’t cut you a better deal, even though you’ve been with DirecTV 20+ years, you cut the cord with them and go to Hulu, saving over $100 per month but still getting all the channels you want. Then, when DirecTV/AT&T call you monthly begging you to come back, we just laugh. They had their chance to keep us, but they chose not to.

 

[fly girl]

It was my internet provider, not cable TV.

 

[tvguy]

And when they won’t cut you a better deal, even though you’ve been with DirecTV 20+ years, you cut the cord with them and go to Hulu, saving over $100 per month but still getting all the channels you want. Then, when DirecTV/AT&T call you monthly begging you to come back, we just laugh. They had their chance to keep us, but they chose not to.

I have Hulu, a free perk with my Disney+ account. No channels on it, just shows. And so far, nothing I want to watch.

 

[Christine]

So far, the only provider I have to wrangle with is Sirius XM. They constantly make you threaten to cancel and then you have to call them to get the good rate.

Internet and FIOS thanfully have moved to a no-contract model and I just tweak my rate whenever I want, solely on line.

 

[_19disnA]

I let the Sirius/XM free trial expire on my new car. Have no need for it and a waste of money. I keep getting emails every month advertising some $5/month special if I return, but just toss it in the trash. Having to haggle with some service provider is a pain and annoying to deal with.

 

[kymom99]

It’s almost as hard to cancel. DIRECTV doesn’t like to give up.

As far as cutting the cord, in the Cincinnati area, you can’t watch the reds without cable or DIRECTV.

 

[kdonnel]

It was my internet provider, not cable TV.

Ten years ago AT&T finally upgraded my neighborhood with fiber. The sign on deal was $60 tax included forever for 1Gbps symmetrical service. I don’t rock the boat because I could never get a deal this good now.

 

[fly girl]

Ten years ago AT&T finally upgraded my neighborhood with fiber. The sign on deal was $60 tax included forever for 1Gbps symmetrical service. I don’t rock the boat because I could never get a deal this good now.

I'm jealous.

 

[shh]

I have at&t who absolutely refuses to negotiate like they used to- they keep raising the cost, but when I call and try to play hardball, their retention dept just says that's the best they can offer right now. When I threaten to disconnect, they politely agree and just ask me for my preferred date for the disconnect. They really don't care - their attitude is take it or leave it.

AT&T now bills us the same price for DSL internet as they do for people with fiber options in their neighborhood (our area isn't wired for fiber), so we're paying for much slower speeds.

Our only choices are AT&T DSL or Comcast (which i hear is worse reliability-wise). So we're stuck.

 

[barkley]

It’s almost as hard to cancel. DIRECTV doesn’t like to give up.

so long as you don't have at&t as your cellular provider and want to keep that-

tell them you are your son/daughter/s.o.....and that YOU ARE DEAD.

hands down, the easiest and quickest to cancel service (found this out when mil passed and i called to cancel her service).

if you have at&t and want to keep it-tell direct you are packing it in and 'moving off the grid'. i did this when i wanted to jump ship over to dish. the customer service rep was quiet for a minute and then asked me 'seriously, you are doing this?'. i said 'yes, i've been watching all the shows you've got on about it and i'm doing it'. a minute later the contract was cancelled with no transfers to others, no delays trying to get me to reconsider-and i've never gotten another solicitation call or ad from them since

 

[fly girl]

I have at&t and they absolutely refuse to negotiate these days - they keep raising the cost, but when I call and try to play hardball, their retention dept just says that's the best they can offer right now. When I threaten to disconnect, they politely agree and just ask me for my preferred date for the disconnect. They really don't care anymore - their attitude is take it or leave it. We don't have fiber in our area - our only choices are AT&T DSL or Comcast (which i hear is worse reliability-wise), So stuck for now.

Today during my call the rep tried to tell me she knew the deals the competitor had and that I was getting a better rate because that did not include taxes. I told her my rate right now was exactly the same and to go back and look at the taxes I have been charged. I can't make this stuff up! Then I proceeded with they have a $75 off immediately if you sign up online. Finally, she knew I wasn't playing and I had my ducks in a row to negotiate. I don't play!

But I digress . . .

At least I can play this game, even if really I don't want to. You aren't even given a chance, which is worse. Sorry. I will stop griping.

 

[barkley]

Our only choices are AT&T DSL or Comcast (which i hear is worse reliability-wise). So we're stuck.

that's lousy but i identify with it. our only choice for a long time was direct or an antenna b/c cable is'nt offered here. when we got the ability to get dish it was great-and their service is so much better when the weather is bad cuz the direct signal would go with the first snowflake.

 

[hrhdhd]

So far, the only provider I have to wrangle with is Sirius XM. They constantly make you threaten to cancel and then you have to call them to get the good rate.

I just did a chat with Sirius to lower my renewal. You don't have to call.

 

[focusondisney]

You know the dreaded annual call, to keep your internet (cable, phone, or whatever it may be) bill rates the same. Every year the same song and dance of, "I'm switching if you cannot keep it the same because your competitor can!" Then the multiple holds to find a "deal" which isn't the best deal and I have to say not good enough. On hold ... again. A better offer then appears and it still stinks so I tell them I will call them back to cancel after I set up new service with the other provider. To which the magical supervisor gets involved and my rate doesn't change.

I hate these calls. I cannot be the nice version of me. I have to play hardball and waste 30 minutes to get the deal I should have had in 5 minutes. P-I-T-A.

I get why they don't keep the same rate, people won't or forget to call. I get why they make us jump through the hoops, many won't. But please put it in my file I fight every stinking year for the best rate so just surrender and don't waste your time and my time when there is no need.

*deep breath*

Ok, vent over. I know my fellow Dis'ers understand this hassle. I know you have to do the same. We can commiserate in knowing you have to fight for good rates as a loyal customer.

We have spectrum for cable & internet. It’s expensive but no negotiating. The price is the price. The cable isn‘t that great & every once in awhile we kick around finding another provider. Just have to actually decide & do something about it. I‘m used to the annual Sirius XM game so I would do it for cable if I could.

 

[Luv Bunnies]

My cable/internet company operates on "promotions" that you have to renegotiate every two years. I only know when my two years is up because my bill suddenly takes a big jump. It's really annoying. A few months ago, I had to make the "dreaded" call to renegotiate my contract. At the time, I had their triple plan consisting of cable, internet and phone (landline).

I made the call and was told they could only lower my monthly bill by $5 with their current promotion. That still seemed like way too much. So I went through the whole spiel saying, "Hmmmm...I checked prices for other providers and they can go a lot lower than that." So the rep. "recalculated" and came up with another $5 off (if I used autopay on my credit card, so really not a discount). I finally asked if I could speak to a supervisor since, in my experience with this company, they have the power to offer a better price. I was told the supervisors were busy, but I could schedule to have one call the next day at 8:35 p.m. That was going to be on a Saturday night, by the way, but I was going to be home so I agreed. The appointment time came and went with no call.

So the next day, I was at a mall where the company has a physical storefront. I decided to go in and see if I could discuss my account with someone face-to-face. I was helped by a salesperson who got right on his computer and looked up my account. He scanned through all the current promotions and asked me a few questions (do you watch certain channels, still want the same internet speed, etc?). I ended up removing a sports package since my son had moved out and he was the only one who watched those channels. So the guy gave me a price that seemed decent, but still a bit more than I wanted to pay. So I asked what the price would be if I dropped the landline. We had been thinking about ditching it since we'd pretty much stopped using it. So he ran some numbers and gave me a really great price. I couldn't believe how much the landline was adding so I said yes, drop it! The guy punched a bunch of stuff into the computer and sent a DocuSign text to my phone so I could sign the contract. He first ran through everything that was included in my service package and confirmed the price. Easy, right?

Nope! I got home to find that our TV channels had been reset. We previously had 190 and we now had only 120. That wasn't the deal I made at the store. Deleting the sports package should have taken away around 10 channels. The guy at the store had, either by accident or on purpose, switched us to the basic TV channel package. I called the company that night, got it switched, was quoted a new price since the basic package had lowered the bill considerably, received a new DocuSign text, signed a new contract and the channels were restored. The next day while watching the DVR, I noticed we suddenly had only 20 hours of DVR storage rather than the 60 we had before. We tend to tape a lot and watch on weekends. Sometimes, we keep things for weeks before we get to them, so we really want the higher storage. So, I called again, explained the problem, new quote, DocuSign, etc. It was my 3rd contract in two days. While the agents were apologetic, neither would stick with the lower price or give us some type of discount because the guy at the store totally screwed up our service. And I now knew from experience that you can't even get a supervisor to call back. The bill was now $30 a month less than when I started which was fine, and at least I had my service levels back.

So later than evening (around 8:35), I get a call from the company. The guy says, "Hello, I'm calling from (cable company)." I said, "Yes, how can I help you?" He said, "What do you mean? You requested a call back." I told him that the callback was schedule for two days earlier and he said he knew and had been running behind. So while I had him on the phone, I proceeded to explain all the issues I'd had over the past few days. He said yeah, sorry about that. I would advise not to ask the guys at the stores about your account. They don't know what they're doing. Always call us instead. OK dude. Good advice. I asked if he could add a discount for all of the trouble. He said no, you already have a good price. So that was that. It was an extremely frustrating experience!

 

[BlueStarryHat]

I qualified for the Affordable Connectivity Program. I pay a low price per month for my high speed internet through Verizon. It's fabulous; we've never had an issue, and because there really isn't a lower price for what we get, we don't get hassled to switch to this or that.

 

[starry_solo]

I had to do this for my parents internet bill 2 weeks ago. It was a PITA but I got it back down.

 

[barkley]

I just did a chat with Sirius to lower my renewal. You don't have to call.

since the pandemic hit i've not had to talk/chat with anyone at sirius. i select the phone option to cancel (near the end of my contract) and i immediatly get connected to a voice automated option that offers a greatly reduced rate (at minimum the amount i've paid the last few 6 month periods).