Good afternoon everyone! Have you ever been frustrated with your satellite provider? Does it ever seem that your bill goes up randomly or every year? Have you ever heard a friend mention the awesome deal they JUST got with the SAME provider that you're using, even though you pay TWICE what they've been offered? Well, if you find yourself in this situation, have no fear. What many people don't realize is that you can negotiate with your provider. Often, you get special discounts or promotions when you first sign up that expire over time. Every so often you need to check to see if you're getting more channels than you really need. This will happen because initially, certain channels may be offered for free and are packaged into your plan. Once this "special" expires, you then may begin to get charged for those channels even if you aren't particularly fond of them. Pick up the phone, and simply ask the questions! Quite frequently, your provider will be more than happy to give you the most current discounts in order to keep a loyal customer! I have had to do this a couple of times in the past, and have had good success. Don't approach them in a confrontational way, but rather just as a consumer who needs to save every extra penny! Hope this works as well for you as it has for me. Good Luck!
@Wace. This is so true. Our satellite service bill had increased up to $300 one month. I called and asked questions and was offered a different less expensive package that was less than half of that one month' bill. Now our bill is $130 which I still think can be reduced more. It is good to check out the provider's website to see the actual packages available. A good way to see what you are actually paying for.
I appreciate this! TV service providers just keep raising their prices every couple of months, usually without giving anything additional to the customer. I think assume people won't notice, or won't check their statement. This has happened to me many times, so I finally ditched my TV subscription all together. Why pay so much just to sit around and complain about having nothing to watch? I use streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime instead now. I feel like it was a great decision and I'm still happy about it. The method of lowering TV bills that Wace described also works with credit cards! Call them and say you need your interest rate lowered, or else you'll be forced to use the opposing company's card.
Yes, you absolutely need to do this to get the best deals. It also helps to threaten to cancel, because the satellite and cable companies are terrified of losing customers. They will normally offer everything but the kitchen sink to keep you as a customer. My dish bill has doubled and I am thinking of going back to direct TV where I will no doubt start playing the game all over again, but I should be able to get enough money to pay off the balance of my dish contract.
I have tried to haggle with my provider, but it doesn't do any good. In our small town, they are the cheapest, and they're still expensive! I've just resigned myself to getting ripped off every month! LOL
I hate how bills can randomly increase when it comes to cable. Too bad in the ads they don't warn that they will increase price without you knowing it. Unless it is there but in fine print or its at the part where they usually have a guy speaking but it's so sped up that you can't understand a word he is saying. I think haggling is a great idea if you know how to do it right. There is not only competition with other cable companies but also with other services like Netflix. I don't see why they can't just have some type of fixed rate.
I have tried to limit my cable services to the bare minimum but my bill is still over $100 a month. Come get me offers are great for the first year but after that it seems like you are stuck when you don't have a choice of providers. Satellite is always an option to some but my landlord doesn't allow them to hook up here. I guess it depends on what you need and who you speak to when you call because all I have ever been offered after the initial deal is to reduce my channel options and I like to have local stations so I am stuck at this point in time.
I swear, threatening to cancel works for anything when it comes to telecommunications companies. They're so desperate to keep subscribers that they'll throw just about any deal at you. Even internet service is fairly safe for haggling along these lines, and that's in fairly heavy demand these days compared to cable and satellite subscriptions.
I've worked with customer service before (it's the most popular satellite TV provider ) and I can attest it's true. If you don't threaten to cancel and you get a generic agent, what they are instructed to do is to ask what programs you want and then may only offer a small discount or a switch to a smaller package. If you don't like the deal, just mention possibly going with the competition or quitting, mentioning you've been a loyal customer for a long time and they will transfer you to the retention group who can give more savings (unless you're really bad at paying your bills) or even give you a big credit just to keep you with them.
We do this with not only our cable subscription but also our phone and internet service providers. Calling them from time to time keeps me up with promos that may only apply to my specific account so we try and check with them regularly. From this method we have gotten some annual discounts and for phone providers we have even gotten some free phones. For the most part I don't have to haggle anymore because we have been signed up with them for years so we are always given some benefits for loyalty.
The best thing to do in threaten to cancel it. This will most definitely reduce the price. Let's say if they go from 200 to 150, you just pretend that you still want to cancel it. I did this once. I had an $89 plan for both internet and cable a while ago until they started charging $159 a month. I threatened to cancel it and they reduced it to $109, I still refused and got it down to $74 a month.
