Consumer Law

Save big on your cable bill

By Randall Ryder

Cable companies, perhaps more than any other product providers love to entice new subscribers with new packages at low rates. Existing customers tend to get nothing—other than frustrated.

Maybe that has changed.

I use Comcast—for cable ($60/month) and internet service ($45/month). I saw a recent promo for cable and internet for $69.99 for 6 months, called and asked about it, and was told “only for new customers.”

So I called back, talking to someone else. He tried to sell me phone service, which I didn’t want. I told him I would like to save some money. He offered to downgrade my internet to 1MPS/second (slow as crap) which would save me $17 a month.

Undeterred, I told him the promotional price would save me more than that, and perhaps I just need to cancel my cable service to save more money—because I needed to cut my household costs. I was then transferred to a specialist.

The specialist was the easy part—I told him the promo—he told me he could not do that promo—but he could get me internet at $19.99/year and cable for $29.99/year—cutting my bill in half and saving me $600 a year.

The secret to my success? Beats me—maybe I just got connected to the right person. But I was very friendly and persuasive without being a douchebag. Give it a shot. And if you don’t succeed the first time, call back and talk to someone else—it took three people before they made a deal with me.

(photo: Anderson Mancini)

Full post as published by Caveat Emptor on June 22, 2009 (boomark / email).