The Daily Dinar

Wisebread have a great post describing their experience getting the cable provider Comcast to reduce their rates. After receiving their bill from the provider, Wisebread decided to act. The story is entertaining but, more importantly, it provides an important lesson for all of us: it often pays to ask..

So on behalf of Wisebread (and for my own selfish reasons) I called Comcast. I said right out I wanted to disconnect my service, and was not interested in any offers to make me change my mind. Of course, that’s all I was interested in. I don’t want to go through the hassle of returning equipment, stopping service, and setting up a new account with a new provider. That’s way too much work. I just want more for less.

I’ve seen the same thing happen with telephone, utilities and insurance companies. Often, their customer service staff have some flexibility as to the deals they can offer the public and can, if ‘threatened’ with the prospect of losing an existing customer to a competitor (i.e. churn), offer them a better deal.

Every year, I call my mobile phone provider and tell them I am going to move my business to another provider. On each and every occasion, I have been offered better rates and/or ’sweetners’ such as a free phone upgrade. It pays to ask.