Just cut my cable bill by $30/month

[disneysteve]

Don't ignore your cable and internet bills! Pay attention and if something changes, call them and complain.

I got the monthly email that my bill was ready. I clicked and viewed it and it was over $100 which I knew wasn't right. I pulled up last month's bill and it was $15 less. I pulled up the bill before that and it was $31 less. So I called customer service. I had promotional rates on both the internet and cable TV service and both promotions had expired. All it took was a phone call and a few minutes for them to put me back on a new promotion for another 6 months at right about what I was paying originally. Had I ignored the bills (the problem with getting bills electronically and not on paper), I'd be blowing a few hundred dollars per year for no reason.

[riverwed070707]

This just happened with our internet. The month after, DH found a promotion for "current customers" to get the lower rate again. He called and they wouldn't give him teh rate indicating it was only for customers who had phone or TV, not existing internet customers even though that was no where in the a

He talked to them for a while trying to get it lowered but they wouldnt budge Unfortunately we don't have any comparable options in our are so I think we'll be paying the higher rate a while.

[disneysteve]

This just happened with our internet. The month after, DH found a promotion for "current customers" to get the lower rate again. He called and they wouldn't give him teh rate indicating it was only for customers who had phone or TV, not existing internet customers even though that was no where in the a

He talked to them for a while trying to get it lowered but they wouldnt budge Unfortunately we don't have any comparable options in our are so I think we'll be paying the higher rate a while.

Call again and speak to someone else. Just say your bill went up and you really can't spend that much and ask if they can do any better. Sometimes, you just need to get the right person. I was lucky and got the right person on the first call. Her first offer, which I almost took, was to lower my bill $20 and give us 100 more channels. I don't need more channels but would have taken them to get the lower bill. I asked if there was anything better and she came back with dropping the bill $30 and keeping the same service we already have. That's the one I took.

[greenskeeper]

Let me guess.....comcrapstic?

They have a great business plan where they raise your monthly bill and don't tell you about it until the bill arrives in the mail.

I had to threaten to go to FIOS (which I will eventually do) until they "extended" the "promotional rates" for another 6 months.

[YLTL_Dan]

Steve - great reminder, I need to call mine tomorrow. That's pretty standard in the cable world. If you don't get what you want threaten to cancel, and they'll usually transfer you to their 'saves' department where they'll find some discounts.

[edg126]

Some things that I learned:

Put it in your calendar when the rates go up so you can call that week instead of waiting a month and have that extra bill

If comcast, they have different tiers of internet speeds. For about 90% of people the lowest one should still be sufficient, and I think there's close to a $20 price difference. I vpn into work an stream movies on the lowest tier with no noticeable difference.

What I usually do is call up, ask if they will give me another promotion or I'll have to scale back my programming. If they don't I cut back on channels. Then I'll call back again and ask them what the new price is, saying it's too high and I'll have to cut back on internet speed if I can't get a promotion. And keep doing that until I get the promo (with the best internet speed and channels restored). It's always worked for me, and less aggressive than 'give me the best deal or i'm walking' which sometimes they'll call your bluff

Also, very important to pay attention to what fees they are charging. It's usually $3-5 a month to rent their cable modem -- you can buy the same exact model for about that price on ebay (I got mine for $7).

[kobe008]

I have Directv and found out you can call them and ask to lower your bill and they will deal with you as well. This past fall I called and told them my bill was too high so I settled on $15 off a month for a year, free Starz/Showtime for 6 months, and free NFL Sunday Ticket. Then couple weeks later I got a card in the mail saying I got their Sports Pack free for 3 months too. The movie channels will auto cancel after 6 months but the Sunday ticket I will have to call and manually cancel otherwise I will be billed for next season when it starts. I plan on calling next fall again and seeing if they will deal again.

[gogirlanime]

Switch to the Hulu+ and Netflix combo it's only $20 a month for both and 99% of my TV needs have been satisfied

[bennkar]

I have no cable so it doesn't effect me, but... today I called and got my lower newspaper rate extended another 3 months. Like someone previously mentioned, when I last renewed I put in my online calendar when this cheaper rate would expire so I knew when to call. A 10 minute call today, and I kept from getting charged a higher rate. And I already put the new appt. to call the paper on my online calendar so I am ready next time.

[cashfromcells]

You did the right thing by calling. I am fulling convinced that these companies change prices on us "by accident" because the majority of people won't call and dispute it. Scary thought

[glycemic]

Nice. I complained to DirecTV about a receiver I tried to return that they never sent a box out for return shipment on. 2x.

I got them to gift us Starz for 3 months. It's not $ off exactly like you got, but getting freebies in form of programming is easy to get as it has no incremental cost to them. Works if you get bad service or service outages too.