As I mentioned last week in Have You Spoken to Our Customer Retention Agent, sometimes a single phone call can save you a lot of money, but first you must make that phone call.
On Friday, I re-read the comments on my posts, and saw that more than one of my commenters said they call Rogers every time to get better deals, so I went to refresh my memory about how much I paid to Rogers for Cable and Internet access, and was astonished to see how high my rate was (and was annoyed with myself for not doing something about it sooner).
It was all quite easy, I called, and once I found the right person to talk to (after 3 different transfers), I got a young lady, who said she could help me out (this is after the first young man I spoke to actually did say, “… it sounds like you are thinking of changing your Cable service, you should talk to our Customer Relations team…” (I kid you not, a bright young man)). I started with how I have been a long time Rogers customer, the young lady then corrected me and said, “Sir you have been a customer since 1991” (wow that is a long time), so she got on my good side pointing that out.
Typical back and forth discussion about what might and might not be possible, and then the all important, “… I am going to talk to my supervisor, may I put you on hold sir?“, part of the game, and 5 minutes later she returned (my guess is she went to the bathroom and got a cup of coffee, but I can’t be sure of that), I was told that because I was a long time customer and because I have both Cable and Internet with Rogers, I was going to get a $50 a month discount.
This discount only came unless I agreed to a 2 year contract, but over that contract I will then save $1200 on what I am currently paying, so I am not complaining, that is for sure. I also tried to get something free on the Cable side of things, however, she wouldn’t budge on that one (too bad I was hoping to get the movie network free for a month or two, but c’est la vie).
Yet another example of what can happen if you just say to your service provider or bank, “I don’t like the price I am paying for this service”.
Before calling retentions, it pays to research what they are offering. Red Flag Deals can be your friend, you can find threads about retentions deals for most companies.
Rogers Cable, for example:
http://forums.redflagdeals.com/merged-rogers-cable-retentions-new-customers-deal-thread-785331/
Hey there,
Read this article and found it amusing as I have always been on the other side of the table. I am from customer service and deal with such customers day and night. 😛 nothing bad about it, but yeah all companies hate to lose old and loyal customers, so we are pleased to offer discounts to customers rather than losing them. Another interesting thing I read few days ago through a Linkedin article, Google has recently launched its internet service in Kansas city, Missouri. It is 1 GBPS!!!!!!!!!!!!! for $70 a month. Now compare that to the rest of the ISPs. Soon we will have high speed internet cheaper than a soda, hope so.
Thanks!
Kenneth
Be very wary of Roger’s (as with any oligopolist)– demand a fixed price quote. Their monthly fee is supposedly subject to change, even though it’s a gross violation of consumer protection law. That’s how they pushed through their recent $2 a month increase. I didn’t pay it.
Plus, with Roger’s, I got three months free, and for the remaining 9 months I paid $50-ish with tax, for their “Extreme” package. They were always trying to get me to buy their other services. I told them I don’t want a home phone, if they offer me a BETTER cellphone deal than Telus I’ll switch (they never did), and I don’t watch TV enough to justify it. Internet is everything I need.
And I go where the deals are; now I have Bell Internet.
Good idea! Yes, trust only in steel (to quote Conan)
It pays to talk to Rogers (every once in a while).