Saving Money on Cable

We have cable for our Internet. The only other option this side of the overpass is satellite, and there are too many cloudy days for that.

When our cable guy came to hook us up, he and Ethan got to talking and the guy said to call the cable company and tell them we thought the bill was too high (leaving his insider info out of it, of course).

The job was handed down to me. I hate this sort of thing. The last time Ethan had me do this, it was for a radio station giveaway. I was the 9th caller, had the correct listing of their last nine songs and artists (via Ethan), and won $96.00. And was so intimidated I forgot to leave my name.

Do you know what it's like to be listening to the radio to hear yourself win $96 and then hear the DJ say, "Uh, we have a winner, but sweetheart, you got so excited you forgot to leave your name! Give us a call back, sweetie."

And then when I did call back and did leave my name and then heard them announce me as the winner and the byte of me giving the answer, I sounded like a frenetic twelve-year old. And I HATE that when he said, "What are you going to spend your money on?"... I answered, "A baby-sitter!" I meant a baby-sitter for my son, because I was a mature grown woman, but it totally sounded like I was going to hire my own baby-sitter. You know, because I'm a goody-two shoes twelve-year old who likes to see my parents get out once in a while.

But back to my story. I hate calling and saying things like, "Yes, I KNOW that the previous call may have been recorded and that you clearly spelled out how much the installation and monthly fee would be and that there were no promotions running and there was no way you could lower the price and I thought then that it was too high but what were we going to do when I gotta have me some Netflix to sleep to and my husband is a pastor who must have access to his email for church matters BUT now that I see the bill in person it seems really steep and are you SURE you can't lower that?"

So I didn't say all that.

I gave a very shaky, "Um, yes, I was just looking at this bill and it seems a little {SQUEAK} high???"

Whereupon the customer service rep said, "Absolutely it looks high! Man, they didn't even put you on a promotion? Let me get you on a promotion. How does this sound? [He then gives a number less than half what I was paying a month.] The thing is, this is a one-year promotion. Now that means you just give us a call in 11 months and tell us you want to be put on another promotion. Will that work for you?"

I didn't even know you could ask to be put on a promotion. I was just planning on living on beans-n-rice-n-chocolate chips while we paid our cable bill.

Huh. I told him he was underpaid. He agreed. We hung up, and now I pay less than half of what I was paying.

And that definitely works for me!