Three years ago, I ditched cable and went with an internet+satellite package that improved my internet speed and lowered my channels cost. A while ago, I noticed my bill was now a lot higher than it should have been.
I tried going on line to lower the cost by dropping to a lower tier. SURPRISE! You can only increase your financial commitment online, you cannot decrease your financial commitment. So I called. They were closed. Time went on and every once in a while, I'd remember to call, but it was either after hours (what, no 24/7 service for something like this?) or the estimated wait time was 20 minutes. Over the last couple of weeks, I began to feel that I would keep only the internet and drop the tv package, partly because it shouldn't purposefully be made difficult to reduce service. Finally, yesterday, I got through and the wait time was 1 minute.
It took a total of 40 minutes spread between 3 CSRs who ocassionally put me on hold to confer with each of their managers. The original CSR set up the discount but could not process them and transferred me; the second CSR processed the channel pkg and some of the account credit; the third CSR increased the internet speed and processed another portion of the account credit. I had anticipated some pushback and tricky tactics to make me "fight" for my reductions and discounts, but there was none of that this time around. I didn't have to threaten to quit because they basically offered discounts without me really asking. Finally, I ended up cutting a few channels, tripling (alledgedly) my internet speed, and reducing my monthly package bill by about 40%. They also gave me a credit of nearly $100.
I didn't realize at the time that all the sports channels had been part of the cut, but I'm getting used to it. I don't want to call back and tinker with the deal again. Besides, my sports viewing time has been decreasing over the past three years, and I probably need to cut back a little further anyway. Besides, again, when I was readying myself to cancel all channels, it seems weird to now want to re-add half of the few that were cut to reduce the cost.
All in all, 22 hours in, I'm very happy with the change. I'll binge on Netflix and Prime a little more, when time permits. I'll watch a little less sports. And I'll think about making the big cut sometime in 2021.
variety.com
nypost.com
time.com
