Lowering cable bill

[croixflats]

Came across this rather long but very beneficial

Lower Your Cable-TV Bill: The Inside Scoop on Call Centers

One Call Does it All

The first step to reducing your cable bill is to gain some valuable insight regarding the folks on the other end of the phone that you talk with after you have been on hold. There are several cable companies offering their services, such as Time Warner cable. when you call the customer service number, everything works about the same no matter who your cable company is.

Those friendly, smiling faces belonging to the people you speak with when you call in are people working in a call center. In most cases, the call center is a huge room, with aisles upon aisles of cubicles. Realistically, the average call center will employ 50 to 100 people.

Typically the call-center generates revenue from each call they take, sales, and retention of current clientele. At times the call volume is much greater than what the call-center can adequately tend to, creating an overflow of calls. So what does Time Warner Cable, Comcast, and Adelphia do? They hire another company to handle a portion of their calls for them.

Unless you were to specifically ask, you would never detect this because these folks are very well trained and very affluent at what they do. The purpose of this article is by no means to discount all the hard-working customer service representatives that assistance when we call in. Rather, to inform others on the inner workings of the call-center, the perspective of the customer service representative, the cable company, and how to save money on your bill.

Doesn't it seem rather odd that two people subscribing to the exact same service decide to compare their bills, and are astounded by the differences they discover in price? How about someone who has been a customer for a great number of years that notices an advertisement on television for the same service they subscribe to at a lower price, they call in to find out that the offer they saw only applies to new customers.

How about taking care of the current customers? This is what prompted me to write this article exposing the cable companies by sharing with you information I'm certain they will not appreciate me passing on. This applies to Time Warner Cable, Comcast, and Adelphia.

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One Call Does it All

The customer service representatives receive an hourly pay along with a structured bonus plan. Without the bonus they really don't make hardly anything. The bonus system works on a point system. The customer service representative gains points from sales, volume of calls taken, quality assessments, and customer retention or saves. Not every call-center will be exactly as I am describing as this is a generalization to help you better understand the perspective of the customer service representative.

The friendly representative on the other end of the phone will have two goals in mind when speaking with you, upgrade your service therefor creating sales, or keeping you as a client when you inquire of canceling service. Time warner Cable, Comcast, and Adelphia all will strive not to lose you as a customer.

When you call and inquire about saving money on your bill generally you are asked to hold while they review your account and see what promotions or specials may apply to you. Sometimes this will save you a few dollars and sometimes not. People often times ask if there is anything they can do to save money on their bill and if they are told they currently have the best possible deal offered, they accept that and move on.

Possibly a simple inquiry about lowering the bill will satisfy some of the folks out there. If you are trying to save money the important thing here is not to give up, your persistence and patience will pay off. I will explain two different approaches that have proven to work for just about anyone whom I have spoken with that has tried this.

The first approach that I will speak of is a continuation of the call inquiring about lowering your bill. Let's just assume the customer service representative informs you that they can save you two or three dollars a month, or that you have the best possible deal that they can offer you at this time.

Your next for reply should be something to this effect, ' I really appreciate you checking on that for me, I think I'm going to check with dish network, or that satellite TV place because I'm certain I saw an advertisement that was far less than the service you are offering me, would you happen to know the number for dish network, or that satellite TV place?' It is imperative that you mention satellite TV, or dish network.

The reason for this, is because the customer service representative, upon hearing those very special words, is then authorized to offer you pricing designed specifically with retaining you as a customer in mind. Believe me, they have special pricing to offer you and they earn points towards their bonus system for retaining you as a customer. You have absolutely no reason to feel bad about this.

The savings are there, you just need to know how to get them. You would not expect the cable company to just lower your bill due to your loyalty and timely payments would you? The customer service representative may also try to entice you with other perks, like a free premium channel for three months, rather than save you money. Always sound appreciative of their efforts, but remember the reason you are inquiring in the first place.

If you are satisfied with the perk they offer you that is a great, if not, just ask about the phone number for dish network or satellite TV again. If you're contemplating whether or not this is worth your efforts, I personally cut my cable bill by 43%. This method really works, as does the next approach I'm going to share with you.

This is where we cut to the chase. This works the same for Time Warner Cable, Comcast, and adelphia. When you initially call in your speaking with a computer that directs you to push a button according to your needs. Example: for billing press one, to add, change or cancel service press two, I think you get the idea. You will select the option to cancel service. Don't panic, this will not automatically disconnect your service. The friendly customer service representative will be on the line shortly to assist you, all calls are answered in the order they were received, and so on and so forth.

This is similar to the last approach, only here we will eliminate the time involved while the customer service representative tries to lower the bill. When they receive your call, they will already know you are calling with the intent of canceling your service, so their job now is to retain you as a customer.

They will as always, ask how they may assist you. Now you will inform them that you are calling to cancel service. Once again don't panic, they're not going to reach over and flip a switch instantly disconnecting your service, rather they will make an inquiry such as, may I ask why? Your reply will be something such as, we are going to dish network, or we decided to go with that satellite TV service because we need to save some money.

The representatives reply will be something to this effect, I am very sorry to hear that, we really value your business, could you hold for just a moment while I review your account and see if there's anything I can do to save you some money? Remain positive and reply with something like, wow I really appreciate that, yes I can hold. Being kind and appreciative will inspire the representatives to help you to the best of their abilities. If you are rude and vulgar you may have a tendency to get accidentally disconnected.

Remember, the calls are monitored so you must say dish network or satellite TV to enable the representative to offer you that special pricing. If you don't mention it, they cannot offer it to you and if they do their employment is jeopardized. Go ahead and give it a try, save yourself some money, and help that friendly customer service representative earn a few extra dollars as well.

[CRAZYEYES]

I have'nt paid a full price cable bill in 3 years. If you have comcast just call them and let them know that you are looking for lower priced options and then when you mfind out that there really are none tell them you are thinking about canceling and switching to dish network. They ALWAYS offer you a discount. The catch is that they only offer a discount for 6 month periods. They try to offer you 10 off a month for 6 months but if you dont blink and let them know that this is still too much for you they'll fold and go to 20. I have a pretty basic package with 70 channels and on demand which regular price is about 70 $ amonth witha ll the fees and I've been paying under fifty for the last few years. Catch is you just have to do it every six months but I'll gladly make a couple calls to save 250 a year.

[harvey lee]

I totally agree Crazyeyes. I have done the same thing here. I do this with my garbage hauler supplier also as we have 3 that come into town. Last time I called I recieved 3 free months and they also reduced my monthly fee so well I could not change companies.

[croixflats]

I know it was long, essentialy it is saying the same thing, with what I thought was an interesting explanation behind call centers and how they opperate reguarding retaining customers.

[goblueM]

or you could just get directv which is like 35 bucks a month for essentially the same channels and free install

[smartguy]

or you could just disconnect the cable and save $1000 a year. Don't miss mine. If its iortant enough, its on the Web or on PBS

[SkunkedAgain]

I have Comcast for internet and DirecTV for television. They are both around $70/month, but Comcast continually gives me the $30/mo special for 6 months and then I call again to re-up. DirecTV has never offered more than a few dollars off. I don't have any premium channels or packages (not even HD) expect for the sports package to get Fox Sports North.

I'm really thinking about the Comcast triple-play but we'll see. So far DirecTV has been pretty hard to budge, but I do like their product.

[JimBuck]

Nice write up croixflats. I appreciate the effort put into it. You shared some key insight into how call centers operate and the operations behind them. I'll be hounding my local Cable/Internet provider next pay period.

[EBass]

Thanks Croixflats!

[PierBridge]

You can get 10 or 20 off Direct TV for 6 months without much of a problem.

[rundrave]

I tried calling my local cable provider unhappy with my monthly bill and seeing the new customer promotions being offered hoping they would match. It was a no go and they called my bluff with my threat to cancel.

I am now a Dish Network customer. It has its pros and cons, the only thing I really dont like is being locked in for 2yrs.