Has your cable bill been steadily rising every year? You aren’t alone – cable companies across the country are luring customers into contracts with cheap introductory rates, then raising prices rapidly.
Cable companies make their money by increasing your cable bill regularly, keeping you tied to their service and overcharging you. If you’re tired of paying hundreds of dollars for cable, you just need to give them a call. Here’s how talking to your cable company could score you a big discount.
Call and Ask to Cancel Your Service
The first step in getting a discount is call your cable company – but you don’t want to call and ask for a discount or more affordable services. Asking nicely won’t get you any special offer.
Instead, you need to tell your cable company you’re canceling your service.
Cable companies don’t want to lose customers. As Vox¹ reports, cable companies spend a lot of money building their networks – but once those networks are built, cable companies don’t have to spend very much to provide cable to their customers. Every time your pay your cable bill, your cable company is making a ton of money as nearly the entire bill is profit for them.
This means that cable companies can afford to give customers discounts. But, of course, they don’t want to miss out on potential profit, so they don’t want to give out these discounts. In order to get a lower price, you’ll have to convince your cable provider you’re ready to cut the cord.
So, give your cable company a call and tell them you’re ready to cancel your service. According to former Comcast employees², being tough and threatening to cancel is the method that works with cable companies.
Talk to Customer Retention, Not a Manager
As soon as you tell your cable company you’d like to cancel your service, you’ll be connected with a “retention specialist” rather than a basic call center employee.
Don’t bother asking to speak to a manager. While it’s common to speak to a manager when you’re dealing with call centers, this isn’t the case with your cable company. They have an entire team of retention specialists – people who are specifically trained to convince customers to stay with the cable provider.
And, as Vox³ writes, customer retention specialists are rewarded if they’re able to keep you as a customer. They’re also rewarded if they can manage to convince you to keep your service without handing you a big discount. The person you talk to will try to talk you out of canceling, but if you stay firm, you’ll reap the benefits.
As you talk to the retention specialist, stick to your original message: you’re ready to cancel your service. Don’t let the specialist persuade you that there’s no way to save, that there aren’t better deals or discounts. Instead, push back and let them know their service is too expensive and you don’t want to subscribe any longer.
Retention specialists may tell you they can’t give you a deal, or that they have rules against discounts. But, if you stick to your point that you’re going to cancel, they will do absolutely anything to keep you as a customer. If the representative believes you mean what you say, they’ll eventually give in and offer you a deal.
You might be offered a freebie, like free movie channels or streaming options. You might also be offered a discount on monthly services, or given a lower price for the package you currently have. Make sure to weigh your options before saying yes – you want to make sure you’ll save money without losing any features or services.
Do Your Research Before Calling
The smartest way to save on your cable bill is to play hardball and threaten to cancel. However, there’s another important step you need to take in order to save money: do your research before calling your cable company.
In order to get the best deal or discount possible, you’ll want to know what other offers are out there. Do other cable companies in your area offer special discounts for new customers? Does your current cable company have a special deal going on that you didn’t know about? Are there perks you’d love to have, but don’t want to pay for?
If you do your research before calling and threatening to cancel, you can make sure you leverage your knowledge. For example, if you’ve searched online and found lower monthly prices offered from competitors, you can tell the cable company you’re canceling because you know their competition is offering a lower price. This will make you sound informed – and your cable company will quickly realize you’ve done your homework and they can’t fleece you into a lowball discount.
To find out what’s out there, you just need to search online. Look at other cable providers in your area and check out their pricing and offers. Search for your cable company and see what pricing they’re offering to others. And look for deals or discounts that you aren’t currently taking advantage of. All of this information can help you save significantly.