With my house filling up for the summer, and my Internet access about to be overrun again, I decided it would be a good idea to upgrade my service to have a higher bandwidth ceiling (given how high the penalties are for going over that ceiling). I also decided it was time to be my own Ellen Roseman, and stand up for my rights as a consumer, so I was going to ask for a discount too.
No, but many firms think this IS Customer Retention
I called Rogers, who is my Internet (and Cable) provider, and I spoke to a service representative and took care of the upgrade of my package to a higher bandwidth ceiling, and that all rolled along quite simply.
I then got up the courage to ask, “Can I please talk to a customer retention agent?”. The customer rep I spoke to asked why I wanted to, and I pointed out that I had been a customer in good standing with Rogers and wanted to see if there was anything they could do to lower my bill. The Customer rep agreed that it never hurts to ask so she connected me to the Rogers Customer Retention line (it’s not called that, but I forgot what the exact title was).
I was ready with my story, which was that Bell has been bombarding me with weekly letters outlining their new fibre to the home product and how cheap it was going to be ($40/month for the first year), and what would Rogers do to keep me as a customer. I was very polite with the young lady and said I really liked the Rogers product, but I would like it even more if it was cheaper.
To my utter surprise the young lady said, “Sure we can lower your Internet rate by 30% for the next year if you would like?”. I was flabbergasted, because I expected a little more argument, but no, I simply asked in a polite and calm manner and was given a large discount. I had to agree to sign a “contract” for a year, and there are penalties if I cancel the service early, but given I wasn’t really planning on changing in the first place, one phone call saving me 30% a month was just fine by me.
Ask and Ye Shall Receive
The moral of the story, if you think you are paying too much, simply ask for a discount and see what happens. It seems to work for banking and now it seems to work for Internet access too.
I actually just did the switch from Bell to rogers. We’ve had rogers cable and bell phone for a decade, and use to have internet with rogers but switched a few years ago.
Rogers quoted me a 20% across the board discount on everything to switch (phone, internet, LD and TV), which I thought about but never did anything about.
Turns out getting a quote also books a tentative appointment a month away, which I discovered when I got a message there was an installation guy coming in a few days.
Annoyed, I called to cancel the appointment. Instead, I got offered 30% across the board for a year. Which I simply couldn’t refuse… now my total bill is not much more than Just TV was before.. at least for the next year. And even then the total amount is dramatically less.
It really is worth calling just to see. Get a quote from the other company, then go to your own and tell them what it was. You are bound to save money one way or another.