My advice to people who do this is to make sure the company sticks to their promises.

I used to work for a wireless provider who would offer discounts and special deals to those who threatened to cancel IF they agreed to renew their contract with us.

I saw a fair number of instances where the promised terms were not honored and the customers found themselves locked into a contract they could not escape without ETF.

Shhh! If everyone does this they'll catch on!

this probably only works in markets where there are viable alternatives (ie FiOS or U-Verse).

@esd2020: From somebody who used to do telephone customer service; it is unlikly that the person on the other end of that phone even cares what you get away with provided you treat them with respect and listen to them. Seriously.

Actually, I didn't even have to go this far. My 12-month HBO/Starz deal that I had with Comcast expired, and they sent me a flier offering some different TV packages (all of which which happened to be more expensive than what I had had).

I called them to drop HBO and Starz, and they countered with a package that allowed me to keep HBO/Starz, and save $30/month. I didn't even have to threaten to cancel the service. Also, I was not roped into a contract with an ETF.

@dmolavi: You're right. The absence of competition equals an absence of leverage. Even if you threaten to cancel, they'll just call your bluff because they can't conceive of someone actually canceling their TV service.

Just be prepared for your "I want to cancel" to be followed by "OK fine...clickety, click, click. You are cancelled. Anything else?"

Sometimes you get a CSR that's not in the negotiating mood and doesn't really care whether you stay or go. Might not be a good idea if you have no alternatives.

I bet you they're doing this so that down the line they can say, "See? We put in our usage caps and people aren't canceling. It's a hit!"

I pull that stunt with my newspaper.

They will chop up to half on your subscription.

i did the same with direct tv. first time a week before my contract expired, they gave me all the movie channels free for 6 months and no new contract. after that first week i called to cancel anyway they cut $20 off my bill and gave me a big credit to last till next year still with no contract. i got it all in writing.

One of my biggest issues with how comcast and others bring in new subscribers by offering low initial rates is that as in the OP case, they are reactive rather then being proactive. Can you imagine the goodwill generated if they gave long time subscribers a cut rate deal as they do for new subscribers every couple of years or so?

I called them up and told them I was being let go from my job (believable in the economy). I now pay $42 less a month for 1 year.

When Comcast took over for Time Warner in the Houston market they raised their rates almost immediately. When I called and tried the 'Threaten to Cancel' approach, I got just what testsicles mentioned, the ol' 'OK, we'll see you later.'

I had been a customer for several years and the CSR could not have cared less.

I used rabbit ears for the next year or so until I moved to an entirely different market.

It wasn't so bad, I saved upwards of a thousand dollars over the course of the year.

I did this with local SureWest and got my bill loawered $180 a year. My technique, told them over and over that I was satisfied with their service but that I felt it was too expensive and that I knew their competitor was offering a promotion.

You could do what I did. My comcast cable bill $44 a month for HD and internet. I only get NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX, CW, and a few locals all in HD. How? I let my Panasonic do the decoding with it's built in QAM tuner. No DVR, no OnDemand, but I have a $44 a month bill

@InfiniTrent:
I agree. A couple years ago, I did cancel my basic cable and went with the antenna ears to save time and force myself to do something besides watch TV. The CSR was beside herself that I didn't want TV service.

But, the joke was on them. A few days after cancelling, I plugged the cable back into the TV and continued to get free cable for about 15 months until I moved. They cancelled my account, but they didn't turn off the service. Unfortunately, I kept watching tV and never got anything productive done.

Anyone try this with Verizon DSL? I would love to cut my DSL bill down from $43 but then I'd be afraid I'd get the CSR who just cancels me, and then that means I have to go with the evil Comcast!

i wonder if you can get them to extend promo periods up front...since what they offer you is just the current promo

I did this recently with Comcast and it was incredibly easy. I have their "VIP" deal and I naturally found myself paying a lot more than I wanted to after the promo period wore off. So I called them and mentioned I was thinking of switching to Direct because of the price. That is the only thing I said, and the CSR immediately offered to cut the price for my entire package down to less than what I had paid at the promo rate AND give me my DVR free AND lock it in for two years. Almost $60 a month, just like that. The rep sounded like she'd done this many times before. So it's definitely worth a shot, at least if you're in an area where Comcast has any kind of competition.

My local Comcast billing/service/whatever office is (surprisingly) staff by a few helpful, friendly ladies. Anytime I have billing issues, I go there and they usually fix it and then give me an extra promotion or extend my current one on the spot.

@theblackdog: I just got my service upgraded with Verizon DSL for the same cost a month. Doubled my speed, no increase. Might be that I'm on dry loop dsl and pay extra for that anyways.

@testsicles: I encountered this as well. I called late at night and got a call center rep in Idaho or something. After trying to sell me Comcast's triple play when I threatened to go to FIOS she said, "Ok fine, when do you want to cancel". I made up some lie about asking my gf and she called my bluff.

The next day I called and got the local Comcast office. This time (thanks to a suggestion by my gf) I told them that I like Comcast service but I'm sick of new subscribers getting the best prices and deals. We went through the triple play dance again and I finally got my bill lowered to $92 from $120 and they added HBO, Showtime, and Starz for free.

Got the insta-cancel kind here. No antenna reception in my suburb means no TV.

Begging for a disemvoweling here, but here's to hoping the people who proudly have called to bullshit their way into a discount aren't in a position of public service where their morals could seep through and land them on the wrong end of a post on this site.

If a customer 1. pays their bill on time every month and 2. has been with us for years, then yes, we are more than happy to give you a promotional price for a while.

However, if you 1. don't pay your bill on time, and 2. threaten to cancel every time your promotion wears off, then when you threaten to cancel again you get 3. cancelled at your request.

And asking for a supervisor/manager doesn't work, because the supervisor/managers follow the same rules that the phone/lobby agents do. Talk to the Retention department. They're the ones that try and retain you as a customer and if you're a good customer, they'll give you a great deal as thanks for staying with us.

[Obligatory disclaimer: "I work for Comcast but I am not a Comcast spokesman; these are my own comments and opinions"

@nate4096: I have dry loop DSL as well, currently the 3/1.5 rate plan. I should see if they offer a faster speed for the same price, or see if I can just get a price drop on the current speed because it's good and fast for me.

I'm so thankful that Comcast called my bluff 5 years ago when they raised our rates after a slew of service issues. We've been so much happier with the greater variety of channels and overall service of DirecTV - at a much cheaper price.

It's not that I love DirecTV but it's so reliable I cannot remember the last time I had to call them for customer service. (That's how "entertainment" should be - no f'ing hassles.)

And I still think it's amusing that I was so afraid of losing our signal more often with satellite, but with Comcast, we lost our signal with alarming frequency. (And they could/would never figure it out.)

Comcast really hates people that order internet access only. :|

He would have saved more if he actually canceled. Get your TV online, over the air, etc.

@dragonfire81: That is contract fraud. A corporate agent (which a retention CSR almost has to be, to do their job) makes an agreement with a customer about changes to a contract then never actually writes them down. That's lawsuit country, and not a small claim either.

There's some nasty liability for the company there, if the customer was recording the call. (Why do people trust CSRs so implicitly, expecting the CSR to have their best interests at heart, anyway?)

i did that with charter, because it was the end of my intro period and there was no way i was going to pay $60 a month for something I'd just spent the last 6 paying $20 for. the internet doesn't even work all the time, charter is a joke. unfortunatley, verizon and at&t don't have service at my building, and there's no other companies (that i know of) in madison that offer internet. so it was charter or get a phone and dial up.

i called to cancel, having no idea they were going to offer me the same price i'd been paying indefinitely--i made extra sure that was the case and it wasn't another 'intro'. she called it an 'existing customer discount'. woot.

@Difdi: Well the customer faces an uphill battle on that, at least with some companies. Written confirmations are not sent for special offers. You will get a notice your contract was renewed but any special terms agreed to (I.e. 20% discount for 24 months) won't be on there, it will just be a "Thank you for renewing" courtesy letter.

So you won't have any written documentation of what's agreed upon. At the company I worked for, reps had no access to email, nor could we mail customers anything besides form documents on which no information could be altered by us.

Let's say you agree to the 20% discount but the person who made the agreement with you didn't put any record of it on your account. Since you have no written documentation to back up your claim, the company says you are SOL (when you call after not seeing the discount on your next bill) and quotes the "arbitration/no lawsuit" clause of their agreement if you threaten legal action.

I am not saying I AGREE WITH THIS, but I saw supervisors and managers use this exact approach to try and get out of honoring something that was supposedly offered to someone.

A recording of a call might cover you and it might now, where I worked, supervisors and managers were directed to never honor anything on the basis of a customer recorded call, since there was no way to verify the authenticity of the call (ie that they didn't have their buddy pretend to be a CS rep).

Again not agreeing with this, but this was the approach of managment.

My Comcast rep told me that while this might work once or twice, eventually Comcast will tell you to sign up for DVR and leave them alone.

I own a small business in NYC and called Verizon and told them I could do better elsewhere. Voila, they reduced my bill by $50.00 per month (25% reduction). Just like that.

@Shaftoe: In the case of a married couple you might be able to switch around the "new subscriber rates" between the spouses. We did that due to moving from one apt to a new one. Wife had old account in old apt, I got new account in new apt.

The key is to ALWAYS set the cancellation a few days out. That way if they call your bluff, you can call back and "change your mind" before they actually shut you off. Works like a charm.

@He: With only 250GB a month if that person had any other demand for high bandwidth, say they were part of a film colaboration trading footage through ftp or something, they would easily run out of allotted bandwidth per month.

[Obligatory disclaimer: "I work for Comcast but I am not a Comcast spokesman; these are my own comments and opinions"

Here is what I don't understand, when you sign up for service with Comcast it is at an introductory promotional rate. After that rate expires you pay full price just like everyone else. Before I even worked for Comcast I had a promo rate of 24.99/mon.x12mos. for internet - after that it went to the flat rate and I was told it wouldn't go up anymore after that, and it didn't for two years. After the two years I decided to work for them. Customers sign up for an "introductory new customer only" price and you are quoted how long that price is good for yet you still call us 12 months later shocked your bill went up and you want to stick it to the man?

I promise I'm not going to say anything even remotely along the lines of "blame the consumer". I will say it boggles my mind that there are consumerist readers that are still Comscat customers.

After all we have seen here over the last couple years from victims of Comscat makes me wonder if we're getting the word out successfully or not ;-)

@Rey: It really depends on weather conditions for DirectTV, not sure where you are but in UT the cabling on people's satellites can overheat causing the signal to go in and out. In the wintertime they get snowed on and people have to climb to wherever they have it mounted and clean it off, only for 4 more inches of snow to dump on it in 5 minutes.

All I know is that I recently switched back to Comcast due a screaming deal, and in under three weeks I have already received 5 pieces of junkmail from unrelated companies as a result. How do I know ? My last name is misspelled in the same way as on my (Comcast) Caller ID.

Bastards.

I'm a Charter customer, have been for around 10 years and have never paid regular price for my service. I have always been in a promo and am not even sure what the regular prices for Charter even are. In fact, if I find better deals I change my packages every few months to ensure I am always getting the lowest prices. I also discovered the other day that going to the local office is a better way to get deals or hope for a very nice telephone CSR. I got some dick last week who said he would only give me a deal on internet if I would resign up for telephone so I hung up on him to end the convo. and went to the local office and they got me great prices.

When Verizon finally brought FIOS to my neighborhood, I called Comcast to see what they could do for a 10 year formerly captive internet/cable customer. No joy. So I got FIOS and cancelled Comcast. Now I can't get them to quit calling me to offer sweet deals to get me back.

I think this is not a good advice. It's probably better to ask politely for a discount first. Depending on the CSR handling your call you may end up with no service.

@bones11:

Because nothing has changed dramatically on our end, why should our rates go up if you aren't providing more service?(other than inflation...)

Honestly, if service like this was like any other consumer electronic product, our rates would go DOWN. I mean, once you guys pay off the original investment, shouldn't our service be cheaper?

@The Great Aussie Evil:

Thats because your in australia where there is no real competition IE they got you by the sack At least I assume by your name thats the case.

If your in the US sign up for rapishare and learn to use some torrents.

@The Folding Chair Security Intern:

You have a strange sense of morals there The Folding Chair. You work for the cable company or some crap?

The objective of the consumer is to get as much as they can for as little as they can.

The objective of the corporation is to GIVE a little as they can for as much money as they can.

Its just that simple. When you play the game all is fair as long as no crimes are committed. If the rep WILLINGLY gives you a break how can you POSSIBLE sit there and question his morals?

There is only ONE reason. your pissed he got a better deal than you did. Pure and simple.

Get over yourself.

@bones11:

They make great little "covers" that you put on the dishes which makes it impossible for snow to gather and the cable is easy Wrap it in a sleeve and paint white. your heat problems will go away.

@warf0x0r:

Not really. I download like crazy. Just downloaded all of I dream of jeannie and all of home improvement AND all of the last 2 weeks of new episodes. not even a fraction of 250gb. even 8 seasons of home improvement was only 33gb.

Episodes are 350 each. thats a LOT of frelling tv without getting anywhere near 250gb.

I do NOT like the limit. Its a con job to me (it was offered as unlimited and unlimited should be unlimited period) but its really not going to bother me for now.