Save on your subscription

[dennis thompson]

I get the Wall Street Journal, I probably read it about half the time. I just got a notice that it was going up to $55/month so I called to cancel it. In about one minute, after I told him to cancel it, the price went to $36, told him no, then he went to $25 and I said OK.
I guess you can negotiate most anything:)
Thinking about calling Verizon to cancel my Fios TV , land line and internet subscription , which is currently $234/month, to see if there is any flexibility there.

[Brian Elfert]

I have to contact Comcast every year or every two years to get my rate back on a promotional plan. I still think the price is too high.

[Thomas McCurnin]

And Sirius. You can get a $10 rate if you just cancel every three months

[Jim Koepke]

And Sirius. You can get a $10 rate if you just cancel every three months

Sirius keeps sending me promotions to have it in my truck. Maybe if hours on end were spent in my truck it would be a good thing.

My truck does have USB ports that allow me to keep a music library on a thumb drive.

Why would Sirius even be worth a dollar a month if a second subscription to listen in my shop would cost another dollar and require a new receiver?

Currently almost looking for a radio that can also play from a thumb drive for in the shop.

jtk

[Lee Schierer]

I got fed up with Sirius and recorded over 800 songs that I like on jump drives. I placed one in each car. Now I have free, commercial free music that I like every time I dirve one of my vehicles. I can even take a jump drive with me when I travel and use it in any rental car. In a recent trip to California and Oregon last year we drove a rental car for 10 days and only the drive played through 1-1/2 times even though we drove for several hours each day.

I fail to understand the business model of companies like Sirius, that will irritate customers time after time by jumping the subscription rate up 50% or more at renewal time and if the call well drop it back to what they paid before or less.

[Rick Potter]

I assume you are taking about $10 per month with Sirius. For the last 8 years I have subscribed to it for my car for about $125 a year. I don't know the package, but I get dozens of stations I don't want, just to get Fox News.

I just keep telling them I will pay the same as last year or I quit, and I mean it. The other thing I do is pay by check annually and NEVER give them a CC. No automatic roll over, and hidden raises.

The key is to phone them before the year is over, and make the next year deal. It would probably work just as well to let it die and get a new deal every year also.

[Bruce Page]

I canceled my Bitdefender antivirus auto-renew when I switched from a Windows PC to Mac. The renew price dropped from $40 to $20.

[Andrew Joiner]

Charter Cable became spectrum a while back. When they were still charter I would call and threatened to cancel every year when they raised it. Then when they became spectrum it stopped working, they would only schedule the cable guy to come out and disconnect. We pay about $100 a month for the cable and $60 a month for high-speed internet in a bundle.
I guess it's worth letting them come out and disconnect for a day or two now. We have probably an option to get a reduced rate to start again. Actually we have decided we may just get by with Netflix and Amazon and Hulu and all the options we sometimes watch.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Earlier this week, did the same with Direct TV. Got a price from Dish for same package, including fees and taxes. Called direct and told them to cancel. In less than ten minutes, they price matched Dish, and upgraded my receivers, all with NO CONTRACT. Contracts should be illegal, as the provider doesn't have to follow it, but you do. Dumped Verizon for the same reason. New phone (flip phone) unlimited minutes from Tracphone for about half of what I was paying Verizon. Plus phone now works at my house. With Verizon, it got to where to make a call, I had to drive into one of the local towns. Plus my original contract with Verizon (20+ years ago) stated free phone every two years, which didn't happen, not once. As I said, only you have to follow the contract, not them.

[Dave Fritz]

I think that's why so many services want you to set up auto pay. Out of sight out of mind. We're old fashioned I guess and pay each month so we know the difference between the goes ins and the goes outs, and try and keep the goes ins higher.

[Brian Elfert]

Earlier this week, did the same with Direct TV. Got a price from Dish for same package, including fees and taxes. Called direct and told them to cancel. In less than ten minutes, they price matched Dish, and upgraded my receivers, all with NO CONTRACT. Contracts should be illegal, as the provider doesn't have to follow it, but you do. Dumped Verizon for the same reason. New phone (flip phone) unlimited minutes from Tracphone for about half of what I was paying Verizon. Plus phone now works at my house. With Verizon, it got to where to make a call, I had to drive into one of the local towns. Plus my original contract with Verizon (20+ years ago) stated free phone every two years, which didn't happen, not once. As I said, only you have to follow the contract, not them.

Verizon now owns Tracphone since last November.

[Jim Becker]

Thinking about calling Verizon to cancel my Fios TV , land line and internet subscription , which is currently $234/month, to see if there is any flexibility there.

They will pretty much tell you to not let the door hit you on the backside on the way out, in all honesty. But what you should do is see if the current Mix and Match solution gives you better pricing. "Triple Plays" under contracts are kinda not the way to save money these days. Internet only has the best pricing, even when combined with a streaming service like Hulu +LivetV or YouTubeTV for live television. Don't keep a landline unless you have a specific need for it. It's a huge profit thing these days.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Verizon now owns Tracphone since last November.


I knew that going in. Big difference is you can actually talk to someone at Tracphone, and not be on hold for an hour. When canceling my Verizon, spent a total of over three hours on wait, just to cancel. Now Verizon has lost my next to last payment, for which I have both receipt and bank statement showing it was paid. But it's not limited wireless companies. Local LARGE hospital, which owns several practices, can't get their billing right. Send you a bill, which is dated about twenty days prior to receipt. Tell you have twenty days from receipt to pay bill, then before payment due date, send you a late notice. Also can't connect CC payment stations in some of the practices to their billing dept, so they send you a bill which was collected at time of service. Unfortunately, some pay their bill without looking at it carefully. I NEVER pay a doctor's bill till I get an EOB from my insurer. Same hospital hasn't recognized that I've been going to cardiac rehab for over almost three months now. My insurer has been paying them, but they haven't billed me yet. Their sign in kiosk at rehab won't let me sign in. Tells me to see receptionest, but due to time of day, there is no one there till after I leave. Go figure!

[Aaron Rosenthal]

I’m in Canada, and have both land line and cellphones-each of my family has cells.
I got my landline bill the other day and it had jumped over 100% because the promotions timed out. I called the company and told them we just didn’t need the service because we also have a 3rd party long distance plan which includes an 800 number so the kids can call as well as WhatsApp.
Suddenly the basic rate which will not expire dropped nearly 2/3ds.
More palatable.

[Derek Meyer]

I have Spectrum, and I just stop by the office every year (in August/September, when the back-to-school specials are in effect) and ask them if there are any specials going on. They are happy to look at my services and find ways to save me money. It's been working for more than 10 years so far.