Can You Get Promo Price Again After a Year Comcast

Comcast, my cable visitor, has an abrasive habit of unexpectedly raising my bill for cable net service. When I moved to the Washington, DC, expanse in 2013, I signed up for Comcast's Xfinity broadband service at an introductory rate of $41.99 per calendar month. In January, the price went up to $57.99. Then, in May, my nib went up once again — to $74.95. That was nearly double the rate I had signed up for.

Economists call this strategy toll bigotry. Basic economics suggests that companies can increase their profits if they accuse different customers unlike amounts.

Starting out with a low introductory rate and and so gradually raising prices helps Comcast become as much money as possible out of each customer. As a long-time Comcast customer, I knew that if I called and threatened to cancel, the cable behemothic would likely offer me a discount.

But I wanted to know more. How exactly does this procedure work? And what should customers do to become the biggest discount? Earlier this yr, I talked to two onetime Comcast customer service reps who have seen how the system works from the inside. Here'south what they told me.

Pretend you're canceling your service

You might be tempted to simply be honest and ask for a discount. Just that probably won't work.

Cable networks are extremely expensive to build. Simply once the equipment is in the ground, the cost of providing service to one customer is very depression. Virtually all of your monthly cable beak goes straight to your cable visitor's bottom line.

That ways that your cable visitor is going to be willing to give you a hefty discount to keep your subscription — but only if they actually think you're going to cancel otherwise. If they think you're just backbiting, and so they have no reason to offer you lot a disbelieve.

"Information technology pays to play hardball," a one-time Comcast rep told me in May. He worked at an Oregon Comcast call heart from 2002 to 2009. "Threatening to cancel will get you further than outright asking for a discount."

So just say "I'd similar to cancel my service please." You'll almost certainly be transferred to a "memory specialist" whose task it is to change your listen.

401(M) 2012

Be polite merely business firm

People in Comcast'southward "retention" department are rewarded based on their success at getting you to keep your service without giving you a big discount. So they're going to do their best to get you to change your mind for free.

"Everything was very commission-based," according to Adam Reinardy, who worked in a Comcast call middle in Minnesota until 2008. "You lost commission if you gave deals. If you lot retained a client without giving them whatsoever sort of bargain, you got commission on information technology."

So the person you talk to may try to persuade you with something other than a price break. The representative might claim that they have rules against giving customers back-to-dorsum discounts, or claim that giving too many discounts to one customer would exist unfair to other customers. But if you hold out, their melody is likely to modify.

"Being super firm but not angry most it and merely standing to toe the line until eventually they interruption is the mode to practise it," Reinardy told me in May. "They will endeavor to avoid giving you a bargain as much as possible until they realize naught else is going to work."

Know exactly what you want

After talking to these experts, I put their advice to the examination. When I called Comcast, a representative asked if I was having trouble with video streaming. When I said I was, he offered to give me a free upgrade to Comcast'south "Blast" tier instead of a discount. When I yet wasn't satisfied, he offered me a $10 discount, and so a $15 one. I accepted that deal.

So it's good to game out in advance what kind of concessions yous're interested in. If you just want to pay less coin, and so make information technology clear that you're just interested in that and are non interested in faster service, premium channels, or other perks. And have a articulate idea of how large of a discount you're looking for.

In making that decision, information technology'south a skilful thought to figure out how much alternative services — like DSL Cyberspace or satellite TV — actually cost. That volition aid you figure out how big of a discount to ask for. And information technology volition too brand you audio more convincing when y'all insist that you actually would like to cancel.

Steven Depolo

Don't ask to talk to a manager

"Demanding to speak with a manager won't practice you lot any favors," my Oregon source told me. "If anything, a director will be more than brusk than an associate. Why? They don't have to worry about the metrics, for 1 matter, and y'all're interrupting the work they're supposed to be doing."

If you lot don't go a good outcome, try over again subsequently

My Oregon source also said that the size of the discount available "depends on multiple factors, one of which is simply the temperament of the associate you're speaking with."

"Retention associates tin simply allow a certain number of customers to receive discounts," he told me. "They'll get dinged by management if they resort to this method too often. Depending on where a given associate is on their metrics, they might play tough or they might be a full pushover."

So if you air current upward in a standoff with a item representative, politely cease the phone call and try again a few days after. You might become someone who has more flexibility to offer you a discount.

Of course, you shouldn't overdo this. The company does keep records of past calls, and so if you phone call for a discount five times in ane week they're going to effigy out you're not serious about canceling. But if you don't get a good response from the first person you talk to, it doesn't hurt to try a second or third time.

(Dave Winer)

Does this utilize to other cablevision providers?

I've been focusing on Comcast considering I'm a Comcast client and both of my sources worked there. But nearly of the advice should apply to other cable companies too.

Before I became a Comcast customer, I lived in St. Louis, which is Charter territory. Lease refused to comment for this story, but a source tells me that Lease pursues the aforementioned basic strategy: customers who asked to downgrade or disconnect their service would be transferred to the retention department, where they would exist offered special discounts.

A Cox spokesman said in an emailed argument that Cox "offers promotional pricing with both existing and new customers to aid with retentiveness."A representative from Time Warner didn't reply to a asking for comment.

Farther reading

• Comcast and Time Warner are America'due south biggest cablevision companies — and the to the lowest degree popular
• Google is trying to shame Comcast into running its network meliorate
• Comcast is destroying the principle that makes a competitive internet possible

hoeywifted.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.vox.com/2014/6/5/5780348/comcast

Share this post