One Little Phone call....

  can make a big difference! While checking email last night I noticed that my Direct TV statement had arrived. Even though I have direct debit on this bill I still like to read over the details each month. I knew the teens had 'rented' a movie so the bill should be $4 higher than normal. Imagine my surprise when the bill was $15 higher. I looked it over carefully and quickly determined that one of the 'credits' that was normally applied each month was missing.
A quick phone call to the customer service department was made. I explained to the rep that I was surprised to see an increase in my bill and that if this was indeed the new amount I was going to have to seriously consider switching providers if they could not work with me to lower that number. At that amount it was going to be very difficult if not impossible to continue on with them. And I have noticed several other satellite companies with extremely tempting new customer offers. She was very apologetic about not having any promotions that would be able to lower my bill but suggested I talk to someone in customer retention. I agreed.
The customer retention rep had no trouble with lowering my bill (I'm thinking that this is standard, the first person tries to get the customer to accept the higher amount but when they threaten to leave passes them on to someone who actually helps them). He not only restored the $10 a month credit (for direct debit payment) I was receiving and he also "found" me a $7 a month credit promotion with 3 free months of Starz as well. Now we aren't big movie watchers on TV but even after I cancel the Starz (which I will do before the $39.99 monthly charge kicks in) I will continue to receive the $7 a month credit. I didn't mention this to the rep but after the first month GF has Direct TV as a new customer I will also begin receiving another $10 a month credit for referring him to their company so my bill will go down even more! We really enjoy TV viewing and this is our main form of entertainment through out the year but it is also necessary to be firm about how much of my annual budget gets spent on this.
There was a time I would have just accepted the increase in my bill and adjusted my budget accordingly but now I've gotten smarter about this. Most TV companies will work with the customer to lower their charges in order to keep them. There is a lot of competition out there for our TV watching dollars and this is something we can all take advantage of if we are willing to make one little phone call.