Amazingly I was able to call my cable company and get them to drop the price of my broadband again. I have done this twice before. What I normally do is call them, ask them for a lower speed connection that costs less and then tell them about how my phone company is offering a 1.5mbps service for half as much. They usually offer to lower my price for 6 months and that keeps me happy.
The last time I did this, the lady mentioned that they wouldn’t be able to give me a discount again because they had given me an entire year of service at $29.99 for 6mbps service. That stayed in the back of my head so that when my price popped back up to $45.95 a couple months ago, I didn’t bother to call them back.
Well, on a whim, I decided to try it again. I used exactly the same technique as I’ve used in the past and the lady offered to lower my price to $35.99 to keep me as a customer. Amazingly all I had to do was say, “Hmmm. That helps a little but I’m still really impressed by my phone companies price of $25.99.” After I said that, she said, “How about I take it all the way down to $29.99.” I said, “That sounds great. I really appreciate it. It’s still a couple bucks more expensive than DSL, but I’ve been a customer for a long time and think that sounds reasonable.”
After a little bit of small talk while she edited my account, I was done. Yet again, I’m reminded of something my dad told me many years ago. “If you don’t ask for it, the answer is definitely NO”.