Okay, so a couple nights ago I got a call from a representative (who was calling from a large call centre) on behalf of my mobile phone/internet provider.
The rep was friendly and professional and in essence wanted to “review my current plan to ensure that it was still meeting my needs”.
What they really wanted was to get me onto another package, any package other than the one that I am now (the one that I had to put up a fuss and go to tier two of customer support to get).
At first I tried to brush them off, but they were persistent so I let them review my package and go through the motions. I was curious what would happen.
After a few clicking and clacking they announced that they could get me two more gigabytes of data per month for the same price (wow what a deal).
And I could have access (free for six months) to:
• Live streaming hockey games (which will chew up my data, fast)
• Live streaming movies and TV shows (which will chew up my data, even faster)
• View magazines online (I mostly read news websites)
In any event these are hooks where you get it free for a bit, but then end up paying after you get used to using them. They are ways to sneakily up your bill down the road.
Apparently I couldn’t say no, but to activate them I actually had to go and download the apps. If I didn’t download, then no counter would start and no increased bill in six months.
After all was said and done they said, there you go, all this for just $125.00! I’m thinking, okay great since I pay 127.16 now, you have actually given me more for less.
Then they added, in passing, there is the additional $10.00 for each additional device in the data sharing plan. To be fair these charges are already on my bill now and are a part of that $127.16.
I did the math in my head and said “congratulations, you just increased my bill by twenty bucks, I’ll stick with what I have.”
If I had gone with their plan I would have seen my cell bill go up to $145.00! All for an extra 2 Gigs of data that I don’t really need and other stuff I can’t use.
The trick to dealing with this type of phone call is to know exactly what you are getting and how much you are paying.
They will try to sweet talk you and make you think that what they are giving you a great deal.
In the end, if it is not giving you more of what you need for a price that you want, then it is not a good deal, it is a bad one.
Stick to your guns, don’t be afraid to question what they are saying and yes don’t be afraid to stick with what you have, they can’t force you to change or upgrade. (Be firm but polite.)
For me, my plan does what I need and if I get too close to the data roof, I just turn the data off and seek out free Wi-Fi for the last few days of my data month.
As always: Keep your head up, your attitude positive and keep moving forward!
No comments:
Post a Comment