Lowered my Broadband Cost Today

I called my broadband company today. 6 months ago, I had called to threaten to cancel if they didn’t give me a discount. They dropped the price for 6 months for me. Well, that 6 months is over so I called them back again. Here’s how the conversation went:

Me: Hi. I’d like to change my broadband service to your 2 megabit speed instead of 4 megabit speed.
Her: Uhh Sir, we don’t have a slower service. We only sell the 4 megabit service and it will be going up to 6 megabit.
Me: Hmmm Bummer. I don’t like paying that much for broadband and the phone company is hitting me hard to sign up for DSL.
Her: But Sir, Why would you want a slower DSL connection?
Me: Do you use all 4 megabits of bandwidth? I don’t. I bet at my peak, I use less than 1 megabit. So why would I want to pay more for that 3 megabits that I’m not using? Why not switch to DSL and pay less than half? I really need to lower my monthly bills because we are overextended.
Her: Oh, I don’t even have an internet connection. My friends keep asking me to get it.
Me: But if you did, do you really think you’d use 4 megabits per second? Do you have any idea how fast that is?
Her: Well some people like the speed for gaming.
Me: That’s nice. I don’t play games.
Her: Well, how about if I drop your price by 35% for the next 6 months?
Me: Okay, you talked me in to it.
Her: Oh, well I’m sure glad you’ve decided to stay with us.
Me: Yeah, me too. I really appreciate all of your help. I’ll call you back and talk to you in 6 months.
Her: Okay. Thank you sir.

So, I got my price dropped again. She said that she probably wouldn’t be able to do it next time. I said, “Okay. I guess I’ll cancel in 6 months”. She didn’t say anything. Someone told me that if you talk to them about the other options out there and tell them that you are considering switching, they have some leeway to give you a discount to keep you. You have to choose the option to cancel or change your service when you call. I’ve found, rather than threatening to cancel out right, that it’s better to ask them if they have a less expensive service. I always say that we are overextended on our bills and that we have to find a cheaper alternative to their price. It has worked like a champ both times. Good thing she can’t connect me to my blog. Next time I call, I’ll have to really paint a bleak picture. If they won’t give me a discount again, I’ll probably price out DSL. I’d hate to give up cable broadband though. I really do like the speed…….