The details although boring are kind of comical when you consider what the goal of the ad is. We have gotten a new cable provider in town so my provider is apparently trying to muddy the waters by competing for service with the other (third) provider.
After dialing the number and going through four automated voice menus I finally got a sales rep. I explained the situation. If I didn't get some pricing relief I would be going to the competition. The sales rep replied "well that is a promotion and only available to new customers". I replied as clearly as possible that it made little sense for them to lose me as a customer when I am paying twice the promotional rate. They would have to get two new customers from the ad in order to replace me. Wouldn't it make sense to make me a little happy and keep me?
This began a phone odyssey of sorts. Because she was in sales she was unable to handle my request for rate relief but she would be glad to send me to "customer service". I was watching the clock because I have called the company before and I know what their definition is of customer service. After 19 minutes I got another very pleasant person on the phone who listened patiently while I vented over the issue of seeing my service being advertised at half the price. Unfortunately she was unable to do anything about that because that was a job for the "customer retention" department. I asked why it takes sales ten seconds to answer the phone but it takes customer service 19 minutes to take the call? Would I be on the line holding for another 19 minutes? She said, "I don't think so."
As it turns out she was absolutely right. I spent the next 25 minutes on hold. All the while the same endless recording played over and over thanking me for holding and telling me the next available person would be taking my call and of course, "your call is important to us." If my call was so important why weren't they answering it?
Finally Dan got on the phone. He listened attentively and commented on a couple of things, a couple which were right and a couple that were wrong. I denied having any premium services but lo and behold he showed me things in the 300 channel range I never knew existed. He also told me I didn't need cable boxes.
The wrong items were the promotion prices and he said the promo number didn't exist. I explained to him that this was hard to refute since I was looking at a half page ad in the newspaper and would be glad to scan it and send it to him. He also said I was getting long distance service in my package, I replied that I didn't think so since AT&T was billing me monthly.
I was a little aggravated with Dan and he started to get a little testy but his attitude changed a bit when I mentioned that I had spent 25 minutes on hold and during that time I was able to speak to his competition's sales department twice ( their sales department picked up quick also) and get a rate quote and installation availability. I said under the circumstances his potential for retaining me was diminishing by the moment.
So the net result was all is well that ends well. Dan managed to get my long distance signed on (which I was already paying for) which now eliminated the At&T bill and he cancelled my premium services that I didn't know I had and never watched and he reduced my bill. So I went from paying $162 per month down to a total of $117. That reduction coupled with the elimination of the current long distance provider saved me about $55 a month.
The moral of this story is that you are probably being over charged for your phone, cable and internet services and you should be periodically pricing the competition. You will be able to find out the pricing easily because all the new sales departments answer the phone really quick.
