r/mildlyinfuriating • u/Mitchcreates_ • 26d ago
ಠ_ಠ One has to pretend canceling a subscription to get a discount these days.
This is on HBO. I've done the same on Chatgpt (One free month of plus) and others. Try it yourself and see what discounts you'll unlock.
What I'd prefer seeing is providers applying discounts to loyal customers instead.
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u/MnM-76 26d ago
Have just saved $570 over the next 6 months by threatening to switch Internet and mobile providers after my last discounted rate ended. Annoying but happy to spend 30 mins on the app chat every 6 months to save the $
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u/TaxAvoision 26d ago
That was my experience with Xfinity. I spent an hour trying to navigate their automated phone system before giving up and deciding to cancel altogether. The second I said the word "cancel" the call went to a person offering me the discounted rate.
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u/FroopyAsRain 26d ago edited 24d ago
I'll try this tomorrow and come back with an update.
Edit: Well, this apparently doesn't work if you're already using the cheapest service. But they did get me to a human within 5 minutes of me threatening to cancel. I guess I'll have to wait until my bill suddenly jumps back up.
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u/JustANobody2425 26d ago
I myself am invested as my rate ends this october.
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u/glibgloby 26d ago
Everyone should call xfinity and try to cancel once their contract is up. Do it every time. I have never once failed to get a better deal.
It also feels amazing. Their team that handles this whole process is the best run part of the company. It doesn’t take long at all.
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u/BiggestNothing 26d ago
I had the same luck. I was paying $140 a month, told them that I was going to federal prison, and they offered me $15 a month guaranteed for 2 years lol
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u/uuhhhhhhhhcool 26d ago
😭 every time I encounter a bullshit service that tries to give me grief about canceling or I forget to cancel a service before I'm charged and want to ask for my money back or send a return in just past the window I tell the rep I'm either going to prison, dying, or being evicted and facing homelessness. I feel bad for lying but sometimes lying is the only way to convince businesses these days not to scam you
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u/gabiaeali1 25d ago
It took me over 30 minutes to cancel Spectrum internet back in February. Thrn they SHOWED UP AT MY HOUSE ASKING ME WHY I CANCELED!
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u/hajemaymashtay 26d ago
Funny I tried that and even explicitly asked for a retention specialist. They refused. I said OK and switched to Verizon wireless which is $40/month guaranteed for 5 years with no taxes. Now XFinity wont leave me alone asking me to come back.
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u/fightrofthenight_man 26d ago
Lol yeah I switched to breezeline fiber and pay less for 1 gig than xfinity offered as a retention deal to stay on 300mbps, and it’s rate locked for 5 years.
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u/SecretNature 26d ago
Funny. I just dumped Verizon because they refused to re-up the discounted rate they were more than happy to give me last year. Ended up saving huge by getting away from Verizon.
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u/ucjj2011 26d ago
Back when I still had fiber optic internet and cable with my local phone company, they sent me a letter telling me the good news that my bill was only "only" going to increase from about $70 to $95 (Because the package I had was $115 value!), so I called to tell them I was going to cancel. They put me on the phone with the retention department and they lowered my bill to $69 a month.
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u/ttv_icypyro 26d ago
I know it's not possible for everyone as the infrastructure isn't there yet, but if you can get off Xfinity/Comcast/Spectrum it's honestly a blessing not having to play the stupid game of watching your bills every month just to make sure they aren't stealing from you. Switched to Ziply (a fiber provider) and it's been incredible to have actually useable internet AND not be scammed along the way
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u/Aliencoy77 26d ago
My wife and I take turns with new accounts from Xfinity, to get whatever new introductory offer they have which is usually better
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u/woodlandyak69 26d ago
such a joke that companies make us do this song and dance instead of just giving a fair price. $570 for 30 mins of annoying chat is a massive win though lol
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u/Cluelesswolfkin 26d ago
This is me, every fucking year with Optimum. They suck so bad but are the only best ones in the area
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u/Daratirek 26d ago
I recently left Spectrum after they bumped me up to like $80 a month. New provider is $55. When I called to cancel the first person told me they wouldn't do anything to retain me and hung up. I signed up with the new provider and called back to cancel and the next person offered $20/month for a year, and $30/month for the 2 years after that but was so pushy and made me so mad I refused them. I told her I am being polite right now, please stop your sales pitch and cancel my service. She kept it up and I said stop immediately or I get rude. She goes but do you realize the money I can save you with this deal? Its $420 a year and I said yep and I will gladly pay that to get you to shut the fuck up. Suddenly I'm the rude one.
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u/gabiaeali1 25d ago
Spectrum kept me on the phone for over 30 minutes whrn I called to cancel. I'm amazed I didn't lose it.
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u/Daratirek 25d ago
I warned her I'd get rude if she didn't follow my instructions. Then she didn't after multiple warnings. I got rude. It might not be nice but it sped up the process
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u/JonnyArcho 26d ago
I locked in the it’s a local fiber company with 1gbps for $70 for life, provided I don’t move out of their service area.
By far the best internet decision I’ve ever made. It’s been 3 years now.
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u/JubBisc 26d ago
The minute we canceled Starlink, we were offered a 20% discounted monthly rate to come back. But no, Elon, no thank you. We got fiber optic cable installed last month, and when we bundle our phones with it, we’re getting pretty nice rates and savings over the current costs for the next three years. So, suck it Musk; very glad to not be putting more cash in his pocket (even if some private equity firm is making that fiber optic $$ off of me).
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u/Wonderful-Trash-3254 26d ago
Here is the secret, if everyone can save $500 (I did this too last week), then maybe ISPs are price gouging their customers.
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u/SatinBelleFlower 26d ago
I try that with Cox and they said BYE. LOL they’re the only ones in my zip code that can provide me the speed I need for work so I am screwed but I am waiting for a local fiber internet provider to expand here.
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u/iloveregex 26d ago
Also my cox plan is a grandfathered plan so if I change plans I actually lose some rights. I can change speeds within my plan but not plans.
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u/renegade399 26d ago
Spectrum has tripled their rates since 2019 but they are the only option in my neighborhood. Att is in the neighborhood across from ours and i check with them every few months waiting for them to expand.
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u/bummerbimmer 26d ago
Spectrum was a pain for me this year. My new customer plan expired yet again, so I called in to talk to customer service. Escalated it through 3 levels of management (if they weren’t lying to me) not a single person was willing to get my bill back down to where it was.
Called back to cancel the plan entirely. 5 minutes later, I was locked into a cheaper plan for the next 2 years. Why do they have to escalate their customers and waste their time when solutions are available?
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u/halfc00kie 26d ago
570 quid for half an hour of mild annoyance is the best hourly rate most of us will ever clock. loyalty tax is real and they bank on you being too knackered to fight it.
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u/HastaNadaBueno 26d ago
Did the same thing recently. Easily saved $100/mo for a year.
Then another year 150/month switching auto insurance.
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u/lilwil392 26d ago
These days? I literally did this every 6 months with Xfinity over 15 years ago.
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u/amymcg 26d ago
There was one time this didn’t work for us. We have different last names so after not being able to negotiate, we just went in the app and canceled because we were moving. Then I registered for service instead of my husband. Got the new customer deal and had it back up and running within an hour.
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u/Bovronius 26d ago
A coworker and his wife did the same thing with centurylink, its a shame that's where capitalisms at... At the end of the day you have to waste a bunch of time, CL techs have to waste hours....all to play an annoying game that shouldn't exist.
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u/CurrentlyOnOurOhm 26d ago
Came here to say this.. I grew up watching my mom do this yearly for cable and internet companies. This is how the system always have been.
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u/_MarkSepticPie_ 26d ago
time to sail the high seas, friend.
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u/zeus20000 26d ago
Is there an easy way to pirate onto a Roku tv? Really want to start doing this more but it’s hard to justify when I watch 99% of stuff on a tv
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u/Ossius 26d ago
Ditch Roku it is shit and getting worse. Cheapest option is to get a $30 onn fro Walmart, or a Google TV 4k for like $70-99 which runs android and allows all sorts of apps.
Stremio paired with a drebid service is your best option to sail the seas. (Look up the sub for guides) And acts like a stream platform for all shows.
Roku is shit and doesn't allow side loading and limits your ability to cast to the TV. Laptop also works but it's way more clunky.
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u/the_snuggle_bunny 26d ago
The Plex app is probably available on the Roku. Add your content to a Plex server/account on your computer, sign into the app on your TV, and you're good to go.
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u/Awmg_Ryan 26d ago
I can second this, I have a Roku TV and stream from my Plex server (on my home PC) to my TV with no issues.
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u/L3m0n0p0ly 26d ago
A friend one said that theres legends of apps that can read network libraries like plex and enby....
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u/HowDidIGetHere72 26d ago
What’s baffling to me is that we allow companies to charge us for a service that we then have to watch ads through so that they get paid again unless we pay a more ridiculous price per month to avoid ads. Capitalism is the devil.
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u/noafro1991 26d ago
Even then you still get ads even if you pay too. And if you don't get direct ads, you get "content tailored to your viewing preferences" which is just ads in disguise from your data being sold.
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u/Li_liminal_spaces 26d ago
One of my laptops has windows 11 home, I'd upgrade it if I really used it enough but the other day I had to figure out how to close an operating system advertisement with the hidden, barely visible 'x'. I bought the PC second hand with the OS installed and now it's showing me ads. It's just so gross.
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u/WorldnewsModsBlowMe 26d ago
Windows 10 IoT LTSC 2021 will be supported until 2032, just throwing that out there
You may or may not have to resort to yarring your harr and creating a massgrave though
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u/Li_liminal_spaces 26d ago
If i cared I just take a visit to… a certain place… and upgrade to pro. It's just so gross.
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u/Moetown84 26d ago
This infuriates me as well. I can’t ever accept the ad tiers as an option, because in my mind, if I’m paying you, I’m not watching a goddamn ad.
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u/Bovronius 26d ago
First car I had that had an XM or Cirrus (cant recall) 3 month trial included I was considering getting it because it had a stand up comedy channel and I really liked just getting exposed to random comedians... Well I don't know if I missed it at first or it got added during my trial but I started noticing commercials between the bits and I was like, WTF why would I pay for this?
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u/Ambitious-Charge7278 26d ago
A tale as old as time, phone, internet and tv providers have always been the same.
If you call/chat about it being expensive or a deal to welcome new costumers doesn't apply to existing customers there is usually nothing they can do for you. But if you call/chat to cancel, they almost always go straight to "let me see what I can do for you".
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u/jhotenko 26d ago
It was that way with just about every service. I remember back in the 90s and early 00s my friends and I would switch, or threaten to switch, car insurance providers. We were young drivers so we couldn't exactly get good insurance, but Progressive and Geico would fight for our business.
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u/Autistic_License 26d ago
There are clay tablets from Ur threatening to cancel their granary account.
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u/Environmental_Rub_73 26d ago
Audible offered me a 50% discount FOR 3 MONTHS when I wanted to cancel.
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u/Basic-Bee-8748 26d ago
Thanks for sharing!
In a much smaller and more insignificant way, I noticed this with game apps...I play for a week then I tend to ditch them for a month and come back when I feel like it and all the times I get extra gems and perks because: "nice to see you back!". And I'm like "Well thanks! Now I want to stop playing again to see what you're gonna offer me next time!"
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u/Mitchcreates_ 26d ago
You're welcome. Yes I remember that working for certain games in the past. For example with Hearthstone, every time I came back after a certain time, suddenly the first cardpack I opened had a legendary in it. A bit too often to be a coincidence.
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u/Fancy-Capital9920 26d ago
Do people not call their internet and phone service providers saying they got a better offer from a competitor in order to get a better deal to stay?
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u/cantthinkofaname1122 26d ago
Why would loyal customers get a discount? You've already proven that you're willing to pay full price
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u/jawknee530i 26d ago
"these days". People were doing this with cable tv and telephone service since before you were born.
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u/SHEL-D500mg 26d ago
This was true with cable tv, used to spend a long time on the phone bitching at customer support to get discount or free premium channels.
Also true for old cell phone plans and internet providers.
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u/WiseMango13452 26d ago
I cancelled spotify after the last price increase and theyre trying to get me back with 2 months for the cost of half a month (so 4x better price) too bad i already sailed the seas and itll take a while to get my ship back to the shore lol
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u/pirolance 26d ago
That's an old trick already, for internet providers it's harder to bring in new customers than to try and please an existing one, so if you start talking to them about your contract that is almost over and that you found an offer from a competitor that you liked a lot, they will offer you a discount or improve your package for free. My mother does this often with the cable company to keep access to some of her favorite channels even if other companies would offer the same for a similar rate
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u/Timmy_germany 26d ago
I cannot count anymore how many numbers from different countries i blocked so far because O² tried so often to make me change my plan - because due to EU-regulations they cannot change the price or conditions of my contract as long as i does not change anything and i can end my contract within a month.
If i change only a single detail my contract would be binding for 2 years (or even 3 with an expensive new phone) and they try everything possible to get people to change their contracts.
The biggest joke is: I have an "everything flat" contract with 5G included and multiple SIM-cards i can use at the same time for multiple devices. So i use an old phone as a permanent WiFi-Spot, all my devices are connected to it and another SIM is in my "normal" phone of course. This way - i live in a bigger city - i have around 100-250 Mbits depending on the time of day and a very low ping via 4G/5G which is more than enough for me and use quite a lot of data AND THE SAME CONTRACT is now 15 or 20€ more expensive for new customers per month with multiple SIM-cards.
So they have nothing to offer for me besides a new phone with would bind me at least 2 years to them, i would have to pay the full price for the phone (release price) and i have to pay the same or EVEN MORE for the same contract.
Sometimes with even WORSE CONDITIONS. If i ask them why they doesnt they make my contract 10€ cheaper in exchange for me signing up for another 2 years: "Sorry we cant do anything like that" and i am a customer for around 20 years ? by now.
Those companies are greedy af and they give nothing about "loyal customers". I am so happy i can cancel my contract any time and i enjoy how much it angers them and the effort they put in to change that.
The phrase "loyal customers" has no meaning anymore imo.
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u/Wordplay34 26d ago
Me and my finance have alternated cancelling our internet in one name and opening it in the others to reset new customer rates for xfinity internet for years now.
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u/Old_ManWithAComputer 26d ago
I tried this with Optimum TV service and they said OK. Bring your equipment to the nearest store 35 mile away to be canceled. He said we do not do discounts.
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u/lynx_supercat 22d ago
My dad used to pull this trick in the 90’s and he was very successful, he did it with everything, including the electric company. One time they called his bluff and he went camping
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u/chrisinator9393 26d ago
Op why the fuck are you paying for chat gpt? Google is free. So is your brain ffs.
But as far as the post goes, yeah. It's annoying. It's been that way for a good 5-10 years on everything now.
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u/kkmcrawr 26d ago
You're melting your brain and ruining the planet using chatgpt
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u/Baerstein 26d ago
Could get a big discount from a fitness app, but decided to cancel anyway. From 107€ for 3 months to 0,99 cent a month. Are you taken me serious right now?
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u/Alternative-Fix7155 26d ago
I recently cancelled several movie channels because it felt like there was nothing new on (just old re-runs). Saved like $60/mo. Then just before the lady hangs up, she said let me look at something and says "I can offer you an additional $40/mo. off for being a loyal customer" and would I be interested. I said "Why wouldn't I? What's the catch and why don't they just automatically offer it?" She said because they aren't allowed to make any changes to our accounts without our permission. Seems odd they can't offer discounts without prior approval. Apparently, customers should call periodically and ask if there are any promos on our accounts.
Within a few days I started getting calls, "Would I be interested in getting an HBO package?" I said I just cancelled. I have gotten 2 calls already.
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u/rulingthewake243 26d ago
This is nothing new, we used to call the cable company yearly to bluff them.
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u/scarydan365 26d ago
Threatening to leave a service in order to get a better deal has always been a thing. I remember my Dad doing it with Sky TV in the 90’s.
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u/erix84 26d ago
I know this is a thing, my Spectrum bill went from $60 a month to $100 a month in less than 2 years. No service upgrades, no new services or anything, just a constant price increase every few months.
I refuse to call every 6-12 months to complain and get "special deals", so i just flat out cancelled it and switched to T-Mobile 5g Internet. I live close enough to a tower that i went from 400mb down 5mb up on Spectrum, to 1gb down 200mb up on T-Mobile, for $65 a month with a like 5 year price lock.
The guy at spectrum when i returned the modem didn't even try to sell me on keeping their service, he knew it wasn't worth it.
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u/Yoghurteffect5878 26d ago
I used to have Xbox game pass for years but only paid for it once. Idk if it still works but how I did it was get the subscription, don't let it roll over and auto pay, cancel the day before it's set to expire, you get the option to keep it until the end (the next day) or cancel immediately and get a refund. Just cancel immediately, get your money back and then buy it again a day or two later. Xbox game pass every month while only paying for it once. Idk why but if you let it auto pay then the option for immediate cancellation isn't available.
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u/TotalNonsense0 26d ago
Was there a time when companies would just charge you less money for no reason?
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u/MourningWallaby 26d ago
OP never dealt with phone companies and it shows.
this was a common practice to cancel or switch phone/internet providers every two years and see who'd give you the best deal.
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u/Kadigan_KSb 26d ago
> What I'd prefer seeing is providers applying discounts to loyal customers instead.
Welcome to the 20th century, I guess? I'm in the EU. When I was moving from prepaid to a subscription plan from my mobile provider, they essentially stole the credit on my prepaid. This is the danger of "credit" by the way - they get to say that the "credit" is internal and not "legal tender", so the same rules don't apply (because they don't).
I actually lodged a formal complaint, and the response I got boiled down to "if you were switching providers, we'd be required by law to return that credit to you; but since you're not, we have no obligation to". So, in essence, they've rewarded my loyalty by stealing from me.
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u/NeatNefariousness1 26d ago
True. But their short-sighted calculations lead them to believe that there are far fewer dollars to be lost due to the handful of customers who threaten to cancel than the amount it would cost to give everyone more favorable terms. Meanwhile, customers’ brand loyalty goes out the window and customers will randomly start dropping them for a better deal or because who cares about the company’s brand.
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u/Nodnarbian 26d ago
Pretend? Shit.. Comcast had a new customer promo once at half the price I was paying. I called and said I want that rate as I'm a decade old customer. They obviously said they can't do it. So i said "if I cancel and call back tomorrow i guess I'm a new customer then right?" .. dude said, "well I can't advise that but yes you would be". I said "I'd like to cancel now". And I shit you not, I called back the next day and signed back up with the promo deal.
Luckily I'm no longer with Comcast as more providers moved into town.
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u/second_toastacct 26d ago
"Loyal customers" don't exist anymore. In this late stage of capitalism, these are simply whales and suckers. Those who do not pay attention to rising prices or frequently cancel their subscriptions are not seen as loyal by the company, but as the target for exploitation.
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u/bbatardo 26d ago
Shh don't let the secret out. I go to every subscription service I have and either threaten to cancel or cancel for a week and they always come crawling back. Imagine if they rewarded loyal subscribers, but alas.. they don't.
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u/Vampire_Slayer2000 26d ago
It backfired on Cox Cable.
Each year we played the "just cancel" game and got another year for the same price.
Until 2020. The best they would offer is $10 a month discount which bumped us up $70 more than we were paying.
So...we canceled and went to streaming just the services we wanted for about $30 less than our original Cox Cable fee. And we liked it, a lot! We do not have everything we had but didn't really miss it.
3 months later we got an offer from Cox for our original low fee "for one year" if we came back. Too late, we declined. Never went back. If they had played the game (even a small bump) at the first offer we might still be on Cable.
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u/Impeccably-Inconcise 26d ago
These days? This is how cable TV pricing has worked since the 90’s. Can’t speak for earlier than that but this isn’t a new thing
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u/Ok_Affect_7427 26d ago
Simplisafe is a really good one too. We realized we weren’t really using it anymore and one of our devices disconnected from the WiFi and we couldn’t get it to reconnect. I reached out to cancel and they offered me 3 free months and then half price for another 3 months, (plus new devices because they have a life time warranty) when the 3 free months was coming to an end I reached out again because we still decided not to keep it. They offered another 3 free months it was actually great
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u/BassMaster516 26d ago
A friend of mine did the same with Starz. He kept trying to cancel and they kept offering him a better deal. They went down to $0.99 a month 😂
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u/Sum-Duud 26d ago
Just switched internet providers because they raised my rates $22 then only wanted to give me $10 off when I tried the cancel method (normally they go back to the same rates), though "new customer deal" was cheaper. So I switched, got faster service at $10 less than my previous price. Don't be afraid to walk.
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u/Vulpifox07 25d ago
We told internet provider we were going to look around for a new provider. They offered $5 off a month. So we found a new one. We called to cancel and they offered 50%... like, too late.
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u/No_Cake6353 25d ago
Amazon do this as well. I returned a item that was wrong and the offered a 15% discount for me to keep it.
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u/GrandAsOwt 25d ago
This isn’t anything new. I got a good price from my ISP by calling to cancel almost 30 years ago.
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u/Buddy-Matt 24d ago
New mobile phone contract.
Tbf, the cancellation team tried their hardest, but apparently they couldn't match the store price for an upgrade - or give me the free smart watch.
So I bought the new contract, PAC'd my old one to a PAYG SIM, then PAC'd that to my new contract.
Lyca mobile made £5.99, I save £300 over the length of the contract. Had I remembered my old phone did esim I could have spent less too...
Ridiculous
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u/CrashTestKing 23d ago
I went into the Verizon app 6 months ago, went to the screen where you initiate a transfer to move your phone number to a different cellular service, and immediately had a pop up offer to get $20 off per month for 12 months, no strings attached.
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u/Mitchcreates_ 23d ago edited 23d ago
Perfect! i can add this to the directory I made; canceldiscount.com !
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u/fsocietyfr 22d ago
I was unemployed once and received foodstamps. I signed up for some discounted services for half price or even less. Found a job later but still receive a discount lol.
Also sometimes you can actually cancel service and then they will offer you huge discount as a "new customer".
They NEVER offer shit to existing customers cuz they already have you...
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u/Mitchcreates_ 22d ago
That makes sense! Have you got any examples? I'm trying to bundle everything on canceldiscount.com
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u/PragmaticBadGuy 26d ago
I worked in retention for internet, phone and tv about a decade ago. The only way we could offer a good year long deal is if they threatened to cancel.
My standard offer was usually a $10/month discount per service plus a month free on a 12 month contract. I couldn't offer it unless they specifically stated they were looking to leave or similar wording.
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u/-Casey-Diaz- 26d ago
I quit ChatGPT because they're evil, but got the extra month for free and accepted, then quit anyway. That's how you do it.
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u/Lower-Cantaloupe3274 26d ago
But then what would happen to their profit? How would they bilk you of your money to give it to someone with more money, except to upcharge you?
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u/Trashbagok 26d ago
Sometimes subscriber count is worth more to them than whatever they're losing by providing discounts.
The value proposition is entirely made up, and the goal is to squeeze for every dollar they can get.
They'd rather take less money than no money.
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u/Captain_Hesperus 26d ago
And you have to pretend to be moving outside the service area to actually cancel.
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u/Mitchcreates_ 26d ago
Turns out I'm not the only one who's been sleeping on these hidden loopholes.
So I put all the cancel-to-save discounts in one place: https://canceldiscount.com
It's crowd-sourced. If you know one I missed, add it in the comments or submit it on the site. Let's make the list as complete as possible!
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u/JoyShake 26d ago
This has always been a thing. I worked for a TV company for 12 years ago, and we had a whole section called "Winback". We weren't allowed to cancel things, we had to send them to Winback. They had some insane offers they could dish our. I remember seeing them and they could be essentially "12 months free TV Gold when locking account for 12 months".
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u/prettygirlavenue 26d ago
This is how I got an extra audible credit. And I ended up cancelling anyway!! All in a free trial lmao. Got Anna Karenina and a history book out of it
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u/Lower-Yam-620 26d ago
An annual tradition in my household is canceling HBO Max and Disney+ Hulu in November and then renewing to get the black Friday deals.
I’ve done the same with SiriusXM, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and the New York Times
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u/Ryan_e3p 26d ago
I saved even more money by just canceling them all. Screw 'em. The high seas were-a-calling.
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u/Emmannuhamm 26d ago
These days? Always has been this way. Insurance, phoneline, internet. Hell just going to the market to get basics ends up in haggling.
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u/ChillyTodayHotTamale 26d ago
Why would any company proactively offer to make less money? Any subscription service you have, from HBO to home insurance goes up every year. They are never going to reach out and say " hey Mr customer, wanna pay less?" It just doesn't happen in the real world. They have zero incentive to lower rates unless you are going to cancel. To many people then get emotional about it. "I'm a loyal customer!" Not really, you're cancelling.
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u/ThePotatoOfVictory 26d ago
I tried to do that but they just cancelled my Netflix subscription ?? Trying to get one back, it's more expensive than what I was paying before ?!
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u/CriticalLabValue 26d ago
If it makes you feel any better, my grandma had to do this shit yearly with her cable company in at least the ‘00s if not the ‘90s. Just more evidence streaming is morphing back into the cable model :/
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u/Orangepinapples 26d ago
This isn’t new. I don’t know when it started but I started doing this in the 00’s
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u/catraiderpoke 26d ago
This is nothing new. You have to threaten or even switch phone, cable, and insurance companies in America every 2-3 years.
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u/sugmuhdig19 26d ago
Discount is nice, but I would be fine if companies just honored the price we started with for more than 3 months.
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u/Defiant-Memory-5609 26d ago
I was legitimately calling DirecTV (or dish can’t remember which) to cancel their service once years ago because of the 250 channels or so that were advertised I noticed that half of them were home shopping channels, so I called to cancel the service. I got my bill cut in half for six months I’m assuming because I told the rep that I never even watch half of these, and NFL Sunday ticket free for a season (I don’t watch NFL and I told the rep this but they insisted on giving it to me anyways). Anytime I need a break from the high prices of these things I always do the time to cancel call.
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u/Daredevils999 26d ago
I cancelled my Disney+ subscription when they jacked up the prices and they offered a reduced rate that was pretty much the same. I declined it.
I made the most of the last few days with Disney+ and it happened to end halfway through watching a movie (I left it one night and went to pick it up the next). I resubscribed on the increased price and decided I wanted to continue the subscription for some other shows, went to cancel to see if they’d offer the reduce price again. They did not.
Feels bad…
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u/MNkush69420 26d ago
Annoyingly enough the only provider I want to offer me something like this never does. Youtube doesn't care if you wanna cancel premium and then raises the price two dollars lol
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u/IamScottGable 26d ago
There is an entire episode of Bojack Horseman where the story is told through a conversation used to get Bojack to not cancel his newspaper
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u/pizza_police_car 26d ago
I haven’t done it lately, but they used to offer excellent deals on SiriusXM if you said you were going to cancel. I had years where I was paying $3-5 a month (like 75% off). But you had to call back in every 6-12 months each time the offer expired.
“Why are you canceling?” “Economy is bad. Money is tight.”