There’s a way we have done this, for so many years. Everyone knows the method. (If you’ve been reading Lifehacker for a while, you really know it.) If you feel like you’re paying too much for cable, you call ’em up, ask for a lower rate, and threaten to switch to a different company that’s offering an attractive new-customer rate if they don’t relent.
If that didn’t work (and it usually worked), you would blow the dust off your cable box, fish around in the couch cushions for the second remote, and haul it all to the cable company’s customer service window. Surely, when faced with piles of equipment you painstakingly gathered, they would see the error of their ways and decide you’re a valuable customer.
But those days may be gone, friends. Gone the way of the dodo and VHS tapes.
Gerry Smith of Bloomberg reported today that many cable providers don’t give two hoots if you want to cancel:
Over the past few years, pay-TV stocks have suffered wicked swings as investors reacted to growing subscriber losses. But they’ve recovered as the companies shift their focus to lucrative broadband services.
At a recent conference, the CEO of AT&T (which owns DirecTV) said they’re cutting out subscribers who fight to keep promotional pricing when their contracts end.
Time Warner once had 90,000 different prices (!) ready and waiting to bargain with unhappy customers, but has reeled back that “promotional culture” in recent years.
One analyst cited by Smith said that cable company Cable One Inc. will help you choose between online streaming services when you decide to cut the cord.
That’s in part because providing cable means paying the networks you offer, while selling access to the internet results in pure unadulterated dollar signs.
Fueled by expensive sports rights, those fees are even rising faster than cable TV bills, hurting profits for companies like DirecTV and Comcast. Selling high-speed internet is far more profitable.
Is this the end, friends? Are we doomed to a life of canceling without opportunity to save?
Tell us in the comments: Have you successfully negotiated your cable bill by threatening to cancel during the past year or two?