How to save money on your t.v. bill part 2

Last week I shared a way for you to save money on your cable or satellite bill. This week I want to share an idea that we have used to successfully save money on our satellite bill. It is all about knowing your worth as a customer. Companies want your business. When you have been a long time customer who pays your bill on time, you are valuable to them. Or, you should be. If this is not the case with your company, you should find another company.

My husband and I have Directv satellite. We have it for the NFL Sunday ticket, or should I say that HE has it for that reason. We have been with Directv for several years now. A few years ago we started seeing the great deals that Directv was offering for new customers and didn’t think it was fair. We made the decision that we would call up the company to see what they had to offer us. Eric and I decided that if they had nothing to offer us, we were going to walk. We would either switch to cable or satellite.

So we called Directv and told them that we had been a customer for three years (at the time), had never missed a payment or been late, and would like to see what they had to offer us. At the time, we were not under any type of contract. We initially signed up for the Sunday Ticket promotion when we bought our house. The promotion was something like… buy the Sunday Ticket, get all the movie channels free for like six months.

And yes, I know there were more likes in that sentence than, like, an adult in her twenties should use- but I use likes when I’m not sure about something. Anyway, I digress. Our contract was for two years. The deal is that after the six months of movie channels, you either pay for the movie channels or cancel them. And eventually, your bill goes up.

When we called Directv and asked them what they had to offer for us, they of course, said that they didn’t have anything for us. We explained to them that we wanted to reduce our bill by getting the Sunday Ticket deal that all of the new customers were getting. They said they could give us a lesser package but that the Sunday Ticket deal was only for new customers. So, we had to let them know of our intentions to cancel our service unless there was someone else we could talk to. I mean, we were paying more for less.

After talking to about three different people, we got to the person who we needed to talk to. They agreed that it was ridiculous for us to continue paying more than new customers would have to pay for lesser service. They gave us the deal we wanted, without a contract. They didn’t ask us to get on one so we didn’t offer to. So we went that way for a year. We were not on a contract, so when it was time for the Sunday Ticket deal again, we called up Directv and made the same proposal, but this time we said that we didn’t mind getting on a contract for two years. And they totally did it again.

We saved hundreds, maybe more than a thousand dollars by making a simple phone call. Sure, it took thirty minutes of persistence before we got what we wanted, but it was totally worth it. The deal for us, though, was that we were really willing to walk. If they couldn’t offer us the deal we wanted, we were going to another company.

If you don’t have anything to lose, you might consider giving your television company a call. Make sure to bring out the positives about yourself like never missing a bill, never being late, loyalty, etc. It could possibly save you some money.

Well, since this article has been going on for longer than I planned, I will end it now. This idea does not only apply to satellite service. If there is a better telephone, internet, or other type of bill that you may be able to talk to someone about, why not give it a shot? I hope this has helped you think about your situation from a different perspective and helped you consider how you can possibly save money now.