That's not fair! My neighbor got that promotional credit, I want it, too.

[greensinestro]

When I worked at Bellsouth, we did orders called "port backs", which is mainly the customer keeping their telephone number that they have with a competitor, and bringing it to Bellsouth. At the time, customers that did this had to pay a connection charge, as was the ruling of the Public Service Commission. About a year or two later, this ruling changed, so customers desiring to come back to Bellsouth now could do so without a connection charge.

Guess what? The neighbors and friends of the later customers called in upset about this. We're talking people who two, three years before, got new service or connected their service to Bellsouth back from a competitor. These people went on to say, "Hey, my neighbor didn't have to pay to come back and I did. I think I'm entitled to a credit for that."

These calls were so overwhelming to where the supervisors kept pretty busy. Some of them were so ridiculous, such as customers who were with Bellsouth for 15 or 20 years, and demanded a credit on a connection fee they paid years ago.

I also am a fan of the ones that call demanding a cash back offer that did not exist 10 years ago when they got internet (being DSL was not in existence yet), but they would demand a $50 cash back because new DSL customers got it. All these people had to do was upgrade from dial up internet to DSL. Nope, they weren't interested in upgrading their internet and paying more money, they instead felt they were entitled to the cash back promo because everyone else is getting it. It didn't matter how many times this was explained to them "new customers only".

What's next? "My neighbor was in a car accident and got $5 million from the defendant's insurance company, so I want that for a bite wound his dog gave me ten years ago!"?

[wagegoth]

Whenever I see the big discounts for new subscribers to Comcast, I want to curse my monthly bill. But I'm not going to call and demand they give me the new rate. And I have a small advantage. When I signed up, they automatically gave me free rental for two boxes. I have that forever. I may only have one box, but if I ever decide to get a second TV, I will get the second box for free, no additional monthly fee.

[Boulder_Bear]

Whenever I see the big discounts for new subscribers to Comcast, I want to curse my monthly bill. But I'm not going to call and demand they give me the new rate. And I have a small advantage. When I signed up, they automatically gave me free rental for two boxes. I have that forever. I may only have one box, but if I ever decide to get a second TV, I will get the second box for free, no additional monthly fee.

I do request the deals from comcast when I see their offers. They will usually give them to me with absolutely no problem. They recently raised their prices here for customers that had been with them for a while but had a deal for new customers that they would receive much much cheaper prices for an 18 month period. When I saw that I requested the promotion and when they said no I cancelled my services and went with their fiber-optic competitor. If they don't want to make me an offer to keep me with them I will just go with the cheaper option.

[batmoody]

I bought a gallon of milk two years ago and paid $2.50.
This week I see it is $1.98.
I want a credit!


Seriously? Can people not understand that a sale or promotion or any price for that matter,does not last for ever?

[symposes]

My boss wanted to get a new phone. His cell contract expires in december.
He walked into the store, and said, I want to reup my contract and get a new phone.
He was told he couldnt do anything at all til his contract expired.
he said "You are telling me, I cannot spend my money here?"


I cant wrap my head around this. If a customer had a month left on a contract, and said they wanted to reup, spend a bunch of money, get a new phone, etc, Then why not let them?
I mean, isnt that just extending the contract? Specially if the customer offers to buy the new phone outright?

[pbmods]

If a customer had a month left on a contract, and said they wanted to reup, spend a bunch of money, get a new phone, etc, Then why not let them?
I mean, isnt that just extending the contract? Specially if the customer offers to buy the new phone outright?

Can't the customer just terminate his contract (and pay something like a $200 penalty)?

[Auto]

There's a big difference between wanting the new rates going forward, and wanting the new rates credited to you back to when you first became a customer.

Take cell phones. I know that calling plans keep getting cheaper and by watching the ads, I can keep getting more minutes for less money. But Verizon sure isn't calling to say that they're offering better deals. They're content to keep charging me the higher rates. So it's up to me to ask for the better deal.

But it's the better deal going forward. I wouldn't ask for and Verizon wouldn't agree to do it, to refund me the diff between what I paid and what I would have paid had I had the cheaper rates way back when.

While I can understand Sc making such demands, I can't believe firms actually giving in.

[MadMike]

I wonder how many people try to pull something like that when their price of their computer or electronic item drops?

When I bought my first PC back in '95, I also bought a color printer for $300. A couple weeks later, I saw the same printer, and the price had dropped to $200. Needless to say, I wasn't happy, but I would never even think about going back to the store and demanding a $100 refund.

Some people.

[Mr. Rude]

Generally, with cell companies, if a cust. buys hardware outright that's no problem at all. As for upgrades, when I used to do cell work, if the cust. had 2 months left on their old contract, we could roll it over on to the new contract. Sounds weird that they wouldn't let him reup with only a month left....

[Enjis]

MadMike said:

"When I bought my first PC back in '95, I also bought a color printer for $300. A couple weeks later, I saw the same printer, and the price had dropped to $200. Needless to say, I wasn't happy, but I would never even think about going back to the store and demanding a $100 refund."

In my department store, we give adjustments on prices for 10 days...if you paid regular price for an item, and it goes on sale or clearance in that time, you can bring in the receipt and get an adjustment for the new price. That way, we don't have people waiting for shopping only on sale days, and we also get people to come in and possibly buy more during the sale when they come in for the price change on their bill.

[dispatch]

I, for one, have always shrugged this off as the sale gods hating me. as far as cell phones go, I used to work for one of the companies and I understand all the craziness involved in that line of work, hence why I take the store employees on their word and don't haggle

[angelicafire]

In terms of the cell phone business, I work at one now. Our particular policy is they have to have 3 months or less left to outright upgrade, but every company is different, so I can't say for certain. It could be many things that are keeping him from upgrading.

And I guarentee the store didn't say he couldn't spend his money. He just couldn't get the two-year discount.

[Argabarga]

When the rates go up, call them back and tell them that they now owe the difference they didn't pay 3, 5 , 10 years ago, see how they like their proposed retroactive pricing scheme then....