Lower Your Cable/Phone/Internet Bill NOW!

I received my Time Warner Cable bill in the mail yesterday and my jaw hit the floor. $180?! And I hadn't even gotten any pay-per-view last month!

Yes, it's true that I have triple play, and voicemail, and wireless, and DVR, and HBO...but seriously. This is just silly. So I called TWC and asked, "can you lower my bill please?" The guy on the line noted that my triple play alone was up to $134.95. It used to be $119.95 just a few months ago...but I digress. So he offered me a rate of $129.95 for the triple play IF I signed a 2-year contract. I asked, "so what's the catch?" Turns out that if I cancel TWC or move to a city where TWC isn't available, I will owe them a cancel fee of up to $150. "OK, no" I said...saving a mere $5 a month sucks to begin with..."that doesn't cut it." So he passed me on to the sales department (I am still wondering what department he was in) and I asked the woman on the other end of the line, "OK, so what can you do to lower my bill?" She replied, "well we can offer you a triple play rate of $99.95 for 12 months." Again I asked, "so what's the catch?" "No catch."

So I took the new 12-month rate, which is THIRTY FIVE DOLLARS cheaper a month. Which means that I will save $420 over the course of the year.

Am I the only one who thinks it's a little bit effed that the price I was paying isn't the actual lowest price and that I had to force my way through two layers to get a more reasonable rate? I mean they just RAISED my rate a few months ago...but the real rate is actually much less?

So two lessons:
1. Call your cable or phone company and ask them to lower your rates. They will likely do it because they don't want to lose customers.
2. We should be marching in the streets against the corporate fraud we endure on a regular basis. Between our tax dollars going to multi-billion dollar bonuses on Wall Street, and now this, I wonder where the tipping point is for middle class Americans?

Happy Super Bowl Sunday! Enjoy it on your giant HDTV.