The Most HATED Marketing Trick and how to THWART IT

[@pi2infinity]

Hi. Jay here. It’s true. This pricing scheme irrationally frustrates me. To make matters worse, I lived in an apartment complex in NYC for several years that was only serviced by Time Warner Cable, so I actually did not have any meaningful choice in service provider. Years later, I moved somewhere else in NYC where I enjoyed having access to more than one company. I got to have the conversation I looked forward to for years. They asked to service my new address, and I told them that it was important to me that I don’t have to keep calling and playing this game of threatening to leave to get the price I was going to get anyway- that I shouldn’t work for them for money, that they should work for me for my money. I said I’d like to lock in my rate for 5 years or 3 years or whatever. They told me that what I was asking for was simply “not a product they had available for their customers”. I told them that it is not logical for me to spend my money on a company that wasn’t offering the product this customer was looking for, and I quit. I told TWC’s local competitor Verizon what happened. They locked me in at a rate for 3 years which was “more satisfying” to me than the 1 year gambit, and I receive a monthly advert in the mail that Spectrum (TWC’s reincarnation) is now offering a locked-in rate for up to three years. Clearly, my next move is to tell Verizon that I’m interested in a five year lock-in rate, right?

[@izbirun]

I needed to renegotiate my car insurance and unused your principles. I ended up going with a different company but it did work to reduce my precious plan

[@orleydoss3171]

Konnichiwa Jay, lol 😆. Happy Thanksgiving. I have been doing that for my mom for 11 yrs. We actually had to cancel for 24hrs once and send back all equipment, then call back to get the New customer rate. When i had roommates we would take turn getting intro rate and share the bill. Good stuff 👍.

[@neverbenbetter8225]

I admire your uncompromising resolve to do whatever it takes to negotiate your bill on your own terms. 👏🥂

[@pi2infinity]

こんにちは 友人! Your story sounds as relatable as it sounds frustrating. Ughhhhhh...

[@landrew3847]

Its true it is frustrating. The question I would be interested in is how much actual money they are pocketing for a customer to use the penetrating pricing and if it is actually making more than it is costing. I know some companies will lose money on some things because they know it will attract new customers and start charging with the hopes they don’t notice.

[@neverbenbetter8225]

I’m glad you asked that question. It’s something I tried to figure out through a Google search, but I didn’t have much luck that way. Now I’m wondering if I should be looking at the company’s financial statements. I’ll take a look.

[@landrew3847]

@@neverbenbetter8225 it might be too deep a dive tbh. Liking your videos and see real potential. Keep it up!

[@neverbenbetter8225]

Thank you very much. “Too deep a dive” is what I do. (Especially when it comes to investing.) The deterrent isn’t whether or no it is something I would be interested in, but whether or not viewers on KZbin would be interested and if I can spin it in such a way (with a title and a thumbnail) that I think will attract views. When I release a video every week, either it’s informed by comments and views on a previous video or it’s a stab at a totally new topic to gauge interest. This video falls into the latter category, which is why I so appreciate your comment!

[@neverbenbetter8225]

Update: I took my own advice and called ATT. I didn’t get anything until I asked for the “customer loyalty” program and then I was able to get 32% off my bill.

[@mikehedrick6544]

I do the same thing with the AT&T locality program in SOCAL. I do it with SiriusXM as their yearly pricing is too high for me. They make it hard to cancel by requiring one to call them to cancel as they don’t allow it to be done from their website. They always multiple offers available. They start with the one that benefits themselves the most. I say no till I here one that I like. I set my phone to remind me to call in about 360 days so I can make some time to call. Once when I had DirecTV and I had an issue. I called their number and their phone system would always put me on never to be bothered infinite hold. After a few days of this, I decided to call from another line. Once from the same phone line and I still was on this forever hold. Immediately next I tried a second phone line I had and the call went through and a live person answered. The bottom line was that the first line was fine for multiple calls till I actually had a contract with them and then they programmed their phone system to ignore the number I figure. True story....

[@neverbenbetter8225]

Wow. What an experience. How desperate are they to mark up prices that they go through all that trouble? The crazy thing is, when you finally do get on the line with customer loyalty program, they act like they are really happy to help you lower your bill!

[@thepreparedgroup]

You have real friends? Moreover, the strategy is actually a reverse of the commoditization reality typically benefits the customer... Think of it like this your a smart business and you realize that you can acquire through discounting a certain number of people let's say it's 1 million. You know that the likelihood of all 1 million calling you and canceling after their pricing goes away is slim but maybe 20% will and so I can effectively without saying a word to you as the customer raise pricing for 80% of users... As a customer you may realize that the half an hour or an hour spent doing this is likely not worth the differential in your monthly bill, so you don't do it and you simply pay more... I know that I pay Comcast likely 20 to $30 a month more than I have to not because I need to do this but because it isn't worth my time spend an hour on the phone with them... However at one point in life it certainly was worth that hour...

[@neverbenbetter8225]

Thanks for the message man. My pride wants to argue with you, but I know how the pricing strategy works and I know you are right. Personally, it is worth it to me to seek out and reward companies that are straight shooters and transparent about their pricing. I can reward them with my business and my review.