Do you ever feel like being a long time customer of a big company leads you to being taken advantage

[captain queeg]

of? I don’t like to mess with stuff that established and working well. My credit card company never offers to lower my rate and my credit score is 830. I’ve had Verizon for many years and they’ve never done anything to make me want to stay beyond having pretty good coverage. Today I was at xfinity, been working with a guy on internet cable activation. As I was leaving he asked me about my cell service and I told him. He raised his eyebrows when I told him shag I was paying. We talked a bit and I’m switching. It’ll save me $70 a month. Also when I didn’t have home internet I used the personal hotspot from Verizon they cut the speed dramatically after a couple hours and he said I’d now have that unlimited. And, being limited tech savy he did all of it for me.

You’d think companies that you’ve used for 30 yrs would make some effort to keep you. But they probably realize there are a lot of people like me that don’t want to mess with things that are working.

[onecaliberal]

1. Yup. They dgaf

[gratuitous]

2. They count on consumer inertia

All of us have to make those kinds of decisions from time to time. The first time, I want to gather a lot of information, weigh the costs and benefits, maybe talk to other people about their service, and finally come down on a choice. Most people (including myself) want to just make that the end of it, and presume the company will take care of us. Uh uh. But who wants to do all that research again, and go through all the rigamarole of switching providers, and blah-de-blah-de-blah? So you don't look around. You don't check into deals offered by other providers. Then one day, you're paying $150 a month or more for a bunch of services you don't use. The only time the provider will say a word is when you contact them to terminate their service because you found a better deal. Then suddenly they're all about lower priced packages and streamlining your account and gosh, we'd hate to lose you as a customer (but, yeah, we ripped you off for YEARS).

[SheltieLover]

3. Every single day.

Verizon just raised my bill 10%!

[captain queeg]

7. I was paying $150 for 2 lines, now I'll get it for $80.

[SheltieLover]

8. Wow!

Do they have good coverage?

[captain queeg]

13. He told me xfinity is a Verizon provider in this area

Not knowing exactly how that worked I asked my son about it. He has the other phone on my plan. I guess he looked into it, he’s pretty sharp about that stuff being 21. He said xfinity and Verizon share a lot of equipment in this area so nothing should be different. At least around the PNW. Not sure how that plays out elsewhere, but it uses the xfinity pubic wifi, of which there are currently 6 million spots.

As an aside I told the xfinity guy how I am not up on technology. He pointed across the room at his coworkers and told me they had taught him, they were all 18 or 20 or so, I’d say this guy was maybe 30.

[SheltieLover]

14. Thx!

[DBoon]

4. you get pretty good coverage with Verizon?

What did you have to sacrifice to their god?

[captain queeg]

6. Verizon had good cell phone coverage.

Back when I started with them I could get a signal where others couldn’t. But that was in the 90s or early 2000s. It’s not like that any more.

[captain queeg]

15. See my post just above here. Should be no changes for me.

I’m not sure if I’m out in the boondocks if anything will be different but it doesn’t sound like it.

[DBoon]

17. I live in a city

Had poor coverage inside my own home.

Once day, my car wouldn't start. I tried calling the Auto Club and couldn't - no Verizon coverage in my own garage. Had to call from the home landline.

That is when I left Verizon.

[justhanginon]

5. Yes! I had AT&T internet for many years. I recently switched to Spectrum.

With AT&T my download speed was 5 1/2 mbps download for all those years. Not too much of a problem just an occasional spinning wheel. When I heard about them bankrolling OANN I started looking around. With a special mail offer I have Spectrum now and my download is 100+ mbps for half the price and guaranteed for two years.

[luv2fly]

9. I've been a Spectrum/Charter customer for decades

I bet you're paying $50 a month for internet, while I have to pay $75. That's messed up.

[TheBlackAdder]

11. I'm paying $90 after tax for Verizon 1GB and enhanced Phone. I cut the TV portion completely.

.

They started screwing with my pricing on TV so when it got jacked up by $60/month. I cut it.

Have not missed it one bit.

.

[TheBlackAdder]

10. They view you as a lifer who for some reason is too lazy or uninspired to compare quotes.

.

People often think there is a reward to loyalty, but in reality it sets you up to being fleeced. Often you will pay for less and be charged more. Insurance companies are the worst.

.

[Earth-shine]

12. We bundled our cell phone service with our Xfinity internet.

We got three free Moto Ace phones with free unlimited talk/text and cheap data.

It was a crazy good deal. I don't think you can get free phones now.

[captain queeg]

16. He offered me a new phone if ours were incompatible, but they aren't b

I don’t know about that 5G stuff. My phone is about 4 yrs old. I thought it might not be compatible but he said it is.

[FSogol]

18. We call our cable company yearly and tell them we are leaving. They cut our rates for 3-4 months if

we stay.

Rinse and repeat.

[Demovictory9]

19. Any long business relationship..i went to same hairdresser for years

I began to realize that i was her longest customer and therefor her least important..she was constantly calling me an hour before my appt to move it (to give it to a new customer)

[LudwigPastorius]

20. Any service that requires ongoing payments will...

dangle prices lower than its competitors to get you to switch. Then they start hiking prices, hoping that inertia will prevent you from leaving.

They probably do intensive research, and come up with algorithms, that tell them exactly how swiftly and how much they can raise their rates before you'll get fed up and switch.