While I was in Europe, my 90 day free trial of XM ended, so I returned to regular service and a letter from XM inviting me to sign up for a year of service for $144.
Everything is negotiable, right? So I call up XM and ask them for the better deal. They assure me that there are no better deals, although I can save 20% if I sign up for a 5 year plan. Since I was stuck in traffic heading home, I decided to perservere.
"No, I want a one year plan but don't want to pay $144. "
"What credit card would you like to use?"
"We're not really communicating. I don't want to use any credit card if it's going to be $144. I want a one-year plan, but I won't pay that much."
"One moment please, let me transfer you to that department"
Apparently, XM has a "I don't want to pay that much" department.
Sure enough, an agent comes on the line (she's in a call center in Jamaica; I asked) to tell me that they have a "one time offer" of $77 for a year of service, 50% off. She just needed to verify something with me:
"Is it correct that you would be canceling your service if we don't provide a discount?"
"Yes. In fact, the service is already canceled - I never started paying in the first place."
"OK"
And with that, I qualified for the special deal. An investment of about 15 minutes on the phone.
Another way reading blogs can put money in your pocket.
Oh man. I want to talk to the "you suck" department. :) Good for you. We tried that with Sirius in December of last year and didn't have quite the luck you did. Nice job.
Posted by: mkp | Jul 14, 2007 at 02:06 PM
Try that with the phone company...or the cable company...
Posted by: Jim | Jul 15, 2007 at 10:45 AM