Threats can work wonders. A few months ago I tried to bargain Charter into giving me a better deal on my cable service. They jerked me around and successfully made the process unpleasant enough that I decided it wasn’t worth the bother. Recently, I got an offer from AT&T for $15/month Internet access. I don’t really want their slow, “Your World Delivered to the NSA” Internet access, but it gave me a good excuse to call Charter and tell them I wanted to cancel my service. Boy did that work wonders. No longer did I have to go through some ridiculous Internet sign-up process to get a cheaper deal. They knocked $20 off of my bill right on the phone.
So if you’re not getting a “special” price from your cable provider, call and tell them you want to cancel; tell them your phone company is offering you a lower price. Most likely they’ll offer you a discount to keep you as a customer. And if they don’t, you can always call back the next day and tell them you changed your mind.
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.