Brian and I were getting a bit concerned about our cable and internet bill. As many of you know, TV is not really a priority in our household (although we do enjoy live sports). Internet is nice, but it’s not really a necessity since we both have internet access through work, nearby coffee shops, and through our phones. We like to pay as little as possible for our media services since they are not necessities. Our most current Shaw cable and internet promotion had run out earlier this month and our bill skyrocketed to $96 per month. No way I was going to pay almost a hundred dollars a month for crappy sitcoms and mediocre internet!
The first step was to actually call Shaw Cable. After 45 minutes of elevator music, I finally had a real person on the line, woohoo. While the customer service representatives I spoke to were courteous, I felt like they were not really interested in keeping me as a customer. They asked me why I was cancelling my service and I explained that it was too expensive for my needs. The customer retention agent suggested I switch to their “latest promotion” which was save me a whole $6 and give me extra useless services. I know they have a “book” of responses to follow, but when the response does not address my concerns at all… no thanks. I was a little disappointed but not too surprised, considering the low quality of past Shaw promotions. So I scheduled cancellation of cable and internet services for later in the month.
The next step was to research competitors. Looking at the latest promotions from Telus, I found that they have some interesting offers, such as a free XBox or laptop, and the majority of their services were actually reasonably priced. BUT they required a three year contract. Ummm… no thanks. I can barely commit to an apartment for three years (never have, actually) – how can I commit to a cable contract? 🙂
Usually, when those two tactics fail, I consider two final options – go without or look at third party providers. Brian gave me the evil eye when I suggested going TV-free during the hockey season, so we decided to look for third party providers.
And we were successful! We found a service provider at the mall who was signing up new customers for Shaw (*cue evil laughter*) with a variety of promotional rates. Since the last Shaw service was under my name, Brian simply signed up under his name and we got cable and internet for $30 a month for the next 6 months. Sweet!
Sure it’s a pain to find new cable and internet service every 6 months but that’s over $60 per month that we save. Over six months, that’s $360 – a student loan payment, my half of a local vacation to the Okanagan, or over three months of groceries for one person! Next time you get your cable bill in the mail, consider switching to save money.
