Sales Pitch Fail

My husband and I watch almost no television.  Now don't get me wrong, we're not bragging.  We watch a ton of Netflix movies and television series via Netflix, Hulu, Roku -- we just like not having the ads or the hassles of watching at a time the networks think we should watch.  So I recently decided that it was time to get our cable bill under control.  I have a habit of calling the cable company every 6 months and getting my bill reduced to "keep me as a loyal customer."  That recently stopped working and I've watched the bill climb higher and higher.  I realized that the only reason I was getting more than just the limited basic cable channels was so that I could watch baseball games. 

So, armed with determination, and having spent a very long time on the telephone with an idiotic salesperson, I went into the Comcast offices to see what I could do.  I wanted to lower our rate, bottom line.  When I walked out the door, I had a huge bag full of new equipment, a larger modem for our high-speed internet, 2 complex remotes, a new box to attach to my television, and was the proud owner of more television channels than one could imagine.  Oh, and now I could order (and pay) for movies that I now receive free from Netflix.  Oh, and my phone would be "ported" over to Comcast, allowing me to keep the same phone number and save the money on the phone line.

Upon arriving home, I began to feel overwhelmed and burdened by my new collection of unused television channels.  If I wasn't using the 100 I had before, how would adding another couple hundred inane channels make me any happier?  The small savings for changing my telephone service did not warrant the pain and suffering we were going to go through to learn a new system and change all of our connections. 

Today I went back with my untouched bag of equipment and not only reversed the changes I had made, but downgraded to limited basic.  Gone is my ability to watch my baseball games, but I cut our bill 50%!  I find that I can pay to watch my games online (during just the baseball season rather than paying all year) or I can listen on the radio and save even more.  (My team isn't much fun to watch this year anyway). 

But my point?  I was surprised that even I was susceptible to this slick presentation by a very nice salesman who convinced me that, in order to save a total of about $20, all of this grief was worthwhile -- and wonderful, in his opinion.  He kept emphasizing the long list of cable channels I would now have, not really hearing me when I said I don't watch any channels now (except baseball).  His instructions for hookup were making my head spin; I was caught up in the small savings yet big upgrade improvement! 

We live in a country where we are spoiled by the options.  I'm feeling quite noble for bucking the system -- in my own small way! 

(Photo by doegox, shared via Flickr)