It’s been 6 months since the last time I negotiated a lower internet bill. As you may recall from that earlier post, I went from a $30 bill for 25 Mbps to a $35 for 50 Mbps and access to Streampix. This month, my bill was set to increase to $84. Time to pick up the phone and renegotiate.
As always, it is a good idea to have some goals and expectations beforehand. I looked up the only competitors advertised rates and they had increased $5 across the board. We wanted to keep our internet bill under $50 a month, and if we had to switch companies that would have put us at $45 for a 12 Mbps connection.
After working my way through the menu prompts, I got in touch with a human being. Our new deal for the next 6 months is $20 for a 25 Mpbs internet connection. We dropped Streampix and there were no tears shed. We tried it out once in the past six months and not only was the movie selection skimpy, but the user interface was a pain. I’ll happily continue shelling out $8 a month for a far superior Netflix experience.
The drop in internet speed isn’t even all that bad. When we upgraded six months ago there was no noticeable difference in browsing and streaming. It appears that there is a bottleneck somewhere beyond the last mile.
In conclusion, 10 minutes on the phone yielded a 76% decrease in cost while only reducing our service 50%. I call that a win.