Negotiation, again

Back in November I posted about my experience with the phone company.  In short what happened is that they kept jacking up my bill without notice and eventually I called them and threatened to cancel.  To keep my business they gave me a huge set of extra services and chopped the bill from $130 to $95.  This month I got my regular bill from the phone company and lo and behold it is now $101 - mostly due to a $5.50 additional charge being applied to the bill.  That charge was being applied because my special 3 month rate had expired.

So I thought to myself thought I, what the hell is going on here?  Nobody mentioned a 3 month promotional price to me when I negotiated my rate in November and as far as I know it is fraudulent to present a price as ongoing when it is only for a fixed term after which a higher price will apply.  This really gets me ticked off.  I don't like paying high prices for anything of course but even more than that I don't like having to call people up and yell at them about unethical things they have done to try to take my money.  It gets me doubly mad that I have to call them up and deal with their annoying administration a second time just to get what I had originally agreed to in the first place!  I rang up the phone company again and got


-A customer service representative will be with you shortly.  Please stay on the line.
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-A customer service representative will be with you shortly.  Please stay on the line.

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-A customer service representative will be with you shortly.  Please stay on the line.

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-A customer service representative will be with you shortly.  Please stay on the line.

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-A customer service representative will be with you shortly.  Please stay on the line.

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-A customer service representative will be with you shortly.  Please stay on the line.

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-A customer service representative will be with you shortly.  Please stay on the line.

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-A customer service representative will be with you shortly.  Please stay on the line.

By the 8th iteration of elevator music plus the obligatory computer voice message I was starting to seethe.  I must remain Stoic, I tell myself.  I must not allow these things to rattle me.  I will sit and be calm.  A person will answer soon and being angry will not make it happen more quickly.  Maybe it will be the person who lied to me about the original deal and I can threaten to go to his manager with my complaints!  No no, that isn't Stoic, must be calm, cool and collected.

Finally I got on the line with a person and explained my position.  He expressed shock that I would have had a 3 month rate and not be notified about it and said there must have been a misunderstanding.  Yeah buddy, I have been in sales awhile and I know exactly what went on.  I have even had the pleasure of fielding calls about coworkers who lied and cheated customers and had to try to defend the company and claim misunderstanding when I know full well that the customer is probably telling the truth and the salesperson probably cheated them.  However, revenge against the salesperson in question will bring me nothing so I simply negotiate from where I am and manage to get a rate of $90 a month ($5 less than in November) for a one year contract.  Normally the phone company is the one wanting contracts but in this case I am even happier about it then they are - now I know I won't have to deal with sneaky price changes for at least 12 more months.

There are times when I try to defend the much maligned profession of salesperson.  And then there are times when I do not... like right now.