this post was submitted on 13 Oct 2024
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[โ€“] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 27 points 2 months ago (9 children)

For every service you sign up to .... phone company, subscription, gas company, water service, electricity, whatever ....

... always ask if you can get a discount or a better price.

Don't be embarrassed to ask. No one cares. We just build a culture around the hope that no one will ever ask for a better price and negotiate. The rep your talking to doesn't care about you and doesn't care about the company .... they might be having a bad day and won't care about helping you .. or they might be having a good day and they know an inside method or option to save you something ... or they might be facing losing their job so they figure out a way to save you a ton of money.

I got a banking service a few weeks ago and they gave me a price for a subscription .... I knew it was a sham but it was a service I needed ... I asked for a discount from the Filipino rep who spoke bag English ... she went off for five minutes and came back with a 60% discount.

Sometimes these businesses set their prices high and just hope that no one will ask for a different price .... because most people never ask.

[โ€“] return2ozma@lemmy.world 14 points 2 months ago (8 children)

I've been calling SiriusXM satellite radio every 6 months for their discount. Here's their regular prices:

If you speak to the rep ask them about the 6 months car+app deal for $30, after taxes and fees it's like $34 for 6 months. They put you on full price auto pay at the end of 6 months but set a reminder to cancel, wait a few days, then call and ask for the 6 month deal again. It's worked the last 6 years.

[โ€“] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

I have a theory that every company/service/corporation has dozens of loopholes like this everywhere that people could take advantage of. But no one ever does because most people are too honest and proud to ever ask for a discount or to take advantage of an opportunity like this. Most people are too nice and gullible.

Corporations bet on people being too nice all the time.

People are too embarrassed or self conscious to go after a deal or even to ask for one .... when in reality corporations are complete greedy whores and will sell your grandmother if it meant they could save a penny.

No one should ever feel embarrassed or shy to ask for a discount or go after saving themselves a few dollars. Corporations do it all the time and they never shy away from skimming off a few pennies from you if they can.

BTW - beautiful work on getting that regular discount for yourself

[โ€“] return2ozma@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Exactly all of this! The worst that can happen is they say no.

[โ€“] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 months ago

Exactly ..... I have wealthy friends and non-wealthy friends who are dirt poor ... you know what the difference is between the two groups?

The wealthy people are the stingiest people you'll ever meet and they'll fight to save a dollar or two, even though you know they have tons of money in the bank.

The poor people will spend $100 on something they could buy for $20 and never think twice about the money they lost, even though they have nothing saved in their bank.

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