Big companies and their stupid games
Discussion
Why has everything got to be such a stupid game?
Car insurance: renewal came through last month, the amount they wanted was taking the piss so I shopped around. Got a quote from, let's call them Company2, it was the lowest I could find but only £8 less than my Company1 renewal so I thought "Fine, I'll just stay where I am."
Anyway, a day later some girl from Company2 rang me up to ask why I hadn't gone with the quote, so I told her. She messed about on her computer then said, "I've managed to get it down by £100. Are you interested now?"
Well DUH.
So she was going about transferring my policy then apparently it was pointed out to her that because they were part of the same company as Comopany1 they can't steal me from them, but fear not, just call Company1 and they will now have to match the quote for my renewal.
All well and good, so I rang Company1, got another woman on the phone who had a look at it and decided that the girl from Company2 had done the quote wrong because she'd done it on the wrong variant of MX5.
And apparently she can't put my MX5 1.6i (import) as an "MX5 1.6i (import)" as it was last year because it isn't an "MX5 1.6i (import)", even though it IS an "MX5 1.6i (import)"
So eventually having gone through the entire list with her and confirming that it is NOT a California special edition ("Yes I'm quite sure that my blue car ISN'T f
kING YELLOW"), not a 1.8 and really does have only a 5 speed gearbox not 6, she agreed that my car is in fact an "MX5 1.6i (import)", and proceeded to tell me that my renewal was originally wrong anyway even though it was for the same car and model type last year, so my renewal has now gone from being £100 more than last year, to £350 more than last year.
I might have gone a bit Basil Fawlty at this point, so after leaving me grinding my teeth for a few minutes on hold she came back all rainbows and sunshine and announced that my new premium was now not only cheaper than the renewal they offered, it was also £50 less than I paid last year because she'd thrown in a customer loyalty discount for being with them for a lot of years, and how did I feel about that? "Very happy," I meekly said, and then immediately got annoyed with myself because I wasn't happy at all.
And here's why. Am I supposed to be grateful? If I'd just let it run and not shopped around they would have gladly lifted an extra £100 from me.
Why couldn't they just send me a renewal for the amount I paid in the end anyway, with a line in the letter saying, "Because you've been with us forever and we love our customers, here, have a loyalty discount. Thanks for your business, here's to another year with you
"
It would have been so much nicer than just slipping a renewal letter in amongst the junkmail and hoping I wouldn't notice that they were trying to charge another £100 for not actually doing anything.
Similarly my breakdown renewal came through today, and they too were taking the piss with the amount they wanted. Not only that but it appeared that they'd made a clerical error and despite being dated last week the letter was a month late.
So I rang up to check and they confirmed that they had indeed let my membership lapse and as of a month ago I'm not actually covered. Which is nice.
So anyway, long story short, the dude set me up a new account and I've got exactly the same cover I had last year for £220, that they wanted £280 for this year, and it's only costing me £160.
That's just over half what they asked for originally, I mean what the fk.
Fine, I know business is about making money, and fine, I know you can phone around and get better deals but when you're staying with a company year on year it would be nice if just once, just one of them would show that they do value your custom by renewing for a price that genuinely IS the best deal, and didn't just hope you wouldn't notice them trying to slip one up your arse.
Another example is our satellite tv provider. New customers get stonking deals - they're always bloody sending us leaflets to get friends and family to join up. But existing customers get absolutely shafted.
Our upgraded set top box cost a fortune. But it's free to new customers.
The number of channels in our subscription shrinks every year, but the price keeps going up. New customers get more and better channels than we do, and yet pay less.
The only reason we haven't left yet is because the main competitor hasn't put a fibre optic cable in our road yet, but the minute they do, we're gone. More channels and faster internet for far less money.
Of course, once we've gone I have no doubt that our current satellite tv provider will try to entice us back with junkmail offering new-customer discounts.
Assholes.
Why the emphasis on new business all the time? Why not look after the customers you've already got and stop them from fking off to the competition? You end up charging them the same fking amount of money anyway - why drive them into a goddamned rage in the process???
Sorry for rambling, just needed a rant. I'm off to see what other bills I can lower by having hysterics down the phone.
Car insurance: renewal came through last month, the amount they wanted was taking the piss so I shopped around. Got a quote from, let's call them Company2, it was the lowest I could find but only £8 less than my Company1 renewal so I thought "Fine, I'll just stay where I am."
Anyway, a day later some girl from Company2 rang me up to ask why I hadn't gone with the quote, so I told her. She messed about on her computer then said, "I've managed to get it down by £100. Are you interested now?"
Well DUH.
So she was going about transferring my policy then apparently it was pointed out to her that because they were part of the same company as Comopany1 they can't steal me from them, but fear not, just call Company1 and they will now have to match the quote for my renewal.
All well and good, so I rang Company1, got another woman on the phone who had a look at it and decided that the girl from Company2 had done the quote wrong because she'd done it on the wrong variant of MX5.
And apparently she can't put my MX5 1.6i (import) as an "MX5 1.6i (import)" as it was last year because it isn't an "MX5 1.6i (import)", even though it IS an "MX5 1.6i (import)"
So eventually having gone through the entire list with her and confirming that it is NOT a California special edition ("Yes I'm quite sure that my blue car ISN'T f
kING YELLOW"), not a 1.8 and really does have only a 5 speed gearbox not 6, she agreed that my car is in fact an "MX5 1.6i (import)", and proceeded to tell me that my renewal was originally wrong anyway even though it was for the same car and model type last year, so my renewal has now gone from being £100 more than last year, to £350 more than last year. I might have gone a bit Basil Fawlty at this point, so after leaving me grinding my teeth for a few minutes on hold she came back all rainbows and sunshine and announced that my new premium was now not only cheaper than the renewal they offered, it was also £50 less than I paid last year because she'd thrown in a customer loyalty discount for being with them for a lot of years, and how did I feel about that? "Very happy," I meekly said, and then immediately got annoyed with myself because I wasn't happy at all.
And here's why. Am I supposed to be grateful? If I'd just let it run and not shopped around they would have gladly lifted an extra £100 from me.
Why couldn't they just send me a renewal for the amount I paid in the end anyway, with a line in the letter saying, "Because you've been with us forever and we love our customers, here, have a loyalty discount. Thanks for your business, here's to another year with you
"It would have been so much nicer than just slipping a renewal letter in amongst the junkmail and hoping I wouldn't notice that they were trying to charge another £100 for not actually doing anything.
Similarly my breakdown renewal came through today, and they too were taking the piss with the amount they wanted. Not only that but it appeared that they'd made a clerical error and despite being dated last week the letter was a month late.
So I rang up to check and they confirmed that they had indeed let my membership lapse and as of a month ago I'm not actually covered. Which is nice.
So anyway, long story short, the dude set me up a new account and I've got exactly the same cover I had last year for £220, that they wanted £280 for this year, and it's only costing me £160.
That's just over half what they asked for originally, I mean what the f
k.Fine, I know business is about making money, and fine, I know you can phone around and get better deals but when you're staying with a company year on year it would be nice if just once, just one of them would show that they do value your custom by renewing for a price that genuinely IS the best deal, and didn't just hope you wouldn't notice them trying to slip one up your arse.
Another example is our satellite tv provider. New customers get stonking deals - they're always bloody sending us leaflets to get friends and family to join up. But existing customers get absolutely shafted.
Our upgraded set top box cost a fortune. But it's free to new customers.
The number of channels in our subscription shrinks every year, but the price keeps going up. New customers get more and better channels than we do, and yet pay less.
The only reason we haven't left yet is because the main competitor hasn't put a fibre optic cable in our road yet, but the minute they do, we're gone. More channels and faster internet for far less money.
Of course, once we've gone I have no doubt that our current satellite tv provider will try to entice us back with junkmail offering new-customer discounts.
Assholes.
Why the emphasis on new business all the time? Why not look after the customers you've already got and stop them from f
king off to the competition? You end up charging them the same fking amount of money anyway - why drive them into a goddamned rage in the process??? Sorry for rambling, just needed a rant. I'm off to see what other bills I can lower by having hysterics down the phone.
Doniger said:
Why the emphasis on new business all the time? Why not look after the customers you've already got and stop them from f
king off to the competition? You end up charging them the same fking amount of money anyway - why drive them into a goddamned rage in the process??? Sorry for rambling, just needed a rant. I'm off to see what other bills I can lower by having hysterics down the phone.
2) You don't want to pay any more than you have to for your car insurance - right? What makes you think that an insurance company wants to charge any less than they have to for a policy?
It's tedious, yes, but it does sound as though you've saved yourself a useful amount of money. Buy yourself a tasty pie to cheer yourself up!
companies rely on our laziness to make money and we hand it to them on a plate.
I'm amazed by how many of my so called inteligent friends don't bother comparing prices on insurance. One friend has three properties on buy to let buildings insurance hasn't checked his renewal in 5 years, just lets it roll. my girlfriend was paying for a magazine subscription she wasn't even getting delivered.
Insurance compaines don't need to change we do.
I'm amazed by how many of my so called inteligent friends don't bother comparing prices on insurance. One friend has three properties on buy to let buildings insurance hasn't checked his renewal in 5 years, just lets it roll. my girlfriend was paying for a magazine subscription she wasn't even getting delivered.
Insurance compaines don't need to change we do.
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