Checking Out a Deal

In this current climate, the economical one that is, there are companies out there constantly vying for your business.
Companies play against others and try their hardest to drag you in because they usually know that once they get you in they will be happy to keep you for only a year but at least they have you!

One such area that is trying its hardest to get you and retain you here in New Zealand, probably like other countries too, are telephone companies.

The other evening we had a seller arrive on the door trying to get us to switch to their company. They had a very good deal on offer:

• phone line
• broadband
• 40Gb data
• wireless modem

All of this could be yours for the healthy happy price of $75 per month.

On top of this they would give you 2 months free.

We have 1 or 2 little extras on our phone so I enquired about the call minder programme they have and also a set national call payment , we currently pay $20 per month and this allows us to call anywhere in NZ for as long as we want whenever we want and seeing as we have family and friends all over, then it is nice to know we can just pick up the phone and call and not worry about the cost. Some months we use this and more and other times we don't but at the end of the year it balances out.

So I got informed that yes it would be $20 more for the national call charge so the total went to $95 oh and with the call minder service it would go to $105.

Now that is currently $10-15 less per month than we pay and given that they will give us 2 free months then it was very tempting.

However, for that cost I would have to change our main family email provider, which I hate doing, I don't mind having a gmail account but I do also like having our main email account with our provider.

The other small little detail that caught my eye when he showed me the card with all the information on it was that it said in little letters down the bottom - for 12 months - so I asked him what happened at the end of the 12 months, would the price go up to what the plan should probably be?

I was informed that no it wouldn't, they wouldn't be able to do that.

I politely took all the information that he had to offer and told him I needed time to compare my plans and that I would be in touch if I required more details.

I then promptly called the company and spoke to a customer service rep to ask more questions.

I explained that I was interested in their current promotion and what happened at the end of the 12 month period?

He straight away told me that it would go to the normal price of $105. Ha got you!

So instead of $75 per month it would be $105, so add our little extras on top of this and suddenly our telephone bill each month would be $135, we currently pay about $115.

So with all their in your face immediate information, come to us we only charge $75 per month, look we will give you 2 free months as well so there is even more saving, their you will get double the probably current data you are receiving from your provider etc etc it turns out then they will sucker you in the deal at the end of the 12 months when you bill will leap higher than the sky but they will argue that you had it good for 1 year so why are you complaining?

I can see how people get suckered into deals, up front this all looked really grand and stood on the doorstep at 6pm on a cold winter evening I can see how the $75 would suddenly float in peoples minds and that they would sign up on the spot because it is indeed much less than they currently pay, although as mentioned I did immediately work out that we would only be saving $10 a month.

So next time someone wants you to switch to their company just take a day to think it over and really compare it, yes we all want our bills to reduce but are you actually saving anything?

Talking about savings, remember that I could save you some money this winter by giving you a free pair of pyjamas for you lucky child, grandchild or special child in your life. All you have to do is leave a comment on my Winter Give Away post and you are in with a chance of winning the draw when done next week, and remember it doesn't matter where you live in the world, the company is happy to ship internationally, I do love international give aways always so much more friendlier.