MY VIEW
These so-called savings are costing me a bundle
I can’t afford anything more for “free.” Dogged by the scalding I’ve taken at the hands of what are believed to be reliable providers of telecommunications companies, I’ve saved so much, I just can’t afford to “save” any more.
Do you remember when you first heard of pay TV? Many of us, including me, just couldn’t imagine paying for something that was free. That was $61 per month ago.
Do you recall when cell phones were the stuff of James Bond and Maxwell Smart? That was $88 per month ago.
Do you remember thinking for the first time about a home computer, and how outlandish an idea that was? That was $30 per month ago.
But we always had a phone. That might have been, say, $15 per month ago. At nearly $200 per month now, the “bundle” that
comes with the highest-techiest new iteration of telecommunications wants to save me even more. Except when I add it all together, no matter what the combination, it always costs more. How is that?
This all gelled in me and began spilling out when I was writing in a live chat with the “telecommunications specialist,” telling her about my $88 cell phone bill with a bunch of free minutes. The ridiculousness of that made me laugh out loud as I reread my words on the screen. What’s free about $88?
While I peppered her with clues about me, my phoning habits and my changing world of telecommunication, it became abundantly clear that she read from only one script. And it had nothing to do with me.
Marilyn offered to bundle my telecommunications, and save. Except when I added it all together, the total was higher than what I started with. I unfazed myself momentarily to take up the charge once more. I offered up my peculiar long-distance habits. She responded with an offer of the company’s very special international rates that offered to let me pay for the privilege monthly of accessing rates higher than I pay now. Argh.
In a manner as professional as I could muster, given the downward spiraling nature of this “chat,” I explained the folly of that legerdemain, leaving it in a trail of dust for one last attempt to obtain pricing on cell phone, Internet and television needs. After three separate attempts to secure a price to include the litany of taxes, surcharges and mandated fees so that I might have a price for comparison, it became clear she just wasn’t interested in answering.
She asked whether there were any other questions she could help me with today. I assured her there weren’t any she could answer. I’d already tried.
This isn’t a treatise on customer service. We know how bad that can be. It’s on the abandoned nature of it. There is a lot not to be believed in sales messages in media. Salespeople can’t really be trusted with my business, in large part because they want it so much. Indeed, Marilyn was so attuned to selling me her wares, where I was became increasingly inconsequent.
Call me a cynic if you will. I don’t believe products will make me younger, thinner, happier, more productive, smarter, wealthier or better in any way. All of that really is up to me. I often say to my television set, “well, that’s not true.” I say it to remind myself that just because someone said it, it doesn’t mean it’s true. There’s focus in that.
So, when the phone rings or the doorbell sounds, listen to that testy voice that says, “That’s not true.” You’ll be surprised how much cheaper it can be to bypass the savings.
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