When Optimum announced it would start charging higher prices for service last year, I vowed to cut the cord and find another option.
When I called the company to complain — as a consumer, not as a reporter — a representative gave me a one-year discount of $45 per month. That would bring down the monthly cost of our triple-play service to about $230. It was better, but still a costly monthly bill.
I took the discounts, but vowed to quit quit cable for good. It was something my husband and I have been talking about for years. The plan was to switch to a series of streaming services that would give us the channels we wanted, for less. We would keep internet and phone through Optimum. (Though honestly, except for calls from my mother-in-law, only scammers call us on the house phone.)
Verizon FIOS isn’t offered in my town, so that wasn’t an option.
When the research was done, and after taking suggestions from readers who shared their experiences, we decided to try YouTube TV for $49.99 per month, in part because it would give my son access to international soccer games, and for us, the networks and cable news channels. (The price has since gone up to $64.99.) We’d add HBO for $14 per month (now $14.99), and we already had Netflix and Amazon Prime Video/Hulu.
The Optimum internet and phone service was priced at $117 per month.
The monthly all-in cost would be $181.95 per month, a savings of $980 per year. If you counted the new Optimum discount we were offered, the savings would be $620 per year.
Not bad at all.
So I carefully calculated what day I would call Optimum to cancel. That’s because the company describes its services as a subscription. Quitting mid-way through the billing cycle won’t give you a partial refund for the month, as NJ Advance Media readers have noted with past consumer complaints, so I wanted to time our separation perfectly.
I called on Jan. 30, 2020, the day before my billing period would end.
When I told the representative I wanted to cancel service, I was switched to the retention department. After explaining why I was leaving, the representative found some ways to save on my bill.
First, she offered to replace my three older cable boxes to new multi-room DVR boxes, which would eliminate the monthly fee I had been paying for the old boxes.
Next, she said I could save $5 per month by setting up automatic payments for my bill.
Finally, she offered an additional $10 per month discount.
That put my total bill at $182.45, just 50 cents more than my streaming solutions would have cost. It was kismet. I hadn’t even told her what my self-created streaming service package would have cost.
She gave me an important tip: The discounts would only be good for one year. I would have to call back in January 2021, before my year was up, and ask for the discounts to be extended.
January 2021 has come and gone, but my calendar reminded me to make the call in time.
It was simple. I called and said I wanted to cancel service, and I quickly was transferred to the retention department.
I explained my situation again, and the representative quickly agreed to maintain the discounts for another year. And when I asked if there was anything more they could do to lower my bill, I was offered another $20 “loyalty credit” discount for three months.
All I had to do was ask.
So once again, we’re not yet cutting the cord. I’ve already set my reminders to call Optimum again in January 2022.
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Karin Price Mueller may be reached at KPriceMueller@NJAdvanceMedia.com.
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