Why TWC Is Surprisingly Cool About Cutting Monthly Cable Bill At Home
Since when has cable service become cool? Apparently, since Time Warner has decided to offer “customer loyalty perks” — and by perks, we mean discounts.
We all know the scenario by now: the customer calls with a complaint about Time Warner Internet or cable service inadequacies and, after being made to jump through 25 hoops in the voicemail obstacle course, he finally gets through to a live (well, sometimes) representative. If it’s a quick fix, the rep may be able to help.
Rarely, however, is a carrot dangled in front of the customer’s nose in the form of a compensation prize for sorry service or incompetent billing. That’s the story of cable service, folks and we’re all used to it by now.
Thanks to the competition, however, people are defecting — and surprisingly enough, Time Warner seems to be taking notice. All across the Internet, Time Warner customers are writing about perks that are making them decide to renew their contracts and give the company one more chance.
Most of these stories follow a similar formula: the customer calls Time Warner to say that he’s cancelling his contract. In all of these cases, the representative listens patiently to the customer’s complaints, then sets the cancellation process in motion.
Now here comes the cool part. Within a day or two, someone from the Time Warner Customer Retention Office — yes, apparently there is such a thing, just Google it and see for yourself — calls back with an offer that the customer can’t refuse. The offer is literally so good that, even though the customer has already calculated on saving money by cancelling cable, he decides not to cancel.
In one case, an Internet poster writes that she called Time Warner to cancel because she doesn’t watch much television and her husband had been deployed overseas. Soon afterward, she got the magic call from the retention office. The representative offered her the same cable package with DVR service and added some extra channels and an upgraded Internet service — all for around $15 more than she would pay just for the Internet service alone. Best of all, the new rate would be locked in for two years.
As her post continues, the customer hastens to mention that this had nothing to do with her husband being in the military; it was simply a gesture offered by Time Warner in an effort to keep her from cancelling her contract. Of course, she took the deal.
Apparently, this sort of thing is happening all over the country. Time Warner is using a new wave of retention deals to keep their customers from abandoning ship and, judging by online message forums and user posts, it looks like it’s working.
If you feel like you’re a candidate for some retention love from Time Warner, just keep one thing in mind: it pays to be nice when you’re talking to the customer representatives. The lady who got the sweet premium bundle deal emphasizes that she made it a point to be exceptionally courteous to every single representative that she spoke to; in fact, she thinks that’s why they made her the offer. Her reasoning is that Time Warner Internet and cable reps get so tired of being cussed out by irate customers, they were showing their gratitude for her niceness.
In the meantime, isn’t it refreshing to read a story about people who are actually happy with their cable service? We don’t know how long it will last, but for now, those retention deals seem to be playing a pretty big part in Time Warner’s revamped customer service strategy.
