Sorry but ability to pay is not measured by one's desire to do things other than complain to a company that raises rates for nothing (or less) in return.

Sorry, but ability to pay is absolutely demonstrated by willful ignorance of the regular opportunity to negotiate your best possible deal, then complaining about it.

So the more money you have the less likely you are to try and negotiate the best possible deal? That sounds counter-intuitaiuve to me, please explain the dynamic of that. I don't know a lot of rich people that would willingly throw money away by choosing not to negotiate.

actions · 2013-Jan-3 12:46 pm ·

elray
join:2000-12-16
Santa Monica, CA

elray

Member

2013-Jan-3 8:29 pm

said by CXM_Splicer:

Nice try. Not sure how many "rich" people you actually know - the few that I associate with do, indeed, willingly throw money away on petty expenditures such as cable-broadband - the nominal annual savings aren't worth the effort, time, or headache to them.

I was, however, referring to the average household.

I'll explain it one last time.

If you aren't on a promotional rate, you're leaving a lot of money on the table.

If you are on a promotional rate, and you let it expire, wait three months, then act surprised and complain that your rate "went up", the expense did not affect you, since you had it on "auto-pay" and you don't scrutinize your statements or set alarms for contractual anniversary dates.

actions · 2013-Jan-3 8:29 pm ·

CXM_Splicer
Looking at the bigger picture
Premium Member
join:2011-08-11
NYC

CXM_Splicer

Premium Member

2013-Jan-4 6:23 am

The more you explain it the more it looks like you are confusing 'Ability to pay' with 'Desire to constantly complain to the ISP'; the two are not related.

"or set alarms for contractual anniversary dates"

Do people really do this? I would suggest that they should get a life. The picture above is a guy who sits and waits for his contracts to expire.

actions · 2013-Jan-4 6:23 am ·

elray
join:2000-12-16
Santa Monica, CA

elray

Member

2013-Jan-4 11:31 am

said by CXM_Splicer:

There is nothing to confuse.
If your "ability to pay" is limited, you pay scrupulous attention to your bills; you don't ignore them, then rant about them when they increase.

As I've previously stated, I don't relish the annual 30-60 minute ritual of calling the carrier or MSO to save $250/year, but it pays well - we don't sit around, we mark it on the free wall calendar and back it up with a free Google calendar notification and a $.02 SMS message, as we do for other important events, especially those with financial impact.

Does it really bother you to be disciplined and act responsibly?
Paying attention to the balance sheet drives efficiency on both sides of any transaction.

actions · 2013-Jan-4 11:31 am ·

CXM_Splicer
Looking at the bigger picture
Premium Member
join:2011-08-11
NYC

CXM_Splicer

Premium Member

2013-Jan-4 11:52 am

No, what bothers me is that companies will raise rates simply because they know many people aren't willing to waste time and aggravation fighting them and going through the inconvenience to switch to another company (assuming there is one). It is simply exploitation of customer's time which has nothing to do with ability to pay.

actions · 2013-Jan-4 11:52 am ·

elray
join:2000-12-16
Santa Monica, CA

elray

Member

2013-Jan-4 2:17 pm

said by CXM_Splicer:

I disagree. If you don't have 30 minutes a year to negotiate your annual contract, then you can afford whatever increase is applied. Where I come from, we call that "lazy" - even as we might agree with some of your sentiment.

You don't have to switch to another company.

Most firms in this country are not charities. They're in business to make a profit. In order to attract capital to invest in the expansion of their network that you and others so often call for, those profits need to be maintained, in a world where costs continue to climb (labor, benefits, taxes, rent, etc). Rate hikes are going to happen.

If the firm applies them in a way that requires customers to be diligent, so what?
There is nothing wrong with that.

actions · 2013-Jan-4 2:17 pm ·

CXM_Splicer
Looking at the bigger picture
Premium Member
join:2011-08-11
NYC

CXM_Splicer

Premium Member

2013-Jan-4 4:42 pm

I agree that many ARE too lazy to bother either keeping track or spend the time negotiating... some are simply too busy. But, you see, this is my point, we are talking about time.

quote:
If you don't have 30 minutes a year to negotiate your annual contract

Here you are talking about time

quote:
then you can afford whatever increase is applied

but here you are talking about money. While I am sure you would cite the age-old cliche that 'Time is money' the two are obviously not equivalent since a person with a lot of time on their hands is not by definition wealthy. And your defense of costs to business going up would carry more weight if they weren't making higher and higher profits each year. In many cases, their costs can be shown to be decreasing (labor, taxes, etc.) They could get by just fine without raising rates, they do it anyway because they know it is a hassle for people to switch.

actions · 2013-Jan-4 4:42 pm ·

« not surprised

This is a sub-selection from 27% price increase! Yay...