Introductory Rates & Inertia

Will Truman

Will Truman is the Editor-in-Chief of Ordinary Times. He is also on Twitter.

Related Post Roulette

6 Responses

  1. Damon says:

    I had been living in my current rental for several years, at least 3. I wrote my landlord a note stating that my company was moving north from where they were about 10-15 miles and I was considering relocating to a closer city with a lower cost for housing. That the commute would suck more if I moved I omitted.

    I said further that I could achieve a 200-400 dollar a month savings in rent by moving but I didn’t want to because I was settled, moving sucked, and I liked where I was. I reminded them that I never missed a payment, took good care of the house and would prefer to stay. I also reminded him of the financial impact of a vacant house for several months finding a new tenant. Within 24 hours I had agreed to a 200 dollar drop in rent.

    Facts, analysis, and knowing your position helps a lot.Report

  2. Troublesome Frog says:

    I have enjoyed canceling services like cable when they start playing the rate game. They expect you to call in and try to haggle, so saying, “Too late. Should have thought of that before you jacked my rate up to see if I’d notice,” is kind of satisfying.

    We once had a subcontractor on a project that thought we were too deep in with them and started jerking us around for huge piles of extra money on the assumption that we had no choice but to pay. It was a Windows CE project and we decided to switch to embedded Linux and take the development in house. Watching their surprise as we told them their mid six-figure contract that they thought was going to balloon into a high six figure contract was actually going to be a $0 cancellation was deeply enjoyable.Report

    • One thing it’s important to remember is those reconciliation offers typically come with a new contract. That typically lasts longer than the discount they’re giving you.Report

    • Mike Schilling in reply to Troublesome Frog says:

      Also, you got rid of Windows CE.Report

      • Troublesome Frog in reply to Mike Schilling says:

        CE was a horror show. I thought getting some training on it would help, but it only served to make me think that the project was doomed.Report

        • Road Scholar in reply to Troublesome Frog says:

          I have a unit in my truck — a product of Qualcomm — for electronic logs, messaging, GPS navigation, etc. It runs on an embedded version of Windows, I guess CE. Yeah, I’ve had it go into a BSOD while I’m driving down the road. Or they do this cute thing where they push an update out and it decides it has to reboot in the middle of the day.

          And I’ve had both of those situations happen in a VERY inconvenient time. Like when I’m a mile from my destination and I’m not sure about the last couple turns and/or I need to send my “Arrived at” message and change my duty status. When I’ve complained about the push updates (like, why doesn’t it ask, “Update now? Yes/no”?) I’ve been told I’m not supposed to rely on it. What the actual f***?? When that’s literally the only way to do some of this stuff?Report