Is it ok to scam big Coporations?

[William769]

I have Direct TV & I called them & told them that my local cable company wanted me to switch to them & I would save $40.00 a month. Direct tv didn't even blink an eye & lowered my bill by $40.00 a month to keep me as a customer.

That was so easy that i decided to call my phone company (sprint) who I also have my DSL through at a speed of 5m & told told them that Comcast is offering me high speed cable + digital phone service at a savings over sprint of $65.00 a month. Sprint told me that they couldn't match the $65.00 a month but since I have been a "loyal customer" that If I stayed with them they could lower my bill by $45.00 a month. I said ok.

Now I never did speak to comcast & pulled these numbers off of tv commercials, just to see what I could do. I am now saving a total of $85.00 a month on these two bills.

Was this wrong of me?

ON EDIT: SPELLING

[SoCalDem]

1. They did it willingly.. Be proud.. It also shows how much

they are ripping people off, if a phone person can lower rates so easily:(

[Warpy]

23. Exactly

Your bills should never have been that high in the first place.

Good for you.

However, don't be too surprised to see those rates creep up. We're due for another round of steep inflation, so enjoy it while you can.

They won't go hungry, trust me.

[Dr.Phool]

27. The day Rupert Murdoch bought DirecTV

I called to cancel my services. They asked why, and I said Rupert Murdoch.

They offered to cut my bill by $30 per month immediately. I didn't take them up on it. Giving discounted money to Murdoch is still giving money to Murdoch.

[Sequoia]

2. NO. You're hired!

[KittyWampus]

3. hell no, it's your duty. (shades of Abbie Hoffman)

[porphyrian]

4. Only if doing it bothers you.

No, wait, it's only if you get caught. Just demonize them a bit more to avoid offending your conscience, like the villian in Dirty Harry movies.

If it makes you feel any better, neither Comcast nor Direct TV nor any other company is going to make you an offer they can't afford and aren't making a profit on in some way.

[William769]

9. You have a very good point there.

[Quantess]

5. Do you feel guilty?

"Scam" is too strong a word.

BTW, it's spelled "corporations"

[William769]

12. OOPS!

:blush:

[Richard Steele]

6. Every good con depends upon the GREED of the "mark".

Are they actually LOSING any money by providing service to you now?
Or did they simply trim some fat off the 'pure profit'
part of your monthly bill?

I'd say you are in the 'eggshell white' section of this particular "Grey Area".

[MADem]

7. It's NOT a SCAM if the company is genuinely making the offers

that you are using to get your existing companies to lower their charges.

The only line of bull you fed them, in that case, is that you SPOKE with someone. Well, the TV ads SPOKE to you, so there ya have it.

[Carni]

8. OOOPS I meant what you did was OK by me

After reading this I am going to give this a shot.

[Crazy Dave]

10. I've done that myself a time or two and one time....

...saved $4000 on a vehicle purchase by saying to dealer "A" that dealer "B" (fictitious) would sell me the same car for $4000 less than they would. I actually found out the lowest they could go on that type of car without losing money from a banker friend and it worked. I'm sure they made up for it on the next person/sucker.

[NanceGreggs]

11. Not at all!

You just negotiated yourself a better price on the products you are purchasing.

It's long been a big irritation of mine that many services, especially phone, satellite and cable-TV, offer discount packages to reward their 'new' customers who are willing to come on-board.

What about a discount for we 'loyal, valued' customers who choose to stick with them?

You just talked yourself into such a reward. And it's not like they're losing money on the deal. If they literally couldn't match a lower price and still make a substantial profit, they would have told you to go elsewhere.

Well done!

[Robbien]

13. If you twisted their arms and beat them over the head with a stick

to make them give you a better rate, then yes you are a bad guy.

Get real. The customer service operator who answered your call knew you were calling to negotiate a better deal.

[ComerPerro]

14. Odds are, they were scamming you.

when you paid those prices

[William769]

17. That is probably true.

[Selatius]

15. It's fair, I'd say

If they can shave prices easily like that, it indicates they have more than enough profit margins to absorb the loss, and it probably shows the market suffers from lack of competition.

[ComerPerro]

16. it occurs to me that hardly anyone here will say you were in the wrong

lol

[Atman]

18. Nothing. You're not stealing. You just haggled.

It's no different than booking an airline ticket. If you call them directly, you can haggle for a ticket that is often way cheaper than their cheapest ticket available online.

If you're concerned about your "lying," keep this in mind...they're lying to you first when they charge you the highest rate. They're claiming this is their rate, dude. Unless, of course, you ask them for a different rate based upon what their competitors are charging. So shift the whole paradigm...is YOUR lying in order to save $85 bucks somehow worse than their lying to save several million dollars?

In a perfect world, you'd both tell the truth and charge/pay the absolute minimum required to in order to provide you with the service. But this is far from a perfect world. This is Capitalism.

[William769]

20. Thanks, I like that word better "haggled".

[MercutioATC]

19. Try THIS when making hotel reservations:

Ask for the price.

Then, simply ask "Do you have a lower price for that room?"

At least 80% of the time, you'll immediately be quoted a lower price (doesn't apply for hi-capacity times like holidays).

The service industry seems to be intent on quoting a price higher then their best offer. There's no wrong done in asking for their best price (whether that just be "asking" or providing a ficticious price to match).

That aside, Sprint knows what deals Comcast is offering. You didn't fool them, they just gave you a lower price because you asked for it.

[Miss Chybil]

21. No, it wasn't wrong. It was smart consumerism. Buyer beware.

You're the buyer and it's your obligation to secure for yourself the best deal possible. Nobody is going to do it for you.

BTW - C-O-R-P-O-R-A-T-I-O-N

[William769]

24. LOL!

I hope to have it right this time.

[Miss Chybil]

26. You forgot the R!!!! LOL!

Corp-o-ration. LOL!

[Zebedeo]

22. That's not a scam

That's just plain old good negotiation. Kudos to you.

[Freedom_Aflaim]

25. Thats not scamming. Thats negotiating

All good negotiators play one against the other.

Nothing wrong at all.

[sweetheart]

28. Who scams who?

You pay a monthly fee to suck on their wire.

Is that wrong of you? :-)

Probably not, but they're laughing all the way to the bank.

[iamahaingttta]

29. No... the thing that you did wrong was...

Lying to them. You probably (and may have for all I know!) could WORD your inquiry in such a way that you wouldn't TECHNICALLY be lying, and the outcome would be the same. Obviously, both companies were more than willing to lower your monthly, so they were probably ripping you off to begin with! However, if you actually said to someone that you talked to a competitor who offered you a better price, and that didn't really happen... well... you got some bad karma points there. Make sure to use mealy-mouthed language when trying this tactic. That's what they do, after all.

[DoTheRightThing]

30. You lied to them for personal advantage.

We can't condemn it in others when we so easily dismiss it in ourselves. That others lie and get away with it does not make us more moral when we do it, too--we have merely sunk to their, unprincipled, level.

You don't need to ask US if it's wrong. That you asked at all means you KNOW it is and don't feel real great about what you've done. That's good--it means you have a conscience that actually is based upon something.

Our actions HAVE to be more than a knee-jerk based on what someone else does. If you REALLY wish to 'get even' with big corporations, do it the right way: Stay moral, educate yourself, and start your own company, or write your own business philosophy you can market, wherein businesses will act the way they are supposed to.

Stealing from a company puts NOTHING good in the world--it's just the easiest, most self-serving way you tried to make what you did noble.

It wasn't.