How to negotiate for a cheaper phone, internet or TV bill

Mohammed Halabi of MyBillsAreHigh. Photo: Santy Yeh

With Canada home to some of the highest wireless prices in the world and consumer studies saying Canadian communication bills are too high, it doesn’t hurt to look for ways to slash your TV, internet and phone expenses. One way to do so is to call your provider and haggle your way to a cheaper monthly bill.

Mohammed Halabi has made a business out of doing just that. He founded MyBillsAreHigh, an “expense management solutions” company that takes a look at communications expenses for business and consumers.

After clocking in 20,000 hours negotiating with telecom companies for lower bills, he has learned a thing or two about getting communications bills under control.

Halabi spoke with Yahoo Canada Finance to share some tips on how consumers can haggle to get a more manageable monthly bill.

1. Assess your needs

Before you pick up the phone to call your telecom company, Halabi says you should take a look at your last three bills to get an understanding of what you’re using and how much you’re using.

For home phone and cell phone services, this means you should consider if you’re using long distance. If you are, take a look at if you’re just making long distance calls to numbers within Canada or if you’re making calls to the U.S. or elsewhere overseas.

If you spot some frills you can do without, great. You can keep those in mind for the next step. If not, don’t sweat it. There may still be a way to keep what you have and still save some cash.

2. Do your homework

Once you get a grasp of your telecom needs, go online and start shopping around for deals that you think would suit you.

Don’t forget to check the smaller players like Wind Mobile or Teksavvy as they often have better deals than the big providers. Be sure to also check out what your existing provider is offering just in case they’ve introduced any new deals that they haven’t passed on to you.

Doing your research is key as knowing your current provider’s latest offers and what the competition has is a great way to make your case for lower rates once you make the call.

And chances are high that there are some deals out there, especially considering the aggressive market.

“There’s always lots of incentives that competing providers are offering to win over business,” Halabi says. “Sometimes they’re offering credits if you switch. Sometimes they’re offering you a few months for free.”

While you may be tempted by a cheaper plan, always keep in mind your needs. Getting a cheaper plan you can’t live with may cause problems down the line.

“Plans should conform to the customer’s usage as opposed to the customer trying to conform to the plan,” he adds.

3. Make the call (but mind your manners)

Once you’ve taken note of the latest and greatest deals, now’s the time to give your provider’s customer service department a call.

While you may want to give the person on the other end of the line an earful about your sky-high bill, resist the urge to rant, rave and say that you want to cancel right off the bat.

Instead be polite, mention how long you’ve been a customer with the company (if you’ve been with them for more than one to two years) and ask if there’s anything they can do to lower your monthly bill. Courtesy goes a long way.

“Go in with a polite and respectful tone as opposed to one where it’s rude and screaming,” Halabi says. “Because we’re all human, right?”

Once you get things rolling, then it’s a good idea to mention some of the better deals out there and to see if they can beat or match them.

At this point in the call, don’t hesitate to mention that you’ve been shopping around and are considering switching.

However, beware of some of the excuses that may get thrown your way.

“If you bring up Wind if you’re dealing with Bell or Rogers, they’ll obviously tell you that you can’t really compare Mercedes to a Hyundai — it’s a premium service, Wind isn’t,” Halabi explains. “The approach you can take with that is that ‘well, it works for me where I am.’”

While that may be enough to talk them into lowering your monthly bill, Halabi warns not to expect premium providers to match the rate of the smaller players.

4. Escalate the call (if you need to)

However, if you’re still not happy with what they present to you or haven’t gotten anywhere, you have the option to escalate the call.

Ask to speak with customer relations, which also goes by the name “customer loyalty” or “customer retentions.” Some may tell you those above them can’t do better, but don’t believe them.

“They want to avoid escalating the call, but they don’t want to lose you as a customer either. So, when you push the right buttons, they will push the call to the next level,” Halabi says.

If customer relations still isn’t giving you the deal you’re looking for, there are even higher levels of escalation you could take your negotiation to, but Halabi says the customer relations loyalty department is usually where you’ll get the deal you’ve been hoping for.

Once you finally get the deal you want, don’t be afraid if they’d like to put it in a contract.

“Sometimes you may get offered a great deal, but it’s contingent on taking a two-year term, which isn’t a bad idea if you know you’re going to need the service,” he says. “You might get something like 25 per cent off the prices that you see on the website. It can be a significant difference.”

Unfortunately, to get a lower telecom bill, you’ll have to put in the time. “You should set aside a good two hours and factor in that you might have to call back because the deal might not be properly provisioned,” Halabi says.

To prevent having to call back, he says you should get interaction numbers or reference numbers, the agent’s name and even to get the agent to read back the notes they’ve taken. You can even record the call if you’d like.

If that all sounds like too much work, you could also hire a firm like Halabi’s own MyBillsAreHigh, which gives consumers who want a lower bill the convenience of not having to go through all the trouble and the guarantee they’ll get what they were promised.