How to Lower your Time Warner Cable Bill

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I love Reddit.com because it shows the power of the “wisdom of the crowd.” Anyone can post anything they want and the users of the site vote content up and down, based on whether they like it or not. This allows the best content to float to the top and trolls and poor content sinks into oblivion, never to be seen by the average viewer.

Three days ago a Reddit user posted the following to the Frugal subreddit:

Called Time warner asking them to lower my bill because it was “just too high”… And it worked! Just had to be persistent. $49.99 down to $29.99 just for asking (and name dropping a competing company) :) – http://redd.it/15izkp

Awesome! I love how easy it is to save money, usually just by asking for a better deal! I really wish haggling was still part of American consumer culture. Just about the only time you get to haggle is on big ticket items, like cars and houses. In other cultures (actually, just about everywhere English isn't the first language), haggling and negotiating are just part of doing business.

Since the original poster didn't provide any more details beyond that headline, I posted the following script I've used several times with Time Warner and other ISPs:

Use This Script to Lower Your Cable Bill

  • TW: “Hello, thanks for calling Time Warner”
  • Me: “Hi, I'm having trouble paying my bills and I was wondering if there are any promotions or special deals on service running in my area.”
  • TW: “Let's check…”

They may find you some deals and promotions and get your monthly bill lowered. I've had upgraded speed for free, a promotional rate applied for 6 months, and many other deals offered at this point in the conversation. If you get an offer that your happy with, take it! If they don't offer anything…

  • TW: “I'm sorry sir, there are no promotions running for you at this time.”
  • Me: “Well in that case I'm going to have to cancel, I'm sorry.”
  • TW: “I understand sir, but I'll have to transfer you to one of our cancellation specialists”

Don't be afraid saying the “c” word! Saying “cancel” can be scary, but usually it leads to good things for you.

This is the fun part. The first tier customer service reps at most organizations cannot process your cancel request, simply because they are not trained to do so. They will have to transfer you to the billing department or retention department. They are authorized to offer you upgrades (faster internet, more channels, Showtime, HBO) or deals like half off for 6 months.

  • TW: “Mr. MilitaryMoneyManual, you are a valuable customer and we can offer you turbo boost for free for 6 months as well as a a 50% discount on your current service.
  • Me: “Thanks, that sounds great! You provided excellent customer service today and you definitely kept a happy customer. (Just butter them up a bit, doesn't hurt!)

ALWAYS, ALWAYS, be polite, courteous, and respectful. Acting like a dick never gets you anyways, it's the wrong thing to do, and if you treat your customer service reps with a modicum of respect, they will usually appreciate that and hook you up with some good deals.

Again, don't be afraid to threaten to cancel. Time Warner or any cable company wants to keep you as a paying customer and will usually offer a good deal to keep you around. If at any point they appear ready to process your cancellation request, just say “oh nevermind, I guess I will keep the service.” They called your bluff, try again another day.

Lowering Your Bill Success Stories

time-warner-cable-logoThere were over 275 comments on that single post. Lots of people shared their experience, whether it was success or failure in getting their bill lowered. It was awesome seeing all the savings that was happening with a simple 5-10 minute phone call! The script works, just try it!

  • jerz says: “Thanks for posting this, I had seen my TW cable bill increase from 44.99 to 64.99 over the past year. Looked up all the specials and called and got it decreased to 32.99. Not as low as yours but still a 50% decrease made me pretty happy.”
  • yuckypants: “I've done this several times with AT&T Uverse also. I call and talk to the retention department and I've ALWAYS gotten my request. In fact, this last time, it dropped over $50 and I got a better package!”
  • SeccessionisLaughlable says: “Great reminder! I hadn't done this in a while. My bill was already fairly discounted as I have an inexpensive base package, but they were able to discount it some more. It worked out great!”
  • blamdin: “I have been meaning to do this for a while and your post reminded me. Got my ~$57 /mo bill lowered to $44/mo and kept my current speed of 20down/2up”
  • Ochochinco615: “I just got my bill from 145 down to 114 and HBO. :)

Tricks for Lowering your Time Warner Bill

Lots of people also offered some more tricks and tips as well. Here's some of the best comments (listed by username):

  • Servernode recommends: “For starters don't bother with even talking to the Tier 1 agent that picks up the phone when you call in; They don't have access to the promos. Billing has some but where you want to get is to retentions. Threaten to cancel if you have to.”
  • DarkSideofOZ says that you shouldn't even ask for anything from the first rep you talk to, just say: “Yes, I've received a tempting offer from [insert competitor company here] and I was thinking about switching, can you please connect me with your retention department to see if they can match or beat this deal?”

8 thoughts on “How to Lower your Time Warner Cable Bill”

  1. Nope, didn’t work. Time Warner would rather a customer walk away than lower their bill. Stated they no longer had a retention dept.

    Reply
  2. Just wanted to say thanks for this article and script. Worked perfectly for me. I was paying the promotional 44.99/month for Turbo (20Mbps down/2Mbps up) in 2013 and my 1 year promotional period was over this month and it would jump up to 74.99/month minus 10.00/month for loyalty discount (64.99/month total). So I called in a followed the script and got it to be 44.99/month for another year (2014)!

    Reply
    • Really glad it worked for you! Your example is exactly what should happen when you call. Don’t let the cable companies screw you over with rate increases!

      Reply
  3. I’d been with them for almost 10 years and was paying more than the most expensive internet package they had yet receiving the worst. I just called and not only did I get it lowered by about $20 (this doesn’t seem like a lot) but I was upgraded to their highest packages all around for phone, internet, and tv. I’m satisfied.

    Reply
  4. I used this method tonight to get my bill lowered. Told them i was going to switch to DirecTV, which i actually was going to do, but then they chopped off nearly 100 bucks… Can’t really pass that up! Went from paying 225 to 139.

    Reply

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