How To Get Whatever You Want

May 30, 2008
     

      If you can a company to really cancel a service, credit card, or subscription they will give you WHATEVER YOU WANT to stay.    

      I recently tried to cancel my Sirius satellite radio. After you get used to the stations you realize that much like regular radio stations they play the same 100 songs over and over. So I had enough, and did not want to pay for it anymore.

 

Cancellation attempt #1:
Internet, no go of course. You can add services out the ying yang, but cant subtract them……. Odd

 

Cancellation Attempt #2
Phone, I spoke to a really nice woman from Canada, we talked she was probably close to my age group and was pretty cool about it. I told her I did not really like it all that much, and it was not really worth it too me. I car pool half the times anyways…… She offered to give me a home set up system to stay. Ok ill stay I love free stuff in the mail. Its like 100 bucks retail I can always sell it on eBay or Craigslist.

 

 

Cancellation Attempt #3
Phone, I go the home stereo its cool, but I only used it for 30 seconds after I set it up. I have millions of songs on my Ipod, Pandora rocks for at home listening, and there is always regular cds and radio. Here is the abbreviated version of our conversation.

 

 

JonBon: Cancel it.

Customer Service: Free car kit?

JB: Got it, Cancel it.

CS: Free installation of your existing car kit?

JB: Already installed, Cancel it.

CS: Free Month?

JB: Cancel it.

CS: More variety with XM after the merger?

JB: See above comments
CS: Anything we can do to keep you?

JB: No Cancel it

 

Success!!!! 

    

      Moral of the story, if you are going to discontinue your business with a company, you can pretty much set your own price and terms. This is true with credit cards, banks, and anyone who charges you on monthly basis. I would love to pay less for my cable, but I enjoy it too much to give it up. Any suggestions on how to make Time Warner take less of JonBon’s money?

-JB

 

 

2 Comments | Expenses | Permalink
Posted by fubar1383

Beer Drinking

May 15, 2008

         It is one of my favorite activities. I personally don’t think that I drink “cheap” beer, but others might. I am mainly a Bud Light guy, having an occasional Sam Adams or Guinness when I am feeling classy.

         Here is a good article about Beer and the effect that the slumping economy is having on the brewers in this country. I don’t see myself switching back to my beer “alma matter “ Natural Light aka Natty, but it probably would save me money if I was actually willing to downgrade the quality of my beer.  

Leave a Comment » | Expenses | Permalink
Posted by fubar1383

How Being A Cheap Ass Saves the Environment.

April 25, 2008

        

            With the barrage of earth day advertisements, and general “greenie-ness” I thought I would write something greenish myself. Although I felt many of the advertisements were just like a stupid adolescent contest about who can make the most noise and appear the most environmentally friendly: Chevy is greener then Toyota, Wal-Mart is greener then Target

 

Blah blah blah….

 

            Ok I win at being the greenest, not because I recycle (I don’t) or drive a hybrid (I won’t). I am “doing my part” because I am a cheap ass and have decided to start car pooling to work. I don’t know much about that carbon footprint crap, but I will be using less gas. Again not because I am particularly worried about the environment (I’m not) but because gas is expensive and I am a cheap ass. So can we just all relax and go back to watching regular prescription drug commercials on TV and laughing at all their horrible side effects?

 

….Taking  —– might result in sneezing nausea, blindness anal leakage…….

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Posted by fubar1383

“Living” on $40 a Weekend

April 24, 2008

     

 

 

 

 

 

           I Have decided that I need to cut my costs to save for my trip to Paris this summer. With the Euro reaching new highs against the Dollar every week I will need more Dollars to buy fewer Euros.

            I would say on the whole I keep my monthly costs very low. My apartment is reasonable, the car is paid off, I often buy the generic brand of food at the grocery store, and don’t break the bank shopping at the high end clothing stores every weekend.

            The place where I spend (waste) the most money is eating and drinking out. This is what a typical weekend might look like for me.

 

Dinner out Friday night:     $40

Drinks after dinner:             $30

Carry out Saturday night:  $12

Bar Parking:                          $5

Bar Tab:                                $30

Cab Home:                            $20

Sunday Skyline                    $15

 

Total                                     $152

 

           This does not even factor in grocery shopping, or running errands, or the new electronic toy that I felt that I needed. Often on Monday when I checked my bank account (I used my debit card and never my credit card) I would almost choke realizing the extent of the damage. So I have withdrawn $40 from the ATM for this weekend and will try to spend only that.

            As a result I am going to “live” on $40 a weekend. I feel like that is more then enough for me to have fun out with my friends and be able to participate in events. What I am hopping happens is that I eat at home both nights and go out for drinks one night. Hopefully the second night I am able to get people to stay in and watch a movie, play a board or video game, or just hang out. Doing all of this while drinking beers that cost fifty cents from Kroger rather then $4 from the bartender.

            Hopefully I can stick to this and potentially save (152-40) x 4 = $448 a month.

3 Comments | Expenses | Permalink
Posted by fubar1383

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