The morning started like every other morning. Hubby and I settled in on the couch with coffee to watch WTNH, our local ABC station. This is our ritual. For a long time, too long, I have paid dearly for it. That ended today.
To my shock and disgust, when I flicked on Hulu, it informed me my plan was going up to $99.99/month.
I said; Oh, hell, no it’s not.
Honestly, I’ve kept the LiveTV portion of my Hulu solely for access to WTNH. Yes, we watch Masked Singer live at it airs but that’s about it. Sometimes on a Sunday we’ll cruise the LiveTV to see what’s on. Mainly it’s for local news, Good Morning America, and the Sunday morning news shows.
That’s a lot of money for just that. I’ve never understood why Hulu, being a Disney Company and Disney owning ABC and all, didn’t offer your local ABC station Live with your package. Paramount+ does that. It makes sense.
After hubby went to work, I got in Ye Olde Internet and dropped my package down to their basic package. I may upgrade to the one with HBO in February when my existing HBO subscription expires. That looked like a decent deal. The process was simple, it was easy, it was breezy. Just like it should be. I went from just over $100/month with taxes and fees to $13.81/month with taxes and fees. Saved about $87.00/month or $1,044/year. Not bad.
For a while now I’ve known I’m overpaying for my internet service and I’ve been mad about it. Today I did something about it. That was NOT a pleasant experience. I’ve been being gouged at $140/month for 1gig that no one needs. BUT if you’re a new Breezeline customer you can get 1 gig for……$45.00/month for 5 years.
WTF?
Ok. Yeah. No.
I never use this website. I sweated the cable bill every single month for a number of years and I didn’t want to do that anymore so I put the damn thing on autopay and walked away. Yeah. Don’t do that. Ever.
I spent a good twenty minutes…unable to sign into the Breezeline website and I COULD SEE everything they had to offer for plans. Please remember that. Anyway, I tried everything short of making that phone call to sign in. The site wanted my account number. Breezeline stopped putting the account number on the monthly e-bill. I couldn’t even see it through my bank’s site in the payment transaction. I have to make the dreaded phone call. Like I said, it was about twenty minutes worth of hoops but I finally got to the point where I can signed, change the password, do of all that happy stuff. Yes! I did save all the info…including a PIN I had no idea existed until today.
Now I’m signed in.
I can’t do a damn thing. It was then that I remembered the other reasons I never signed into the site or kept track of it any manner.
I can’t shop on the site like, you know, a real customer. I’m pretty sure I’m still a customer, guys. I can’t see the TV plans offered. I had been thinking it might be cheaper to try to get a small local package through them. I can’t see the internet packages. I can; download their app, refer a friend, pay my bill, see outages. If I want to do anything else, in the end, this damn site forces you to make a phone call. If you try using the links you just run around and around and around and around. Until you’re dizzy.
You can’t actually manage your own plan. At all. You get sent to the ChatBot which eventually sends you to a representative who may help you if you want to upgrade. However, they will immediately upsell you on their phone plan. If you express disinterest you’re given a phone number to call. If you want to downgrade you’re given a phone number to call.
It feels outrageously scammy in the end.
After quite a long time of frustration and several open tabs on my computer…every time I wanted to check something out it made me sign in again! Then it wouldn’t let me do anything. I made the phone call. First, I went to my buddy Hal (ChatGPT) and asked him to give me the latest prices Breezeline was running for internet. Hal did that. It was the same that I was able to view when NOT signed into the Breezeline site.
I talk to the damn automated answering thing first…again, had to do that when trying to access the site. I hate it. I really hate it. I got through that to the ‘downgrade’ department…WTF? Gave out all of my info again…except for the ever lovin’ PIN which no one told about until today and I had no idea what it was. I got so many verification texts my poor phone never vibrates that much it must be exhausted.
I got the ‘downgrade department’…finally. I was doing my best to stay nice and polite even though I was starting to jump in my seat. They couldn’t help me but the ‘loyalty department’ might. I was transferred to them where I went though the same identification process BUT I was finally able to set a PIN! Woot. Into the new file that went! After going back and forth over the fact that I’m being an extra $100/month for the exact same service is ‘new’ customer is getting I was, at first, offered to keep my 1 gig for $87/month. A nice saving s but no where near what that ‘new’ customer is paying. I’ve been with Breezeline about a decade now, I think I deserve a little consideration here.
I don’t need a frggin’ gig!
After a more hoops I insisted on finding out what it was a month for 500mbps. We don’t need anymore than that. Even the ‘loyalty’ agent agreed. At the end of the phone call I went from paying $140/month for that unnecessary upsold Gig to $47.92 a month for 500mbps. That saves us $92.08/month or $1,104.96/year.
Grand total saved: $180/month $2,150/year.
That ain’t bad. I wish Breezeline had made it easier by letting me actually manage my account on my own. But, no matter. The frustration was worth it. That’s a substantial amount of money that’s now staying in our pockets…well, ok, fine, I think we’ll be able to afford some home heating oil now so we don’t freeze to death.
Perhaps today I was spurred on by the residual anger I had dealing with TVCCA earlier in the week over an oil delivery I applied for a month ago. If you applied through them and haven’t heard…call them. Now. Please, whatever you do, do NOT follow their directions regarding ‘uploading your documents’ to their site. They don’t seem to get them. Anyway, after that lovely encounter, I did win. Not much. About $500. At today’s prices…between $5.50 and $5.80/per gallon…that’s somewhere around 86 gallons. The ‘minimum delivery amount’ for a lot of places around here is 125/gallons or…..about $724.00!!
I may have to pitch in $250 just to get the oil here. So it’s a damn good thing I jumped through all those other hoops today, hey?
