How to save on Cable/Phone/Internet-Corrected

We are a digital family living in a digital world! Didn't Madonna have a song that went a little like that back in the 80's? lol

An area I saved on today was our cable and phone bill. We went the bundled route last year after moving to Minnesota. We found a great deal and had all our local, unlimited long distance, High Speed DSL, and 250 channels of Satellite TV/DVR billed through the local phone company, Frontier Communications. We got a pretty good deal on it all for about $100 a month for all four services (with taxes, tolls, state and federal fees it's more like $130).

Today, hubby's brother told us about the FCC ruling of 2007 regarding the AT&T/BellSouth merger/monopoly suit. There were 22 states affected but simply stated BellSouth/AT&T is required to offer $10 DSL service under certain circumstances. This program is not advertised and generally can be difficult to order online although my brother in-law had success getting this service package over the telephone. Here's a site that walks you through the trick to successfully ordering the $10 DSL service online but I must warn you, I have not tried this so I don't know if it works or not! The deal worked out by AT&T and the FCC requires AT&T to provide the service for 2 1/2 years so there's still time to capitalize on this offer.

Assuming our local phone company, Frontier Communications is a division of AT&T, I called to inquire about the $10 service plan. Frontier's customer service rep, John, was very kind & looked into it for me. Unfortunately Minnesota was not a state affected by the monopoly & Frontier is not a subsidiary of AT&T so the $10 DSL plan wasn't available for me BUT, he discovered a great promotion on satellite TV. Dish Network is offering $9.99 satellite service through the end of the year to encourage folks who rely on analogue TV signal to switch to Dish. Needless to say, I was tickled I could get a great price for TV without making any changes to our package. So a simple phone call will save me nearly $30 every month for the remainder of the year and I keep all the channels we're use to watching! I'm not sure if we qualify for the laptop so I'll have to call back to clarify that small detail. (Getting the laptop would the deal even sweeter!)

The disturbing part came when John found a third party, EBSI, was fraudulently billing us $12.95 monthly for a digital voicemail service since June of last year! I usually skim the bill every other month to ensure we're not billed for any movies we don't watch. Somehow I missed this charge. We didn't order the service and John gave me their phone number advising me to request a full refund back dated to June. It was obvious by John's tone he wasn't happy with this company or their practices. According to John, they gain access to your phone bill through deceitful (& questionably legal) means. Usually it's through a website offering a free laptop, cell phone service, or application software. A few clicks later and you've unknowingly agreed to the monthly fee. The fine print is very small and buried beneath several terms and conditions with unclear wording. According to EBSI, hubby authorized the charge online. He thought he was getting a voicemail box from his cell phone provider! He never received voice mail box access information and we never saw it billed on the cell phone bill so no one thought another thing about it. The good thing: after calling EBSI, we will be getting a full refund of $103.60 issued via our phone bill either on the billing cycle. I wrote down all the information and the confirmation code just in case there are any more problems.

So what's the lesson of the story:

1. If you don't ask for something then you definitely won't get anything! So pick up the phone and ask what are the current promotions for existing customers. If they don't have any, see if they'll give you the new customer promotional price for being a loyal client but you'll probably have to speak to a supervisor to get it authorized.
2. Look over EVERY LINE of your bill. If you don't understand a charge, then call and ask! Companies don't mind explaining legitimate billable services and it's equally important to understand what your paying for.
3. Don't get CLICK HAPPY on those 'too good to be true' web deals and email ads! Read the fine print on all web sites before accepting or authorizing any access to any of your accounts. All they need is your name, address & phone number to have items billed through your phone bill. Remember: If it's sounds too good to be true, then it probably is!

What other ways have you managed to save on the monthly digital expenses?

Correction: This was originally posted yesterday when Anonymous commented Frontier Communications is not owned by AT&T. He/She is correct! I did some research and found they are owned by a company Citizens Communications Company (CTTC) according to the FCC carrier filing's history report dated March 2008. Frontier Communications (FTR) is a publicly traded company with it's holdings kept separate from their parent company. Frontier's corporate page suggests a name change from Citizens Communications Company but I couldn't find any other information other than standard press releases. I have altered the original article to better reflect my assumptions and better express the facts as recently discovered. Thank you, Anonymous, for pointing out my error!

Although I had a minor fact incorrect, I operated under the assumption that Frontier was under AT&T's corporate umbrella. I apologize for the factual error but, the point of the article is to point out existing customer's can obtain better pricing or even discounts with a simple phone call to their provider's customer service center. Again, if you don't ask for something, you can't expect to receive anything!