Making a Phone Call... Can Save Money

The last several days has been a fantastic lesson in how to save money by asking questions. I have saved literally $500.00! Just by making phone calls and asking questions.

#1) My Phone, TV and Internet. VERIZON FIOS
Current Bundled Package: $126.00 a month
Phone: $26.00 - no savings
-Here's the thing, my phone is actually only $14.00/mo., but there is an additional $12.00 in subscriber fees and taxes. So, I can't really do much better with the phone, however this is the bundled price. In order to keep this price, I will have to switch to Basic Local Service and drop the long distance carrier. I won't be able to make phone calls out of my local area... but I do have a cell phone... and I can just program calling cards into the home phones for those times when I'm charging the cell.
Internet: $49.99 - switching will save $34.00/mo
-I will happily go back to DSL for $15.99/mo. The FIOS isn't any faster then the low end DSL. When you call FIOS they say, oh it's your computer, oh it's the websites you are accessing... whatever, it's all about how it's NOT the FIOS lines. The bottom line is... the lines may be fiber optic coming to the house... but once it gets to the house it runs on regular cable lines. AND if it's not any faster than DSL... why am I paying almost $35.00 a month more? no reason.
TV: $50.00 - switching will save from 10.00 - 37.00
-If I switch to satelite I can get "basic" for about $39.99, which will save me about $10.00, and won't really change the channels available. If I stay with FIOS and switch to basic local channels... I go from $50.00/mo to $12.99/mo. I will not have anything, but local channels. Which means, I will have mostly inappropriate shows for children except for what they put on PBS. I think the impending new school year will be a good time to switch, because they will be busy at school, and doing homework. I personally only have time or the inclination to watch The Daily Show and Colbert Report... and although Stephen Colbert may disagree, it's just not worth the $37.00 a month to keep that love affair going.
Savings: $71.00 a month!

#2) Calling to return or replace defective products
-I recently purchased a dog collar to train my dog NOT to jump the fence. It was pretty expensive, about $130.00. It worked great, until the last time I had to replace the batteries and the battery housing broke. I called the mfg. support line thinking I would have to purchase a new housing if I ever got the batteries out of the main unit... and surprise surprise, they offered to send me a new unit, in exchange for the one that I have. They are sending me the unit FREE and I am returning the broken one. That's a HUGE savings! HUGE... because like I said, the collar was about $130.00... and I didn't see any parts available online.
Savings: $130.00 replacement cost

-I also purchased a iRobot last year... this is an old savings occurance, but along the same lines. A couple of weeks after I purchased my little vacuuming robot, one of the sweeper brooms broke, I called and they sent me 4 new sweeper brooms... which as it turns out is a consumable. That means, that they expect me to have to replace them occassionally, I guess they didn't expect me to have to replace them so soon. I checked online, and the sweeper replacement pack they sent is worth about $30.00
Savings: $30.00

#3)Miscellaneous Savings
-Some of you may know, most not... that I'm a software trainer. I have been working on getting into the Office 2007 tests to recertify my instructor status. I was set to take the tests a few weeks ago, but the exam location called to tell me that their testing computer is down. I haven't taken it. I went online to research what I needed to take to recertify... and the short story is... I was provided with 5 exam vouchers! The exams are about $100.00 each. That's $500.00 in savings... unless the testing center has an independant fee... I will now be able to take the tests for free!
Savings $500.00

I just can't seem to do.....Coupons
This is a much more traditional way of saving money then... asking. But I can never remember to bring coupons when I go somewhere and I usually don't find coupons for items that I am interested in purchasing.

So, I decided to take a look at my monthly bills to see if I could lighten the load.

The savings I realized from the exam vouchers is unusual, however, the savings for the dog training collar and the vacuum only took about 15 minutes each.

How many times have you purchased something... anything and it either broke quickly or suddenly... Coffee pots, that stop working. Chairs that don't last more than a month. Anything that is no longer useful and will have to be replaced... is worth calling about.

I once bought a kitchen set at ... Crazy Al's (or something like that) a small chain of discount furniture stores in Central Jersey. The furniture came with a 1 year warranty.. I suppose they weren't expecting my big fat pregnant 275lb body to be constantly plopping down on those chairs because one by one they went ... kaput. yes, they were cheap... but you bet your bottom dollar (no pun intended) that I called up and they had to send someone out to fix them!

I did learn my lesson about cheap furniture.. it's not worth it. Because after the warranty period, and even after I lost 100lbs... the chairs still continued to break. I would have actually saved money if I had purchased a better set. In the long run, I ended up purchasing a new kitchen set at a garage sale, which I then had to lug home. The combined purchases were probably the cost of a well built reputable brand new set.

Live and Learn

I'm writing this entry for those of you that think... well, I'll just go buy a new coffee pot, or vacuum or dust buster. Don't do it, without first calling the company. Many of our small household appliances come with life time gauranty's. Take advantage of it. Make the phone call, you will be pleasantly surprised that the mfg. will probably either offer to replace or repair your item.

I hope this helps!