This is certainly a question I have to ask after today. I went through practically the whole day with a down phone line. Because of this fact I had no Internet service due to the fact that my DSL router must be connected to a phone line. Then there was the fact that no one could call any one in my home. I got to thinking should such down times be deducted from our over all service. After all, for practically a whole day with had no land line phone and yet we pay almost fifty dollars a month for this land line. Too bad that the phone company won't take this into consideration and actually deduct this from our phone bill.
Yes! It should. If you take the time to call your provider and make the complaint, asking that the downtime be deducted from the bill they will do it. Of course, the time it takes can be considerable, so you have to decide if it is worth the trouble or not. Personally, if you have the time I think you should make the complaint. When no one complains companies tend to get a little too set in their ways. And if enough people complained, maybe (slim maybe) they'd start deducting downtime automatically instead of making all concerned jump through hoops.
I certainly think it should be deducted from your bill. They ahve failed to provide a service and it is outrageous that they should expect you to pay for something you haven't received. Divide your bill by the number of days in the month to give the daily charge then write or email your provider and tell them (don't ask them, TELL them) that this deduction needs to be made.
Really???? Every time my electricity or internet goes out, I think about this, and I think about how wrong it is that you are just expected to pay full price when full service is not what you are receiving, at least for the month. There was one month where our internet went out three times? We phoned Virgin Media up and said we were not paying full price, and only then did they reduce it a bit. But if it were not for that, we would have had to pay full price -_-
You've always got to bring it up yourself. The companies won't freely offer a discount for any outage time but they know they can't ask you to pay for services you haven't received. I always send an email along these lines: Dear Virgin Media, I wish to point out an inaccuracy in my latest bill. I have been charged for a full month of services, however outage has meant that I received no services on (insert date here). My bill therefore needs to be revised to reflect this as I'm sure you will agree that you cannot charge me for a service I haven't received. I also wish to discuss the matter of recompense as the recent outages have caused me great inconvenience. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Seriously. This is me too. I get so annoyed and angry and then feel like we should be compensated, especially considering how expensive Internet and phone services are anyway (in America, at least). I wish we could do pre-paid Internet plans like we do pre-paid cell phones, and you only pay for what you use. But a day without Internet is frustrating, especially now that we've grown accustomed to using it whenever we need. What if your job depended on being connected? You'd have lost more than just that time.... Also - I'd skip the letter, and make a direct phone call complaint. Do it while you are waiting for your toenails to dry or something though, because it might be a lot of hold time.
We get a lot of load shedding/electricity rationing where I am, but it never gets deducted. I am willing to bet they would probably laugh in our face if we raised this with them. You'd have better luck in the US/UK and other first world countries. But I certainly agree, there should be some sort of consideration!
I agree with the above poster, in that writing an email probably will not be enough. You seem to have to make a direct phone call and actually speak to someone. They don't seem to feel the pressure or how pressing the matter is through an email alone. They need to hear a voice. They need to hear how dissatisfied you are, if that makes any sense. Claire, my only source of income - currently - depends on my having internet connection. I remember one time I had to walk to my sister's house and use her internet, just so that I did not lose out on money for the day. I was not impressed.
You would think that the phone and internet companies would take this notion into consideration, but many(when I say many, I really mean all) of them do not. That is what the sad part is. There is not a reason in the world why this should not be the case. They just want to squeeze every dollar they can out of you.
If there is one thing that is true about life, it is that if you don't speak up for yourself, nobody else is going to. If you don't ask, you don't get. And that is even if you are entitled to it. It really is not fair, but the reality is that if you don't confront these companies then you are still expected to pay for full service, despite not getting full service.
I completely agree with everything that you have just said, and I have certainly learned this valuable lesson the hard way. I feel like more people should be aware of how crappy this situation is in general and should stand up to the companies and make this a bigger deal than it currently is. The greedy hoarders that are the phone companies don't deserve all of that excess money that they are receiving from this.
Yes. Snap!! I have also learned that lesson the hard way, but at least we have learned it now lol. A lot of people feel like they have no voice in these situations, because as far as they are concerned, they have to pay for the service and that is it. Then there are the people who live busy lives, and just cannot be bothered to challenge these companies, and so they get away with charging full price for less than stellar performance. It sucks. But I agree that unless more people make a point to confront companies about this issue, things will remain the same.
Yes definitely! You're paying for a service and if the service isn't working you shouldn't have to pay for it! It's like anything really for example PlayStation Plus seems to go down quite a lot and I'm paying for that service! Really bugs me sometimes, the companies must be laughing.
I often times do feel like I do not have a voice. I got a little bit excited in that earlier post, sorry about that haha. This whole situation definitely sucks majorly. I would love to yell at these phone companies, but one voice is really not going to do anything. Also, I do not really know where to start whenever it comes to making my complaints known. An A&R department is not going to care, so I do not know where to go with these complaints.
Oh yes it should be deducted! You will have to call in the company and complaint, and ask for a discount! I did it once when we still have home phone, and did give me a discount on my next bill.
I think if you can not use the service the bill should be adjusted to reflect that the service was not being used. The companies do not agree with me, I will ask for an adjustment on the bill but most of the time I do not get it.
No apologies necessary, hun. I enjoyed the enthusiasm of that previous post hahaha It is this very kind of passion that urges us towards change lol. I know what you mean. I mean, just complaining for the sake of your own wallet and winning the dispute is great. But you will have to keep doing that, unless more people express that they are unhappy, which sucks. But it's what has to be done.
I would highly advise all of you to contact any provider that has not fulfilled its obligation. If a service is disconnected, immediately call. If you are unable to call immediately, call later and explain to them that there was no service for a specific amount of time. Wireless service providers have a program that can be used to determine if service was really unavailable for a certain amount of time. Representatives actually have a limit per call when it comes to discretionary discounts. As long as it is painfully obvious that there was no service and that you don't get discretionary discounts regularly, you'd be surprised as to how easy it is to get deductions in these instances.
Well, I am glad that you enjoyed the enthusiasm and understand what exactly it is that I mean haha. I am not necessarily a stingy person, but I definitely am not one to just idly sit by while my hard earned dollars are being flung out of the window repeatedly, month after month. Still, one person can not fuel an entire movement, so I cannot really be the only person who does something. There has to be more people who think the exact same way that I do.
I don't know whether I am a stingy person or not. It's more that I do not have money to waste, and if I have got money then I am generous with it, with the people that I care about. But, much the same as you, I don't want my money being flung out the window when I am not getting what I am paying for, and nobody should have to endure such treatment.
