garyt1957 Spectrum (Time Warner) became the same way, so every year. I just call and tell them Frontier is offering a much better deal at this time, if they can't get their pricing in line, I'll leave, I got told they couldnt do anything either, so i canceled the service, effective at the end of the billing cylce... Before that came, I got called to stay with them... its all a game of WHO CARES LESS. This is why monopolies are supposed to be illegal, with no recourse, the consumer gets gouged..
Funny story, my brother had direct TV, was getting hosed. I told him to dump them for Sling TV ( also a direct tv product btw), so he finally got around to seeing what Sling was all about, did the trial, liked it and made the call. Direct TV comes back and offers him a deal better than Sling (in consideration of channels per dollar), so he wound up leveraging their own service against them to lower his bill over $100 a month.
Remember, in business, gaining a new customer is about 3x more costly than to retain one. They will fight for the business, but you cant just give in to their initial shit offer. Tell them you can live without it and show you have what you consider a viable alternative, you will get your way 95% of the time.
I haven't paid more than the introductory rate for satelite radio in the 5 years I have had it.. I refuse to let them put auto renewal on, so when they want my business, a bill gets sent for the year, and then about 5 more get sent before the calls start to warn me I'll lose it... I proceed to tell them, I will not pay their price, they back it down to a better deal, still say no, they go to a great price, but for 5 months, still no.. I tell them it was worth it to me for the $99 a year, not more.. they agree, then try to add the $30 "activation charge", nope, forget it then.. ok we can waive it. Then they go for the auto renewal again, nope, talk to you next year.
Its a shame that's what has to be done, but the way these companies set up to rob you blind is great for them and only them, I am odd in that I will fight it. I will try to drive a baragin on anything, especially non-essentials. The only time you lose is when you suffer from FOMO (fear of missing out). There is no such thing as a once in a lifetime deal a d very few things out there that truly make my life noticeably better per say, so why pay for crap that we dont have to.
If you managed to make it this far, I'll tell you why I do this. I am a firm believer in the "compound effect". Darren Hardy wrote a great book on it as it applies to everything in life, but just on money alone its massively powerful. So here's my point, if you spend an extra $1000 a year on stuff you could have had for less, you are out $1000. Now lets consider what would happen if instead, you stuck that in an investment portfolio returning 8% ( below the historical return on the stock market), After year one it seems insignificant, but if we do this year in and year out for our working lives or maybe I should say, bill paying lives, call it 40 years conservatively.. and I'm going to admit my laziness in this and tell you im calculating on putting in 1k every year in one payment, not factoring the effects of adding it in monthly where interest can grow on more throughout the year, you would have $280k+ at the end of 40 years. So making the phone calls and playing this game every time they screw you is really quite important. For most people $280k represents 7 years of retirement funding.. which you get by making not a single dollar more in your working life, its yours for just not getting screwed.