Me: Yes, I received your advertisement in the mail a few weeks ago to switch my phone over to your Digital Phone service and also upgrade my Internet speed to 15mbps for less than $20 and I’d like to take advantage of that offer.
Customer Service Drone: Ok. That package starts at $99, and the additional Internet upgrade will bring it to $108.
Me: Ok – as long as my bill only goes up by $20 because that’s what the promotion says.
Customer Service Drone: I’m sorry, but your current package is already at a promotional rate – your package is currently discounted to $68, but our digital phone package is $99 plus the additional upgrade to 15mbps Internet access is another $10.
Me: So it’s going to cost me another $40 / month to sign up for the services that your flier says only cost me less than $20 / month???
Customer Service Drone: The discount doesn’t apply to currently discounted packages.
Me: Your flier is misleading – it doesn’t say that. I don’t want to switch if you’re not going to honor the rate that you offered because otherwise I’m still getting a cheaper rate with my existing VoIP provider.
Customer Service Drone: Great! Is there anything else that I can help you with today?
*click*
Later I did notice that on the bottom of the flier in tiny print, it does have their legal disclaimer stating that the discount is inclusive and cannot be combined, but if that’s the case, then why bother sending me the damn flier in the first place?! Your marketing distribution list is smart enough to lambaste me with promotions because it sees that I’m not already a Digital Phone subscriber, but it can’t send me an accurate estimate of what the cost truly is? I was really excited about finally switching everything over to Brighthouse, not to mention the faster Internet speeds, but when I hung up the phone I instantly had to wonder what Verizon has to offer.
Yep, us consumers can switch just like that. Don’t lie to us with your advertising and you won’t have to worry about it…