Paying Too Much For Broadband

Coopdivi

It's got sweet fa to do with capitalism and communism.

Years ago companies rewarded you if you stayed loyal to them. It might only have been a few pennies but the customer was made to feel wanted and the company didn't have to worry so much about 'churn'.

And try this for an analogy. You go into your local pub every week for a year and buy a pint of your favourite tipple. The landlord charges you £3 for the privilege. After a year New Customer walks through the door and the landlord says 'oooh you're new! you can have your pint for a £1 and you get a free bag of nuts once a month' You no doubt would just shrug your shoulders and say that's capitalism, drink at home for a month, grow a beard then go back to the pub hoping the landlord doesn't recognise you and laugh at all the loyal mugs paying £3 a pint.

kwikbreaks

IMO it pays to shop around and be prepared to move to a different supplier on most things. Apart from lower prices for new customers there is often cashback available from the likes of Quidco or TopCashBack and others.

This is especially true for things like insurances, power suppliers, and ISPs although with all you do need to do a bit of research to find out what CS is like and in the case of broadband especially what the product itself is like as there are huge differences that are not necessarily obvious.

It's new customers that get the goodies not the mugs who just stay put.

esuhl

Coopdivi wrote: »

It's got sweet fa to do with capitalism and communism.

Capitalism: "It's a free market. You may own the tools of production and set your own prices."

Communism: "It's not a free market. The state controls the tools of production, can set prices, and authorise or restrict trade."

The fact that capitalism doesn't require loyal customers to be rewarded is neither here nor there. Retailers may wish to reward loyalty to maximise profits from returning customers, but are under no moral or legal obligation to do so. (You aren't suggesting they do it just because it's a nice thing to do, are you?).

Coopdivi wrote: »

You no doubt would just shrug your shoulders and say that's capitalism, drink at home for a month, grow a beard then go back to the pub hoping the landlord doesn't recognise you and laugh at all the loyal mugs paying £3 a pint.

No - I would reject the offer and suggest that I pay £0.50/pint instead. It's called negotiation. If we could not agree on a pice that I was happy with, then I would leave and drink elsewhere or avoid drinking altogether. Are you saying that you would just admit that you're a mug, pay the £3 and be cross that your loyalty isn't rewarded?

Have you ever bought a mobile phone in this country? Perhaps you noticed all the discounts (free phone, free line rental, free airtime, etc.) when you signed up as a new customer (as alluded to by kwikbreaks). The networks do this because your custom is valuable. They hope you will stay with them after the minimum contractual period and pay them the same amount of money without getting the "freebies".

What about bank accounts? Ever been offered £50 or £100 to open a new bank account? Surely you realised that you aren't going to be paid that amount on a regular basis? Once again, "loyal" customers are effectively subsidising new ones.

If a company rewards loyalty (when exactly was this golden age of loyalty discounts that you speak of?) it's because the cost of the discount/reward is perceived to be less than the cost of the risk that the customer would take their custom elsewhere.

If a company offers discounts to new customers, it's because they hope that you will look at the initial costs of the deal, and be too lazy/daft/disorganised to move when the cost increases.

Businesses are not benevolent organisations with a motivation to ensure that they deliver the same good value to all their customers!!!

This is simple economics, surely?