Spill the beans ... What's your biggest money blag? 1 September 2011 at 3:46PM edited 6 September 2011 at 7:47PM in How much have you saved? 43 replies 24.9K views

Former_MSE_Lee

Spill the beans... What's your biggest money blag? [IMGRIGHT]http://images.moneysavingexpert.com/images/spillthebeans2.gif[/IMGRIGHT]

What's the biggest MoneySaving gain you've made, on the back of sheer charm, chutzpah, dogged persistence or teensy tweaking of the truth? Don't be shy, MoneySavers ... Spill 'em!

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barbjcraig

Tesco sent my buildings and content renewal and it had gone up by £80, I have never claimed, so I rang them and said I thought my premium had gone up by too much, and they dropped it by £50, result

canderel1

As a student I took out my FREE overdraft - and invested it back in a 3 year bond @ 7% - at the home branch of the same bank... those were the days... ;-D

jamsandwich11

Over the years I have challenged a number of companies who have tried to charge me needlesly (which I imagine the majority would simply pay). I have found that they can sometimes be purposefully vague so I have used this against them to clear unnecessary charges.

At the end of the day I have nothing left to lose and I am not aggressive in my approach. If something sits uneasy with you reflect on what you have been told or read, do your research and nag (or threaten to move your custom elsewhere - and be prepared to do it). I've recently left a large service provider after nearly 10 years and a couple of the above occassions saving me over £300. At the end of the day I felt relieved. Loyalty is often not the best policy.

Emma2512

I blagged a free pair of deisel jeans from USC for turning up in thier store in my undies! They would have cost me £120.00. Well worth it! :j

mandi

At least £200 from banks/BS as a result of complaints about their service.

Likewise gift vouchers from the large supermarkets .

12 months tax a full tank of petrol & free car mats when purchasing a car .

Cheap home insurance from a well know bank because of an error they made.

An only last week half price line rental from TT .

To name a few

hilstep2000

I haven't paid Sky full price for six years! Every time my deal is due to run out, I ring them and say I want to cancel, and they give me another deal.

scenicavalon

Digital Satellite HD TV with hefty 500gb recording space. Just hook up to your existing Satellite dish cables. Last Sunday was £269.99 from Best Buy. (Now £249.99). At Richer Sounds it is £169.95. With Best Buys promise to match and beat any price I got it for £161.95. Added to that Samsung UK have promised another £30 if you buy this model by sending details via a form you down load from their site.Takes my price down to £131.95. Have filled in the form and sent it off with copy of receipt. Bye Bye Sky!!!

Laura13214

A few years ago I bought an American fridge/freezer (you know, one with water/ice dispensers in the freezer door). Long story short, delivery was due on Friday, Thursday I emptied my fridge and Friday morning I put the few remaining frozen items in a cool bag hoping they'd last. I'd arranged at work that I could leave, accept delivery and return once I received a phone call to say they were half an hour away. By 3pm I was getting worried I hadn't heard anything so phoned them. Apparently my order had been cancelled by me. I stated categorically I hadn't cancelled and I wanted my goods. They refused. I left work and went to the store and stood at the till very calmly stating I wasn't leaving until I had the fridge freezer I had ordered and paid for in advance, including delivery charge and collection charge for the old appliances. A few customers heard the exchanges I was having with the store manager (he refused point-blank to do anything about it apart from reschedule for 3 weeks later, even though it turned out it was the store's fault the order was cancelled). These customers then put down the goods they were buying and walked out stating that they wouldn't buy from a company who were so incompetent. The manager didn't have the foresight to take me somewhere quiet to discuss this and kept me standing at the till. Eventually he phoned the warehouse and I spoke to them, deliver was re-arranged to the Tuesday and the manager refunded my deliver/collection charges. I was still hopping mad and wrote the the company stating that because of their ineptitude I was having to shop daily for fresh produce as I had no method of keeping them fresh, and all the frozen food had gone to waste. They replied that as a 'gesture of goodwill' they would send me a payment of £50 to cover charges, travel, inconvenience, etc. I wrote back and said it was unacceptable (I didn't say I'd already had the charges refunded, it slipped my mind!). Further letters went back and forth an eventually I received a number of different chaques totalling £600 - result! The fridge/freezer only cost me £790 originally so in the end it cost £190 and some inconvenience! :rotfl:

eribar

scenicavalon wrote: »

Digital Satellite HD TV with hefty 500gb recording space. Just hook up to your existing Satellite dish cables. Last Sunday was £269.99 from Best Buy. (Now £249.99). At Richer Sounds it is £169.95. With Best Buys promise to match and beat any price I got it for £161.95. Added to that Samsung UK have promised another £30 if you buy this model by sending details via a form you down load from their site.Takes my price down to £111.95. Have filled in the form and sent it off with copy of receipt. Bye Bye Sky!!!

Not sure how £161.95 less £30 comes to £111.95?

Clive_Woody

A free Panasonic Blu-ray player from Richer sounds. I bought a TV from them, but a week later they were offering a free Bluray player with that TV. I phoned and asked if they would back date the deal and they said yes.


A free case of wine from Tesco. They failed to deliver due to the snow in January. I was told I could collect it from my local store and they would refund delivery. I collected the wine and they refunded the order in full. I did phone and point this out but the lady insisted that I had not recieved the wine despite my protests that I had. I gave up after that.


A free £50 M&S voucher from SKY. I had SKY come around to install a dish, unfortunately they couldn't get a signal due to large trees blocking the signal so the subscription was cancelled. A few weeks later they sent the M&S voucher which was an introductory offer. Again I phoned and said I wasn't entitled to this, but this time the helpline person insisted I was a SKY customer and the offer was valid. I tried phoning a second time but got the same message again.


When my mobile contract was due for renewal I phoned up Virgin and got a nice new HTC desire (200 mins, unlimited text and internet) for £15/month compared to their website price of £35/month. Just before I ended the call I asked if they would give my wife the same deal if she signed up with them. They said yes. Great result.


I was recently offered a new job, the salary and package they offered was already very generous but I asked if they could improve on it. They offered a sign on bonus of £5k and an additional £2k/annum on my basic salary.


I have been with Talk Talk for years. In the early days I complained a lot due to bad service and they dropped my monthly price. This hasn't changed now for over 4 years. I have all inclusive calls (daytime, evening, weekend and many international numbers), line rental and broadband with unlimited download for less than £20/month.