OT: Hurricanes Lounge XLV: Y2K Twenty-Four Years Later

[HisIceness]

So this mayor ripped off her town and her whereabouts are unknown.

 

[Ben Grimm]

Superman could beat up Mighty Mouse, because Supes is real and MM is just a cartoon character.

 

[Lempo]

China admits they accidentally the whole Balticconnector gas pipe.

 

[To Be Determined]

So this mayor ripped off her town and her whereabouts are unknown.

Without clicking, i really hope a monorail was involved. Or at the very least, her resumé lists experience in brockway, ogdenville, and north haverbrook. (By gum, it put them on the map!)

 

[Lempo]

Without clicking, i really hope a monorail was involved. Or at the very least, her resumé lists experience in brockway, ogdenville, and north haverbrook. (By gum, it put them on the map!)

I clicked and read more and apparently she's like half mayor Quimpy half Fat Tony.

 

[Blueline Bomber]

Automatic renewals for subscription services are such scams.

I have Sirius radio. I enjoy the channels they have, so I don’t mind paying a little per month to have it. If you don’t know, Sirius offers a deal that gives you a low price for the first 12 months, and then automatically renews after those 12 months at a much higher price.

When I first got it, it was $4.99/month for the first 12, then jumped to 24.99/month afterwards. Obviously, I cancelled before that price increase. A month or two later, I got a piece of mail asking me to return and offering another $4.99/month deal. And I’ve been doing this for years now, to the point where I just don’t cancel and just straight up ask customer service to renew at the lower price.

Now, my most recent subscription is ending, which was $5.99/month and was set to renew at $28.99/month. I contact customer service and they say, we can offer you the same deal at $7.99/month, they can’t go lower. I ask them if I cancel service, will I get the $4.99/5.99 per month deal offered to me again? They then offer me $6.99/month

How in the world is it legal to offer the same service and charge 4x the price if your customer isn’t paying attention to their subscription ending? And even when your customer knows about the lower deal, you still try and squeeze an extra dollar or two per month hoping they won’t notice.

Next time my subscription ends, I’m going to cancel and simply “reset” the price back to the $4/5.

 

[WreckingCrew]

Automatic renewals for subscription services are such scams.

I have Sirius radio. I enjoy the channels they have, so I don’t mind paying a little per month to have it. If you don’t know, Sirius offers a deal that gives you a low price for the first 12 months, and then automatically renews after those 12 months at a much higher price.

When I first got it, it was $4.99/month for the first 12, then jumped to 24.99/month afterwards. Obviously, I cancelled before that price increase. A month or two later, I got a piece of mail asking me to return and offering another $4.99/month deal. And I’ve been doing this for years now, to the point where I just don’t cancel and just straight up ask customer service to renew at the lower price.

Now, my most recent subscription is ending, which was $5.99/month and was set to renew at $28.99/month. I contact customer service and they say, we can offer you the same deal at $7.99/month, they can’t go lower. I ask them if I cancel service, will I get the $4.99/5.99 per month deal offered to me again? They then offer me $6.99/month

How in the world is it legal to offer the same service and charge 4x the price if your customer isn’t paying attention to their subscription ending? And even when your customer knows about the lower deal, you still try and squeeze an extra dollar or two per month hoping they won’t notice.

Next time my subscription ends, I’m going to cancel and simply “reset” the price back to the $4/5.

Spectrum says "HI!!!" Yea, it's price gouging / scam, but somehow legal because it's in the fine print on page 250 of 800

 

[Derailed75]

Automatic renewals for subscription services are such scams.

I have Sirius radio. I enjoy the channels they have, so I don’t mind paying a little per month to have it. If you don’t know, Sirius offers a deal that gives you a low price for the first 12 months, and then automatically renews after those 12 months at a much higher price.

When I first got it, it was $4.99/month for the first 12, then jumped to 24.99/month afterwards. Obviously, I cancelled before that price increase. A month or two later, I got a piece of mail asking me to return and offering another $4.99/month deal. And I’ve been doing this for years now, to the point where I just don’t cancel and just straight up ask customer service to renew at the lower price.

Now, my most recent subscription is ending, which was $5.99/month and was set to renew at $28.99/month. I contact customer service and they say, we can offer you the same deal at $7.99/month, they can’t go lower. I ask them if I cancel service, will I get the $4.99/5.99 per month deal offered to me again? They then offer me $6.99/month

How in the world is it legal to offer the same service and charge 4x the price if your customer isn’t paying attention to their subscription ending? And even when your customer knows about the lower deal, you still try and squeeze an extra dollar or two per month hoping they won’t notice.

Next time my subscription ends, I’m going to cancel and simply “reset” the price back to the $4/5.

I have to run through the same gambit with Comcast in VA every two years. Price triples, I call and say Im not paying this much for your product. The say well we can get you the same service (sometimes more) for about the same money for a 2 year agreement. I agree and we move on. Im not sure why they just don't give me that damn price to begin with I really have much better things to do with 30 minutes than talk to someone with an accent so heavy Im not really sure what we agree on and I have to spend 5 more minutes ready the email agreement to make sure I understood everything.

I guess there are load of people out there that just continue to pay the inflated price so they keep running the scam on everyone hoping to land a big fish or two out of every 10 customers

 

[Blueline Bomber]

I have to run through the same gambit with Comcast in VA every two years. Price triples, I call and say Im not paying this much for your product. The say well we can get you the same service (sometimes more) for about the same money for a 2 year agreement. I agree and we move on. Im not sure why they just don't give me that damn price to begin with I really have much better things to do with 30 minutes than talk to someone with an accent so heavy Im not really sure what we agree on and I have to spend 5 more minutes ready the email agreement to make sure I understood everything.

I guess there are load of people out there that just continue to pay the inflated price so they keep running the scam on everyone hoping to land a big fish or two out of every 10 customers

Yeah, there are definitely people out there that just aren’t paying attention and paying the increased price.

 

[hockeynjune]

Direct tv was the same way. My wife now just calls Sirius to cancel come renewal time, tells them to give us the original price or we quit.

 

[Negan4Coach]

Automatic renewals for subscription services are such scams.

I have Sirius radio. I enjoy the channels they have, so I don’t mind paying a little per month to have it. If you don’t know, Sirius offers a deal that gives you a low price for the first 12 months, and then automatically renews after those 12 months at a much higher price.

When I first got it, it was $4.99/month for the first 12, then jumped to 24.99/month afterwards. Obviously, I cancelled before that price increase. A month or two later, I got a piece of mail asking me to return and offering another $4.99/month deal. And I’ve been doing this for years now, to the point where I just don’t cancel and just straight up ask customer service to renew at the lower price.

Now, my most recent subscription is ending, which was $5.99/month and was set to renew at $28.99/month. I contact customer service and they say, we can offer you the same deal at $7.99/month, they can’t go lower. I ask them if I cancel service, will I get the $4.99/5.99 per month deal offered to me again? They then offer me $6.99/month

How in the world is it legal to offer the same service and charge 4x the price if your customer isn’t paying attention to their subscription ending? And even when your customer knows about the lower deal, you still try and squeeze an extra dollar or two per month hoping they won’t notice.

Next time my subscription ends, I’m going to cancel and simply “reset” the price back to the $4/5.

I hate Sirius/XM, and I've had it since it was just Sirius back in 2006. Got it so I could listen to Howard Stern. Which you eventually had to pay extra for.

The pricing schemes are outrageous. And now that Howard Stern has lost his mind and is no longer funny, there is no reason for this to continue (although I do like that they play his older stuff constantly)

And quite frankly, the music sucks too. Alt Nation and Lithium have a very limited and repeated playlist, and it has hardly changed in the past decade and a half. I pay by the year so as soon as this one is up I'm done.

 

[WreckingCrew]

I hate Sirius/XM, and I've had it since it was just Sirius back in 2006. Got it so I could listen to Howard Stern. Which you eventually had to pay extra for.

The pricing schemes are outrageous. And now that Howard Stern has lost his mind and is no longer funny, there is no reason for this to continue (although I do like that they play his older stuff constantly)

And quite frankly, the music sucks too. Alt Nation and Lithium have a very limited and repeated playlist, and it has hardly changed in the past decade and a half. I pay by the year so as soon as this one is up I'm done.

The ORIGINAL XM Boneyard was awesome, I actually discovered NEW bands with it. Now they play the same 30-40 Van Halen, Sammy Hagar, GnR, Led Zep, and Rush songs. They don't even play the new songs that the old bands come out with really

 

[LostInaLostWorld]

Automatic renewals for subscription services are such scams.

I have Sirius radio. I enjoy the channels they have, so I don’t mind paying a little per month to have it. If you don’t know, Sirius offers a deal that gives you a low price for the first 12 months, and then automatically renews after those 12 months at a much higher price.

When I first got it, it was $4.99/month for the first 12, then jumped to 24.99/month afterwards. Obviously, I cancelled before that price increase. A month or two later, I got a piece of mail asking me to return and offering another $4.99/month deal. And I’ve been doing this for years now, to the point where I just don’t cancel and just straight up ask customer service to renew at the lower price.

Now, my most recent subscription is ending, which was $5.99/month and was set to renew at $28.99/month. I contact customer service and they say, we can offer you the same deal at $7.99/month, they can’t go lower. I ask them if I cancel service, will I get the $4.99/5.99 per month deal offered to me again? They then offer me $6.99/month

How in the world is it legal to offer the same service and charge 4x the price if your customer isn’t paying attention to their subscription ending? And even when your customer knows about the lower deal, you still try and squeeze an extra dollar or two per month hoping they won’t notice.

Next time my subscription ends, I’m going to cancel and simply “reset” the price back to the $4/5.

I do the same.

 

[DaveG]

I hate Sirius/XM, and I've had it since it was just Sirius back in 2006. Got it so I could listen to Howard Stern. Which you eventually had to pay extra for.

The pricing schemes are outrageous. And now that Howard Stern has lost his mind and is no longer funny, there is no reason for this to continue (although I do like that they play his older stuff constantly)

And quite frankly, the music sucks too. Alt Nation and Lithium have a very limited and repeated playlist, and it has hardly changed in the past decade and a half. I pay by the year so as soon as this one is up I'm done.

the 80s and New Wave stations are pretty good, if you're into either genre at all, but yeah no disagreement. About the only thing I really care for with it is the sports package to get all kinds of out of market NHL and College FB stuff when I'm driving around, and I can always just pull that up on my phone instead and take my chances on the buffering.

 

[Deon Thompson]

Some upheaval there recently, but Outlaw Country is still really good.

 

[hblueridgegal]

Alt2K is pretty good - channel 313. I like most of the options in the 300s and the Canadian channels. I find them to be better than the channels at the beginning. Besides music and sports..I love the oddball ones like Dr. Radio, too.

Given the lack of cell service that I can encounter at any moment in these parts, it's easier to pay the convenience tax for Sirius as I am in the car a lot.

 

[HisIceness]

I enjoy the "this week in 1997" segments that the decade channels and The Fly (hip-hop station) produce every weekend. Lots of songs in there I've never heard before, forgotten about, or didn't know it was from that year.

Mosaic is a good channel for car rides. Watercolors as a jazz fan is a listenable sitting at home channel. NHL and NFL are somewhat frequent listens. Classic rewind I enjoy listening to Wolfgang Van Halen segments.

 

[bleedgreen]

Every time I go to renew XM they won’t give me my old cheap price so I have to let it end. Eventually a few months later they call back and give me the old rate. So every year I don’t have it for a few months which sucks, but I already struggle with the notion of paying for radio.

 

[Blueline Bomber]

Every time I go to renew XM they won’t give me my old cheap price so I have to let it end. Eventually a few months later they call back and give me the old rate. So every year I don’t have it for a few months which sucks, but I already struggle with the notion of paying for radio.

Next time it happens, math it out for them.

"Hey, I've been through this song and dance already. You'll lose me for 2-3 months before you call back offering this deal, which means (at minimum) you're out $15-20 dollars a year. It also gives me the opportunity to possibly find other alternatives to Sirius, and you don't want that. So why don't you offer me the deal now that you're going to call me with in 2-3 months and save everyone the trouble?"

 

[Borsig]

Next time it happens, math it out for them.

"Hey, I've been through this song and dance already. You'll lose me for 2-3 months before you call back offering this deal, which means (at minimum) you're out $15-20 dollars a year. It also gives me the opportunity to possibly find other alternatives to Sirius, and you don't want that. So why don't you offer me the deal now that you're going to call me with in 2-3 months and save everyone the trouble?"

You act as if the rep on the other end of the line cares, and doesn't hate their job. Neither is true and when you have a decent sound system in your car, the service sucks vs spotify.

The only thing I miss about it is the nostalgia because back in the day they actually had good stuff and it was nice. Stuff you couldnt get before spotify.

 

[Blueline Bomber]

You act as if the rep on the other end of the line cares, and doesn't hate their job. Neither is true and when you have a decent sound system in your car, the service sucks vs spotify.

The only thing I miss about it is the nostalgia because back in the day they actually had good stuff and it was nice. Stuff you couldnt get before spotify.

The person on the other line wants the easiest path towards ending the conversation, which is almost always giving the customer what they want.

 

[Blueline Bomber]

There's zero chance this holds up, yeah?

 

[Derailed75]

There's zero chance this holds up, yeah?

I know Walt wasn't the greatest human being but he had a vision for the Mouse and the bean counters have completed twisted that. He would roll over in his grave at the things that company does now.

 

[Lempo]

There's zero chance this holds up, yeah?

I would think he contracted with a different legal entity than what he is suing now. As in, different company, it's not all just "DISNEY".

 

[DaveG]

The person on the other line wants the easiest path towards ending the conversation, which is almost always giving the customer what they want.

sometimes, though sometimes it's more like this