@DissapointedVM wrote:
I guess you guys are right, I was hoping in the VM forums you'd be more encouraging to make me stay rather then pushing everyone away to the competition?
We're not trying to push you away, but we are trying to help you - we don't get paid to do this, we don't get incentives, we don't hold shares in VM, and we're open minded about whether your best outcome is sticking with VM. The forum staff are around to help, and they are paid, but this is a help forum, and they don't have authority or systems access to offer or agree discounts. What we (users) will do is try and help you through offering advice on getting connection problems or wifi issues resolved, and strategies for dealing with complaints, retentions, or negotiating discounts. Nobody here is falling over themselves to offer you a big discount and beg you to stay, that's because we can't, and that isn't the purpose of this forum.
Neither forum members nor staff can get VM to change a long established business model of attracting new customers through discounted acquisition pricing that doesn't fully reflect costs. That doesn't "discriminate against loyal customers", VM are simply looking to make the margins they need to justify their shareholder's investment in the business, plus operating costs. When VM offer an introductory discount they know that some customers will leave as soon as it ends, some will negotiate a discount, some will pay the asked for rate for months/years. VM's pricing team do calculations to work out what they need to have as introductory prices to grow or maintain overall customer numbers, and what they need the "standard pricing" to be to keep the business going, and feed in to the retentions team what levels of discount are commercially acceptable. That's normal in many sectors, we all benefit from that when we join, so there's no grounds from complaint there; In terms of negotiating a further discount when that initial offer ends, there's no getting away from the fact that you'll have to work for it, and you need some leverage, which isn't anything to do with "loyalty" or "fairness" (both of which are nonsense concepts in any commercial transaction), but only about you explaining to VM that unless they can make you an offer you're happy with, you will leave, and in the polite discussion that follows, agreeing some position that you and VM are happy with. Here's an example, which might not be applicable to your circumstances, but gives an idea of how I recommend approaching such discussions.
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