I received my renewal notice from Phonewatch today, the first since they're no longer owned by Eircom.
The cover letter extoled the virtues of their new service: lifetime warranty, unlimited service calls etc. etc. No mention of cost.
The attached agreement had the cost: only (!) €371.05 per year, some 20% more than I paid last year.
I e-mailed them to say I wasn't going to pay this, and then got a phone call from them. Apparently they no longer have multiple levels of service, so there was no option to move to a monitor only service. When pressed, they offered me 10% discount, as a "good will gesture for this year only". I declined this, and said I was unwilling to pay more than last year. Anyway they put me on hold, and then came back with a 20% discount for the full service, bringing it to fractionally less than I paid last year.
In other words, one phone call saved more than €70. I know I could have probably saved more by going elsewhere, but the saving vs. effort equation worked for me, so I went ahead and paid.
I'd suggest others try the same tactic.
The cover letter extoled the virtues of their new service: lifetime warranty, unlimited service calls etc. etc. No mention of cost.
The attached agreement had the cost: only (!) €371.05 per year, some 20% more than I paid last year.
I e-mailed them to say I wasn't going to pay this, and then got a phone call from them. Apparently they no longer have multiple levels of service, so there was no option to move to a monitor only service. When pressed, they offered me 10% discount, as a "good will gesture for this year only". I declined this, and said I was unwilling to pay more than last year. Anyway they put me on hold, and then came back with a 20% discount for the full service, bringing it to fractionally less than I paid last year.
In other words, one phone call saved more than €70. I know I could have probably saved more by going elsewhere, but the saving vs. effort equation worked for me, so I went ahead and paid.
I'd suggest others try the same tactic.
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