When it pays to complaint

[Rogar]

My trash service provider has been gradually increasing it's charges. The first several months ago was about 15%, then last month it was another 15%. I know that landfills are getting more expensive, but I emailed them and politely asked if there had been a mistake and hinted at the fact that there maybe a more competitive rate out there. I nice fellow called back and after a short discussion offered to return my rate to it's original before the increases. I suppose it was temping just to get a different provider, but they have always been good.

Anyone else had some success negotiating charges down like this?

[catherine]

Well, I'm a wimp when it comes to negotiations, but DH and my late MIL are/were MASTERS at it. It's a game to them. One of my favorite stories about my MIL was when we took a family vacation to Virginia. Our first night we got to the hotel around dinner time and my MIL happily noted that the hot tub was open until 9:00pm. So around 8:30 she got her suit on and trotted out there for a dip. I guess they weren't anticipating anyone using it because they sent the staff home and closed the pool area.

Well, she "complained" (loudly) and she wound up getting our entire night at that hotel free--because she was denied 30 minutes of hot tub use!

I have other stories.. many of them.

[freshstart]

for some weird reason I've gotten a reputation at being good at new car negotiating, some of my uncles, my dad take me with them, my cousin's husband tried to say I was his wife which was not well thought out as her name was going to be on the loan. It's fun and I just do exactly what Consumer Reports and similar tell you to do. It's not magic.

I usually try once a year to get things like the cell phone and cable/internet negotiated down. I just switched cells to Cricket. the easiest is the newspaper for my father who has not gotten used to internet news

I admit to doing the pool thing at a chain hotel that had a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. It was me, DBF and 4 young kids sick of driving in the car and were psyched for that swim. It was closed two hours earlier than the website and the sign said and I was much less than 100% satisfied. I was very nice about it but DBF didn't want me to say anything. We got a free night and they were very nice about it, as well.

[kally]

we have a hotel in town that used to be a rather nice resorty style hotel. At the front desk is a sign that says more or less "sometimes the pool isn't open. We reserve the right to shut it at any time. Any complaining to the front desk attendant will be seen as harrassment."

That sign would be enough for me to never, never, never stay there.

[Lainey]

Interesting letter was sent to all homeowners in my county from the county treasurer. It accompanied the property tax assessment. I was surprised that it was written in plain English and also how frank it was.

It outlined the property tax assessment process, what the taxes are used for (hospital, fire, library, etc.) and also how the actions of the state legislature have changed assessments on commercial properties vs. residential properties. "...these reductions in taxable value were enacted by the legislature at the urging of lobbyists hired by owners of large commercial properties." and "When the legislature reduces the taxable value of one class of property by lowering the assessment ratio it shifts the tax burden to other classes, mostly residential."
It goes on to say "..keep in mind that taxable value reductions for special interest properties are granted by the legislators and ... the county treasurer or county assessor are not involved in taxable value adjustments or determining the amount of taxes levied. Again, voicing your opinion to anyone other than your legislators will change nothing."

My point: this is a county treasurer who is proactively protecting his staff from the inevitable deluge of complaints from taxpayers. I'm sure it won't prevent all of the verbal and written attacks his staff will have to endure, but he sure laid out the facts and the remedy pretty clearly.

[bae]

Last time I was down in Seattle, I stayed at a hotel next to the Seatac airport so I could get my daughter off to a morning flight the next day. As I stepped out of my car, which was parked in the "park here for check-in" area which was around the corner from the main entrance in a dark part of the parking lot, some drug addicts jumped out and tried to rob me and perhaps swipe the car with my daughter in it. After I repelled their attentions, I complained as I was checking in that I'd almost had to kill some folks in their parking lot because of how they had it set up, and their lack of security. (This would count in the statistics as a defensive gun use, no shots fired...)

They comped me several free stays for that. I was also impressed that the Seatac police were there on-scene in about 3 minutes. I'll be back, but I'll be damned if I park in that silly spot again, I'm pulling up right in front and they can lump it.

[Float On]

I was really surprised recently when I called to cancel my Centurylink phone/internet service. I've been with them since 1990. I fully expected them to put me through to someone who would try to talk me into keeping my service. Nope,not a peep. And then I wondered....maybe they are having a party and celebrating that I finally left after calling and reducing my bill every 6 mts to a year for the past 26 years. Someone, somewhere is saying "we finally got rid of that free-loader". 26 years equals out to probably $18,000.00

Back to OP and the trash. I got so sick of our trash service being bought out and prices increased that we just gave up all together. It costs us $5 every 6 weeks to make a run to the transfer station. That's $40 a year (plus gas/time 24 mile round trip) compared to $224 a year when we gave it up ($56 quarterly).

[rodeosweetheart]

I'm not good at negotiating. I once got the hospital to reduce a bill by about 500 dollars because they had placed me in a bed that had a pool of someone else's urine in the sheets--this after I had almost been intubated and sent to ICU, so I was too sick to notice about the urine filled bed--but 500 dollars still does not seem enough for what they did.

So no, not good at all for being reimbursed for anything.