Sorry about that – definitely needed clarification.

I agree, withholding rent can land you in a lot of trouble and they can trash your credit even if you’re completely in the right.

If you had overpaid your bill, and the company noticed but said “Oh well, that’s her problem” I’m sure you’d be upset, right?

Case is in point is television service. Direct TV, Dish Network, and the local cable company all offer introductory rates, long term contracts with the ability to raise rates without notice, discounts for anyone brave enough to ask/threaten, etc… All of this obfuscates the actual real price of a month of television service. This causes all but the most dilligent consumers(and we here at GRS *are* the most dilligent consumers) to be unable or unwilling to get a true comparison.

So as a whole we lose, even if a small handful of people win at the rest’s expense.

PS: Until things change, you should still negotiate without feeling bad. No sense in becoming part of the illiterate majority.

A couple of years ago we had issues with the building’s central A/C unit. Like, every time there was a heatwave, the unit crapped out. After two repetitions of this, there was some rage.

The third time it happened, several of the tenants went to hotels when the internal temps topped 85 degrees … and reduced their rents by the amount they had to pay for their hotel rooms. They posted a notice in the elevator stating what they were doing, which is how I know. I don’t know if it was actually *legal* but the landlord clearly didn’t want to fight with a bunch of lawyers, doctors, and bankers about a few thousand dollars.

And not long after that, the central unit was replaced.

I would have left in the first term and tried to find somewhere else, but the company locks you in with a contract. You can’t leave until the end of the year without finding someone else to take your place in your room. It’s a horrible system designed to take advantage of students who don’t have time to shop around for somewhere to live before term starts. I’ve only got 1 term left, and I’m definitely NOT going to be living in halls next year.

The problem is my university doesn’t own the housing, all the halls they have for their students are managed by private companies. Private companies are money grabbing and don’t care about students. That’s not to say that student housing run by the university would be immaculate, but it would probably be subsidised.

As for the train problem, thanks for the advice, I’m going to try and contact them through the post.

Thanks for all the advice everyone

It just so happens my dad bought a pair of earrings a few months back and after explaining what a good customer he is, my dad got a 20% discount.

Bingo, I got my cable box free for a year at that point, took about 30min, but I didn't raise my voice, it was all very civilized

Hope that's helpful

NOt to be nitpicky, but this is not earning $300 per hour. It’s earning $25 in 5 minutes. Unless you can repeat this 12 times per hour, over and over, you’re not really earning $300 per hour.

Not to say doing these things isn’t worthwhile. You’ve certainly demonstrated that it is. But usually after getting a couple good pops of savings, it’s pretty much done. It’s not like you can keep doing these things all day every day to make/save money.

Maybe the deeper problem is that my customer service calls are always with either AT&T or DirecTV (on an account I was supposed to be removed from over a year ago).

If it really worked out to $25 in five minutes, you’d be on to something, but when it’s $15/hour, forget about it.

Having said that, £150 is very cheap, and you do get what you pay for. I’m assuming this is pcm. Most student rooms I lived in were at least 3 times that (for a medium sized room with a shared kitchen, and some of them not very nice). In my college, even the “budget” rooms were more than that, and they were literally big enough for a bed, a small wardrobe and a shelf. No desk, no chair. If you’re paying £150pcm, you may just have to accept that you’ve got cheap rent for a cheap room. If it’s £150pw, that’s a different matter.

However, I take a slightly different view of the service provider vs customer relationship. Yes, I hate to say it’s more adversarial. It’s all about late fees and interest. If I’m slow to pay, then I incur late fees or interest charges and maybe even a ding on my credit report. In most cases if there is a similar disruption or subpar service in return I have to ask for compensation. This is fine in cases where they can’t know about the issue(like buying a shirt and having it fall apart during the first wash), but I’ve noticed that even when they know no one offers apologies first anymore(like long checkout lines). They wait for people to complain because they know many won’t and that saves them money, but it’s terrible customer service. Sometimes all I want is an apology and acknowledgement of the situation, but if the company forces me to instigate it then I want compensation as well for the fact that they didn’t want to step up.

This ensures that the purchase does what it is supposed to do, and/or is fit for a particular purpose. Tese are governed by state law and can be good up to 4 years.

I’m with you. Take the crap back and get a replacement or your money back.