Sometimes it does pay to answer telemarketing calls!

Let me preface the actual story by saying that I have online billing with Rogers Cable for my internet/home phone/cable. They're supposed to send me email notifications when the bill is ready to view. I haven't gotten a notification for this month's bill, and the bill is actually due next week. So I filled in one of those "contact us" notification forms on the Rogers website. Didn't really think anything of it. Until....

I'm sitting at home last night (only about 3 hours after I filled in the form, mind you) when the phone rings, and I can see that it's some random 888 number, so it's going to be telemarketing of some kind. I debated not answering, because more often than not these calls are from Rogers trying to make me change my wireless to them. But I caved and I answered the phone. The woman on the other end says, very politely, and in completely flawless English, something about Rogers valuing their customers and how they're checking to see that people have no concerns, complaints or similar. And I thought, huh, that's interesting and decided to tell her that yes, I did have one issue, and told her about not receiving the notifications. She started to ask me to wait a few days to see if it came, but when I told her the bill was actually due this week, she checked further, and said yes, I should have received it by now, and that they'd be glad to do something to make up for that inconvenience. She made a note in my file that I hadn't been receiving the notifications, and then asked me how I was enjoying The Movie Network. I thought, well, that's an odd question, but I told her that I liked it a lot, and that I had often thought of getting rid of it, but that's always when some new bunch of movies that I wanted to see would show up. I just wished there was a more economical way to have The Movie Network.

Now, this is where the interesting part is: The next thing she says to me is, "Well, how would you like The Movie Network free for 12 months." I was kind of surprised. I figured when she started that sentence that she was going to say 1 month. But no, she clearly said 12. And this is all just because I didn't get an email notification about my bill. I said that would be fabulous! The only catch is that I have to keep my cable for 12 months. That's not really a catch for me, because the only thing I would switch to would be Bell satellite, and I can't have it here in my building.

So, ultimately, just because I didn't get the email notification about my bill, I am now saving almost $240 over the next year with Rogers.

And THAT is why it sometimes pays to answer telemarketing calls.