Saturday morning 22 April. We just finished breakfast. Our first horse riding class of the season got cancelled as our teacher texted that she was sick. Nothing we could do about it but it changed my day program that I planned. I get a phone call on my mobile…it shows UNKNOWN…mmmm
I am always sceptical when I see a phonecall with the name UNKNOWN. I answer:”Hello?”. I never use my name as you never know who is at the other side of the line. A stalker, identity thief, marketing agency,…who knows. As I don’t hear a voice immediately but only a lot of voices, I quickly realise I will be talking to a call center agent. Most of the time when I get a phone call on saturday mornings, it is to sell me a yearly subscription to a newspaper, an insurance, some kind of service, an appointment to the bank for investment advice,…you name it.
When the lady at the phone says with a friendly voice that she is calling from my Internet and TV cable company Telenet, I am surprised and ask her first politely whether she wants to sell me something, she answers :”No!” She is doing a customer satisfaction survey and review of my services that I currently have. She will send me a 15 Euro voucher for my customer loyalty and she wants to review my current subscriptions. 
Our current family Internet and TV habits
We have been a customer with Telenet for more than 20 years. But the technology in our family has evolved over time. We have been using laptops for more than 25 years and also the iPad was introduced in our family when my son became 4 years old. Today he is 12 and he still uses an iPad together with his sister who has an iPad mini for 4 years now.
Then I was able to buy my 3 year old laptop from my employer and we used this laptop to educate my son technology, create photo picture books with Albelli and do our personal finance matters.
With the introduction of smart phones, this type of mobiles entered quickly into our family habits. My son got his first iPhone at his 12 year old birthday. And I was able to purchase another 3 year old laptop for my daughter. So what happens today with all those devices and how many do we have ?
- 3 laptops
- 3 smart phones : 2 iPhones, 1 Samsung S7
- 2 iPads
Laptops are mainly used by the kids to play online games such as Minecraft, Roblox and other games where they join with friends in the same game. My son opens Skype with several friends and then collaborates with them to find the murderer in Murder Mystery on Minecraft servers. Online play with friends…interesting. My 8 year old daughter watches several youtube channels such as OnnediVinci | LEUK OF MEUK? and Dylanhaegens. My son does watch youtube channels on his iPhone now where he has collected a list of 22 youtube channels. Those channels are people who play a game and show how they play or people who upload music.
I use the oldest iPad now to read financial newspaper through their app. Examples are De TIJD and Financial Times.
Boy and girl watching cartoons online with the iPad tablet sitting in the sofa at home.
Besides the computer devices we now also have a Samsung Smart TV. With a swipe of the iPhone or iPad, kids can bring the youtube channel on the Samsung TV. We can skype using the camera of the TV but the main purpose remains to watch TV programs or movies (using Telenet Play) during evenings or listen to music channels during the day. We don’t have a radio anymore since 5 years now…
So with all this technology in the house, we all rely on ONE IMPORTANT REQUIREMENT : INTERNET CONNECTION WITH SPEED
Continuation of my phone call…
Together with the call center agent, we review my monthly expenses. As I have separate bills for Internet and cable TV and recently added the mobile phone contract of my son, it seems I can save money by subscribing to a Whoppa monthly package. I also get free of charge a fixed phone number (which I won’t need in the future as I only use my mobile)
I asked the lady to calculate me the cost savings of this potential proposal. While the lady calculates my potential savings, I put my phone on Speaker and put the laundry in the wash machine:-)
She comes to the conclusion that I can save 22,61 euro for the first 5 months and I save going forward on a monthly basis. I also learn that there is an app Triing. In the family we use mainly Whatsapp and Skype for internet calling. I also teached my mom to use this technology in order to reduce her phone bills. I also take the opportunity to change my son’s subscription to 5 Euro (500mb Data) which doesn’t consume his call credit.
I agree to change to the package while saying that I will write a blog post about this cost saving. This makes the lady laugh:-)) The call center agent says she is interested to read the blog and I pass her on the URL. She promises to continue to follow the blog on Facebook. Will she do so or is this just polite call center agent behavior (always pleasing the customer) ? We will see in the future…
I ask her to send me an email with the estimated savings and the final agreed monthly price. In the afternoon I take the time to review my new decision. I compare my yearly expenses of 2016. Then I compared this with my monthly expenses for Jan-April timeframe with the new monthly totals. I wanted to ensure myself I took the right decision and what the financial impact was on my monthly expenses and yearly budget.
The end conclusion is that I will save 171,76 EURO in total for 2017 and my monthly cost will go down with 11,17 EURO
Key Learnings
This phone call is a wake up call for me. Three years ago I reviewed all my monthly expenses and reduced them to the lowest cost. However products and solutions offered by my current providers evolve over time. I switched to auto-pilot for my expenses as I focus on PAY MYSELF FIRST and GROWING MY INVESTMENTS (DIVIDEND GROWTH)
If you read my personal Finance Strategy blog post, you know I am an advocate of BEHAVIOR 3 on Money. I always pay myself first (an automatic payment to my investment account) and then I execute the necessary expenses.
I wish to thank Jenniree K. of Telenet for helping reduce my expenses. This allows me to increase my PAY MYSELF FIRST pay out and grow my investment exponentially. I will continue to be a HAPPY TELENET customer and also review my other monthly expenses starting with my electricity and gas bill.
However I recommend you to review what Internet & TV provider provides the best service and cost for YOUR NEEDS. There are other providers such as Orange, Proximus and others that could be a better choice for you. We will definitely review our monthly cost next year again.
Which behavior on money, do you have ? Leave your comments and feedback.
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5 Response Comments
Very interesting to see she helped you so much. Good on her and the company. Are they publically listed? Hello phone call lady haha.
I moved from Telenet to Orange last year, very happy about that. It was an upgrade for me (Cheaper, faster Internet, more downloadlimit, same cable).
Telenet is definitely the most expensive ISP in Belgium.
Too bad all providers are pushing “packs”, cause that tv subscription I don’t need.
Anyway I see ISP’s as utilities so it’s best practice to look out for a better deal every year. Since Orange is on cable, the real competition in this market has slowly started.
I fully agree with you. I see them as utilities as well. Competition has finally started.
If you don’t need TV subscription, you can be better off with another ISP
My family loves Play and other channels so with kids, the choice is a little more difficult. Telenet and Proximus definitely keep prices high compared to other European countries where Internet is a lot cheaper.
We will definitely review next year. Thanks for the comment and feedback !
We are Whoppa as well. We used to have cable with one and internet with the other.
When the time was right, we all put it together, saved money and got a free fixed landline.
We recently downgraded to a lower max speed and only 100GB per month. No difference, other than 10€ less per month
Cool post. Sounds like it was a good thing that you didn’t just hang up or not answer that call in the first place. That is great customer service. While it might not bring as much money in for the company in the short term, in the long run you’re more likely to stick with them as well as recommend them to family and friends.