We, too, have that issue with our cable/internet provider. For the past three or four years, we've had "one-year contracts". At the end of the "discount" period, our bill skyrockets. I call them and ask to be put through to the "loyalty" department. I have a competitor's web site up on my laptop with cost for similar services. They recognize we've been a customer of theirs since 1999 and have never been late paying a monthly invoice. I have yet to have problems with them reducing our "new" costs down to where the existing ones are. The past December, they even offered me a one-year at less than we had been paying. Of course, that was after I'd had a phone-tussel with a customer service person who could not speak understandable English and did not want to pass me through to the loyalty folks.
It's absurd!! They market low cost plans to "new" subscribers, while jacking up the prices for we who have been faithful customers for years. But, it seems as if that is the way business is done in a number of industries today.
