Mind your own business

Posted by Barbara on May 26, 2025 in Blog, Consumer issues, Humour, Living today, Rants | 2 comments

We’ve all been here: it’s time for the review and renewal of: home insurance, travel insurance, mobile phone contract, broadband supplier etc. So the first step is finding out what we paid last year and examining the inevitable price hike.

At which point the wording of the renewal reminder goes something like this: ‘We note you have been with us for some time and you may find a similar product at a cheaper price by shopping around.’  Now I take that at face value, and I do shop around because I am fortunate enough to have the time to do so.

So it’s off to the price comparison websites, comparing like for like (as much as possible) and weighing up saving a fiver against just clicking the renew button.  Of course, sometimes it’s much more than a fiver, so no anxious late-night pondering involved.  All well and good, go with the new provider and make sure the automatic renewal has been cancelled in good time.

Now there’s the rub; sometimes cancelling just ain’t that simple.  We had fun and games recently when for some unaccountable reason the purchase of a replacement extractor hood came with a 6-month free subscription to one of the many streaming services out there. To activate said free subscription we had to give card details so that we could segue seamlessly to paid service if we wanted to continue, which we duly did and noted the expiry date of the freebie.  One month before that date we decided that we’d cancel, but somehow that was much more difficult than expected.  It proved to be impossible to do it online, so we resorted to a phone call. How long have you got?! Suffice it to say that having finally got through to a real person – at least I think she was real- our cancellation was confirmed. Except it wasn’t.  The first monthly payment was deducted, despite assurances from the company. Time to up the ante.  This worked, but it wasn’t exactly pleasant, yet at least we’re no longer paying for an unwanted service.

Not long after this experience, and I wish it had been longer, the home insurance renewal reared its head.  Back to the ‘you have been with us for some time’ scenario.  Indeed we had, and the price hike clearly indicated it was time to jump ship.  I confirmed with the new provider and then turned my attention to cancelling the automatic renewal. Oh dear, here we go again. Try as I might it seemed impossible to do this online. Cue the telephone call, awful music, but I did get through to a real person..perhaps.

This is when the fun began; what should have taken a couple of minutes became a sort of interrogation/plea for reconciliation.  I was asked, pleadingly, why I had chosen to leave them.  It was as if the invitation to look for a better offer had never been issued.  I did my best to stay firm, although I could feel a hint of Stockholm Syndrome taking over.  Was I being fair? Had I really thought this through? Apologetically, I explained that company X was offering the same product at a considerably lower price and I had made a decision. My interlocutor fired one more salvo: who was the winning party and how much was I going to be paying? That did it; something snapped.  ‘I would be grateful if you could mind your own business. I am not going to tell you.  Thank you for cancelling.’ I rang off, weak and shaking. No wonder people usually simply press ‘renew’.