Talk Your Way to Receive a Free Coupon, Discount or Gift Card

Personal Finance >>

It seems to work when, one or more of the following conditions meet

• the merchant cares much about their customer image, and does not live up to their excellent customer service reputation
• the merchant is at fault
• your account is a business premier account because of the company you work for
• your issue is escalated to catch their supervisor attention
• you are a long-time customer of their business

I have three experiences.  It is better to set with no expectation, and talk to them during least exciting time, such as driving to work with traffic jam

I. $25 from AT&T Text Messaging Blocking

Long story short. I requested AT&T to terminate the monthly text messaging service because I can use Pinger for unlimited free text messaging and to avoid spam text messaging and MMS.   From past experience, AT&T promise requires follow-up.   After they claimed they would disable that feature in my AT&T account, I still received text messaging.  I called back to explain that I still received text messages. They offered $25 credit

II. Upgrade from AT&T DSL-Advanced to U-verse

I was a subscriber of AT&T DSL-Advanced because DSL-basic was too slow and only $5 more monthly.  One day, it became apparent the DSL speed at home was uncomfortably slow.  One week went by.  The internet speed was verified by free web test that it was indeed much slower. There was no letter or phone call from AT&T.  I called AT&T and was informed that that DSL-Advanced was no longer available in the area where I live.  They offered to upgrade to AT&T U-verse.  Soon, they realized it was their fault.  I agreed to their offer of $19.99 per month for U-verse with free U-Verse modem.  This is my second year of using U-verse, still paying $19.99 per month.  AT&T "forgot" to credit my account a year ago.  I had to follow up at least 3 times with different customer supports, including a supervisor, calmly explained to them my disappointment.  The red circle in the billing history AT&T showed that AT&T finally credited my account back and offered another year of $19.99 U-verse.

III.  Macy's $75 gift card from Macy's supervisor

My home does not have a dining table because it is donated, and the new non-damaged one will be delivered tomorrow.  Two weeks ago, the dining table came with Macy's shipping service.  During assembling, it was found to have fracture. Therefore, it was returned.  I called up Macy's to ask for delivery of a good table set as soon as possible.  I called up again second time to ask for delivery time-slot.  It happened the customer support was a supervisor that day.  I explained that my plan was to have the new table ready for us by Christmas time.  She understood the inconvenience caused to me, then offered $75 Macy's gift card as a compensation for "sorry for the inconvenience".

This one is least expected.  I was on my way driving to work in the morning, talking casually with my headset on. Total time spent: 15 minutes.


IV. 15% Online Discount Code from Harry & David

Who is "Harry & David"? They are famous for their pears, but I prefer their pear chips more.  The promotion code was displayed when their website was not ready for the CyberMonday prime time shopping.  It may be an intended marketing strategy.  The promotion code does not have expire date.