Small Price Increase

Have you ever been told that some service you use must increase their charges a small amount?  Then you look at the small amount they are talking about and it turns out to be much more than what you would consider a small amount by your terms.  They try to make it seem smaller than it really is by giving you the increased cost per day.  Again, another example of how these companies think the consumers are not smart!



I'm a real believer that there are too many commercials on the over the air radio.  If you complain about it to anyone in that business they say that you shouldn't complain because it is free.  I'm not sure about you but I value my time.  I actually kept track for a week on my travels to and from work.  On average the 40 minute drive was 20 minutes of music and 20 minutes of commercials.  It really amazed me that there were that many commercials.  So I could easily justify the cost of a Sirius/XM subscription.  Beyond the lack of commercials, the variety of music was much better.  But earlier today I received an email stating that they needed to increase their fees by a small amount, "only 5 cents per day" was what they said.  That seems small, right?  I suppose it depends on your definition of small but it works to $19 per year.  Again, you must define small on your own terms.  I think it is a lot considering that I can use my smartphone to create a custom channel using either Slacker Radio (my favorite) or Pandora Radio.  Granted there are a few commercials (something like 30 second spot one per hour) in the free version but it is easily to overlook.


But this is the norm for more than just increases in fees.  It even goes to the charities that constantly beg for your money.  There are several that say you can save someone for just $1 per day.  The problem is that they are hoping that you won't do the math.  They will beg you to give more until you do.  And if you don't fall for it at first, I'm sure they will tell you that your $1 per day isn't enough so you need to increase by a small amount to really help out.


Why can't they just be truthful?  Just come out and tell us what the increase really is.  We aren't stupid, we can see what you are doing.