Thursday, August 12, 2010

A penny saved . . .

We use McAfee for protection from viruses and assorted other internet threats. I know, I know. Real geeks make do with a free program like AVG, but McAfee has kept us safe for several years and I don't want to risk losing that safety.

Anyway, a single McAfee subscription protects all three computers in the house for 12 months. A few weeks ago McAfee sent me a reminder that our subscription needed to be renewed and that they would be happy to do that for us for a mere $79.99.

"Well," I says to myself, I says, "That's probably about what we paid last year, but I think I saw it for much less somewhere. Let me look around a bit." Sure enough, Buy.com was selling it for $12.99. The exact same program for $67 less!

So I phoned McAfee to see if they would match that price. After talking to Rajiv for 5 minutes, he offered to drop the cost of extending our current subscription from $79.99 to $69.99.

"But, Rajiv, why in the world would I give you $69.99, when I can get the exact same thing from Buy.com for only $12.99?"

"Thank you for asking, Mr. Dan. Would you please hold on for a moment?"

"Sure, Rajiv."

" . . . "

". . . "

"Mr. Dan?"

"Yes, Rajiv?"

"Mr. Dan, you should buy the item from Buy.com."

So I did.

Now, what should I do with all the money I saved/earned?

No comments: