Did USA Today get an idea from The Global Citizen?

It would seem that The Global Citizen has been coming up with a lot of good ideas lately!  I just read an article from USA Today that says the exact same things I’ve written about in two previous posts.

USA Today Article:
Negotiate your way to lower cable TV, cellphone bills

Global Citizen Articles:
Smart Consumer USA – Global Citizen
Salesman vs. Salesman – How to lower your bills

Again, I love it when a popular publication confirms my ideas as good ones!

The difference however, is the USA version is much more of a standardized news article with references and sources!

Perhaps I should do what The Onion does and just make up my own sources.  In case you are unaware of this tactic they use the same three pictures and apply different names and industries to the picture in each publication.  For example, one day the picture of a blond lady will be called “Sarah” and is a “Retail Specialist,” but on the following day, the same picture is “Jane” and she is a Chemical Engineer.

Let me give this a try.  Apparently you just assign a name, make up a company and then state the obvious.  Comments from a “source” often act as an opinion to validate the “neutral” stance a news article takes.

Ralph, an analyst with PGR Inc in downtown San Francisco also agrees.   “It is very valuable to negotiate with these companies as they are trying to capture as much money from you as possible.  It is best to negotiate face to face but if that is not an option a simple phone call will also work.  I do not suggest however, negotiating by e-mail.”

With companies making enormous profits, tactics like Ralph’s have been paying big dividends for customers who wish to try and negotiate.

Ralph adds; “The question is, would you like to save more money or not?  As for me, I like to save money.”

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You know, that just seems like too much work for me.  I checked back on my article and was surprised to discover that actually I did have a source for my AT&T data plan argument — Straight from Admiral Ackbar himself!

As shown in the clip below he does not believe the new AT&T data plan is beneficial.  The only problem with the clip is that the camera did not pan to me and I asked the question too softly.  Thus, you would think he is referring to “Enemy ships” but no, he is really responding to my AT&T question. (He is very good at Multi-tasking and makes time for bloggers even at work)

By Mateo de Colón

Global Citizen! こんにちは!僕の名前はマットです. Es decir soy Mateo. Aussi, je m'appelle Mathieu. Likes: Languages, Cultures, Computers, History, being Alive! (^.^)/