The Challenge of Starting up a Startup — The Genesis of the Idea

My daughter smiles and tugs at my sleeve, ‘Daddy, can you play puzzles with me?’

I sit in frustration waiting for an answer on a call I don’t want to have to a query I shouldn’t be required to make.

‘Give Daddy five minutes, he just needs to speak to someone’.

Agonisingly the seconds turn to minutes and slow to a crawl as I watch my daughter grow impatient. Eventually she gives up, dejected, her smile fades, she sighs and leaves.

‘Hi, your through to {insert car insurance company}, how can I help’

It’s been 40 minutes.

‘Hi, I’d like to cancel my car insurance, you sent me a letter telling me that you would auto-renew it had I not called, and there is no way to do it online’.

‘Ok, that should only take a few minutes, is it ok if I put you on hold?’

I assume it was a rhetorical question as I find myself listening to the same horrific pop song.

In all, it takes one hour to cancel car insurance which I had specifically bought for the year and no more. My daughters attention has long since evaporated and been consumed elsewhere, those moments I’ll never get back.

And the same happens with house insurance and electricity bills. They claim their online systems are straightforward but they are labyrinths designed to inhibit our escape.

In the end we have to call and listen to their pitch. We hear them ask if we are sure the companies we are measuring them up to offer the same level of comprehensive care and attention.

It’s hard not to laugh.

Those decisions are always price orientated: nobody buys a banana for five times the price from the shop next door because of the colour of the bag. Superficial differences in policy make no difference.

And the same happens with broadband and mobile phone contracts. To cancel you must sacrifice your time and argue your case. Cancellation becomes a debate not a demand.

Even if you just want to cancel you must first talk to the cancellation team, who make their first pitch to keep you. They match the deal you had previously but can’t improve on it. It’s significantly better than what your contract would revert to following the culmination of your contract so most people agree, leaving significant savings on the table.

If it’s not good enough you’re passed onto the retention team, these guys have more power and assure you that they offer you the best price and they’ll match what you’re getting elsewhere.

They’re lying, they’re not even offering you the best deal in the company, but they play the game anyway.

Finally you’re passed onto their supervisor who offers you what you wanted in the first place.

If you can’t walk the walk you’ll never see the benefit.

Too many people can’t and are being exploited by companies who are doing nothing wrong. They have no incentive to offer us the best deal. Every penny you save is a penny less for their stockholders in dividends.

But we accept it and move on, locking ourselves in. We pay more in deference to wasting our time.

And the same happens with Satellite Television/Cable TV. There is no option but to phone and plead your case to leave. You must face the gauntlet of increasing incentivisation to stay.

Have you ever tried to walk away from them? Wow, they are good and incredibly persuasive. They might give you 3 months free or reduce your monthly subscription by a third for a year.

Think about how they can afford that.

And if you don’t call to cancel your subscription will run forever. Recurring revenue, which exploits your disinterest in engaging with them, every single month, year after year.

And the same happens with modern subscriptions, which are even worse. You can’t even question the price point you pay. Your loyalty counts for nothing. You’re but one cog in a sea of millions, even hundreds of millions, of consumers.

They might even raise the price, and unless they have *graciously* grandfathered your subscription, allowing it to remain at the same historical price, you have to pay more.

Spotify, Apple Music, Netflix, Amazon Prime etc. are all complicit in this new world.

We can’t even negotiate.

We are influential and able to get the best price possible but only in so far as the power each of us has individually.

We never had any other option…

Until now.

I despise wasting my time unnecessarily on arbitrary, meaningless tasks.

So I founded Cleeyk where we simplify the monthly subscription model while simultaneously making them more affordable. Where you can trust that the price you are getting is the best price available on the market. Where you never have to call up to argue on price, we work on your behalf to ensure you have the best deal and call you. We take care of all the hassles and phone calls on your behalf.

Revolutionary, we believe. We think you’ll agree.

Don’t just take our word for it, find out for yourself.

www.cleeyk.com