Sticking It to Ma Bell
After almost 40 years of being a loyal AT&T phone customer, today I finally told them to stick it. They are raising the price of my unlimited phone service AGAIN, and local competitors are cheaper for the same service. I spoke to a supervisor and said "look, I understand how capitalism works -- Verizon is offering the SAME service for $15 less per month. Do you mean to tell me you can't match their price to keep a customer in the same market?" "No. We're raising your rate again". So I went shopping and discovered that my ISP will actually bundle my existing DSL service with unlimited local and long distance phone service over the landline (not VOIP, which I didn't really want -- I know too many people with quality issues) for only a total of about $10 more per month than I'm currently paying just for phone. I'll save about $30 a month total, and I'll get improved DSL service to boot.
I'm hoping this is not the start of a nightmare technical odyssey, but I've had zero problems with DSL service (setup and service) from this ISP, so I'm hoping it will be as smooth as my switchover to DSL was and as smooth as my switchover of local companies was a few years back. Who cares if it's run by a bunch of Scientologists (which some websites have debunked anyway)?
After almost 40 years of being a loyal AT&T phone customer, today I finally told them to stick it. They are raising the price of my unlimited phone service AGAIN, and local competitors are cheaper for the same service. I spoke to a supervisor and said "look, I understand how capitalism works -- Verizon is offering the SAME service for $15 less per month. Do you mean to tell me you can't match their price to keep a customer in the same market?" "No. We're raising your rate again". So I went shopping and discovered that my ISP will actually bundle my existing DSL service with unlimited local and long distance phone service over the landline (not VOIP, which I didn't really want -- I know too many people with quality issues) for only a total of about $10 more per month than I'm currently paying just for phone. I'll save about $30 a month total, and I'll get improved DSL service to boot.
I'm hoping this is not the start of a nightmare technical odyssey, but I've had zero problems with DSL service (setup and service) from this ISP, so I'm hoping it will be as smooth as my switchover to DSL was and as smooth as my switchover of local companies was a few years back. Who cares if it's run by a bunch of Scientologists (which some websites have debunked anyway)?
posted by Lily @ Monday, January 21, 2008
2 Comments:
At 3:07 AM ,
Duke said...
I had Bellsouth DSL for about a decade. I was lucky and located where they rolled it out first in my area. They were very reliable and had good custmer service. When cable came along with a little faster speed I called and asked them why I shouldn't swap? They said cause we'll lower your bill. And they did. They gave me 6 months for free and another 6 months at half price. Then lowered the monthly charge $10.
Over a year ago AT&T bought them out and the service immediately went to hell. It's down all the time and no one speaks english to get help. The speed got slower too.
AT&T can screw up anything. Best to get away from them and hope they go bankrupt soon
At 12:06 AM ,
Bet said...
You have labels now!
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