Slashdot Mirror
Dumping ISP May Cost Customers $150
Dumpling$9 writes with a link to an article that seems to speak volumes about the modern consumer relationship with service providers. IBT reports on the outrageous fees facing users who drop their internet service contracts before they are up. "Pricing broadband competition can be difficult. Broadband is rarely priced as a stand-alone service. Whether offered by a telephone company or a cable company, it is usually bundled with other services such as voice and video. The advantage to the customer is easier billing and usually a price break. But the down side is if they drop one of the services to pursue a better deal elsewhere, they lose the discount ... It remains to be seen whether penalties for Internet customers will cut down on churn. Consumers Union in its annual cell phone survey found that nearly half of all cell phone subscribers who were considering switching carriers were deterred from doing so because of early termination penalties."
Wow, you got four cell phones and 4 credit cards that you couldn't afford? Good job! However, if the nation had put a Democrat in office, presumably you would not have gone on such a spending spree with money you didn't have? I will keep that in mind next November!
I'm pretty sure you have the option of not having Internet access. It's not like we're talking necessities like electricity or water here.
And wouldn't you love to try to initial in a correction to the asymmetry, such that if they terminate early, they pay *you* $150?