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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."
I am the anti-consumer, when it comes to broadband. I will dump all service at the drop of a hat, and switch to a competitor...The whole deal. I mean, cable, phone, I don't care. I have all the equipment to switch between Direct TV and Cable, and Cable and DSL, Phone and IPtelephony (direct TV is bundled through the phone company in my area), and whichever company pisses me off, I dump 'em.
When we moved to a new place, the first thing I did was run cable to my office. Not because I want to watch TV there, but because the first time the phone company pisses me off, I dump 'em.
I think they're scared of me...Last time my service went down (morons from the phone company screwed up my settings working on a neighbors equipment), they told me three days. I told them if it wasn't done before I got home from work the next day, I was calling the cable company...It was done when I went home for lunch.
These days, if you have more than one option, make the most of it...Treat them like the bitches they are, and make them grovel for your money.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
What equipment?
The modem? well, no I can get my own.
The wires? no, that's already in place and paid for.
The hardware system? nope leased out or bought, so no need for subsidizing there.
hmm,,, Mayge we are subsidizing the chairs they sit on?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I have Dish Network for TV. When I signed up, the phone rep wanted me to sign a 2 year contract. I simply told them that I wasn't interested, and so they countered with a 1 year contract. Didn't really feel like that either, and so they finally offered a no-contract plan but required like a $49 activation fee. Fine by me.
Same deal with Cingular. They say a 2 year contract is required, but it isn't. All you have to do is ask for less. They'll do a 1 year and might charge you $25 or $50 more for the phone. Big deal. Bring your own phone and tell them you want a month-to-month plan, and they'll do that too.
Same deal with Verizon DSL. They have a month-to-month plan with DSL that costs a couple bucks a month more than the contract price. You just have to ask for it.
The point is, you have to stand up for your rights as a consumer. Tell the company, "I'm here, I'd like to pay for your services, but your terms are unacceptable. What can you do about it?" If they won't bend, find another company that will. I have no sympathy for people that blindly sign contracts and then whine about the consequences later.
Forget the lawyers. Call your credit card issuer.
I paid for a year's DSL in advance (at a discount) from a local DSL provider that had a good reputation. They even agreed to a refund if I left before the year was up. But shortly thereafter, they were bought by another ISP that had a well-deserved bad reputation.
A few months later, my DSL went down for a week -- the second or third outage since the acquisition, but the longest one so far. It was some sort of administrative screwup that cut off the ISP's link to the rest of the 'Net. I had already planned to change providers when my year's pre-paid service was up. But, the long outage was enough to accelerate my switch.
Fortunately, I had a second phone line at the time. So, I didn't have to wait for them to release their claim on my primary line. For a brief time, I actually had DSL from two different ISP's on the two different lines. But, when I called to cancel my service and request a refund, they replied: "no refunds". I pointed out my agreement with the ISP they bought, and they were unmoved. I offered them one last chance, saying that I would get my refund -- the only issue was whether they got dinged by their credit card processor for a charge-back.
They still refused, so I called American Express -- who I used to pay the original bill. I explained the situation to Amex, and their only question was: "did you sign anything that committed you to pay for a year of service?" I said "no" -- knowing they would pose the same question to the ISP. I also knew that the ISP couldn't produce any such agreement.
Within a week, American Express credited my account for an amount that was pro-rated according to the remaining (unused) months of service.
My point: if you can, pay your ISP with a credit card. It gives you a lot more leverage, because they are bound by the merchant agreement.