My ISP's marketing department has hit a new low

[bp2008]

My ISP's marketing department has hit a new low. As of today, this is what they are advertising for wired internet plans:

(click below for full size picture)


This is just insulting. No advertised speeds, no pricing, they have a blank space where the name of my town is supposed to go, and the ZIP code entry box is grayed out and disabled. The wordy descriptions of the service at each speed tier is (and always has been) comically inaccurate, but now it is all we as customers have to go on unless we contact their support people.

I wish there was a competitor in this town.

 

[Mike]

Yikes!

 

[gwminor48]

@bp2008 in what part of the world are you located?

 

[bp2008]

Wyoming, USA...

 

[gwminor48]

Wyoming, USA...

Yes, probably more limited for internet services there. I'm in a suburb of Dallas, TX area, more choices here.

 

[alphawave7]

1) Surf's up.
2) Go with the flow
3) Get'er done!
4) Beat 'em up without the lag.
5) The weekend it almost here.
6) It's like the cheetah of internet plans
7) Because you can.

Someone had to have spent hours on this. Or maybe a few minutes.

 

[JimandYen]

We use Time Warner here in DFW, Texas. They are real good at hiding their regular prices from customers. Try to find their regular price online. They only show the "12 month special price". I guess it's normal marketing for these guys. ATT does it too. To be fair I should mention that they doubled our speed at no extra cost a couple months ago.

 

[Q™]

...I wish there was a competitor in this town.

Tell me about it :sad2:

We have two (2) choices here: either Verizon FIOS or Cablevision...dumb or dumber.

Here's how a typical call to Cablevision plays out...

Cable Rep: What seems to be the problem Mr. Q™?

Q™: You are aware of my account information, why don't you know what the problem is?

Cable Rep: Why don't you tell me what the problem is sir?

Q™: Our cable is down. Again.

Cable Rep: I'm very sorry to hear that..you must be frustrated about this issue.

(I swear they say this e v e r y f r e a k i n' t i m e...they must be "trained" to show "empathy")

Cable Rep: There is a known issue in your service area Mr. Q™...which we expect to have resolved in two hours.

Q™: What is the nature of the issue?

Cable Rep: They don't tell us that sir.

Q™: Then how do you know it will be resolved in two hours?

Cable Rep: That is what they are telling us.

Q™: Who is "they"?

Cable Rep: Our repair department.

Q™: Please transfer me to your repair department so I can get an answer as to what the problem is.

Cable Rep: I can't do that sir.

Q™: OK, let me get this straight...you know who I am and where my business is located, and you know there is a issues "in our area", but you have no idea why I'm calling. You know it will be repaired in two hours, but you have no idea what the problem is. Our business cannot function because we can't access the web apps we live by, we can't communicate with any of our customers, so we are essentially dead in the water and unable to function as a viable business entity. You can't transfer me to someone who may know what the nature of the issue. But you do understand that I may be frustrated.

Cable Rep: <silence>

Q™: Send a service representative to our business.

Cable Rep: But sir, I've already told you the issue will be repaired in 2 hours.

Q™: I WANT A SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE TO COME TO OUR BUSINESS TO INVESTIGATE THIS ISSUE (I intend to make you spend some money buddy)...and one more thing...

Cable Rep: Yes sir?

Q™: ...and I want you to understand that this is not directed at you personally...

Cable Rep: Yes sir?

Q™: Your company completely and absolutely SUQS; you seem like a nice fellow...you should quit working for these idiots and get a job with a competent company.

Cable Rep: Is there anything else I can help you with sir?

Q™: Yes, schedule a service representative to visit our business as soon as possible. Grrrrr...

 

[bp2008]

My .... Q, is that a real conversation?

 

[fenderman]

I too have both fios and cablevision/optimum...never had an issue with either though.....I just play them off each other every two years to secure the lowest rate..

 

[Q™]

My .... Q, is that a real conversation?

Honestly. When our internet connectivity goes down I get very stressed. I can't remember the last time I got any satisfaction when I called Cablevision to report our service being out...so now I call and tell them it is down...and then I lead them on that journey I've previously communicated. We pay for 100/30 internet service, plus a dedicated SIP cable trunk for our Avaya IP phone system. A little over a year ago our phones stopped working and our internet slowed to a 50k crawl. Yes, really. We were down for OVER THIRTY DAYS and it was horrible. I called everyone I could at Cablevision; I was nice, I screamed, I begged, I cried, I pleaded, I threatened...everything I could think of. Eventually I got a song and a dance about a "saturated node" and that some bad-player was "excessively downloading" and the were "investigating" who that might be and that they had to "split the node" which was "a very expensive proposition." After 30+ days the issue was finally resolved, but I have never forgiven them for putting us through that HORRIBLE ordeal and now, every time the internet goes down, I envision another 30+ day fiasco and I get quite vicious I'm embarrassed to say.

 

[Q™]

I too have both fios and cablevision/optimum...never had an issue with either though.....I just play them off each other every two years to secure the lowest rate..

We have a block of static IP addresses to run in house servers, which are a pain in the ass to swap out...not a big deal but a bit of a pain. And the phone system also needs to be reconfigured. I'm not complaining about the price; it's the service which suQs. I guess on the up side it doesn't go down all that often...maybe once every 3 months and when it goes down it's only out for a couple of hours. But the 30-D-A-Y-S-O-F-H-E-L-L always rings back to me, like a clarion call in the night...like pack of ravenous wolves baying in the moonless night: "WE'RE COMING FOR YOU Q™...WE'RE COMING"

 

[fenderman]

We have a block of static IP addresses to run in house servers, which are a pain in the ass to swap out...not a big deal but a bit of a pain. And the phone system also needs to be reconfigured. I'm not complaining about the price; it's the service which suQs. I guess on the up side it doesn't go down all that often...maybe once every 3 months and when it goes down it's only out for a couple of hours. But the 30-D-A-Y-S-O-F-H-E-L-L always rings back to me, like a clarion call in the night...like pack of ravenous wolves baying in the moonless night: "WE'RE COMING FOR YOU Q™...WE'RE COMING"

30 days is insane and unacceptable... I would never be able to go back..

 

[bp2008]

30 days is insane and unacceptable... I would never be able to go back..

Indeed, particularly for a business connection where you are no doubt overpaying anyway. The difference between business service and residential? Price, a few IP addresses, and expectations of reliability and service that are rarely met.

It sounds like you might want to use both ISPs with a load balancer (maybe just configured to fail-over in case the primary goes down, and not load balance) so you can at least get outgoing access back up. Many times I have thought of doing the same just at my own home, but the only other ISP serving this area is wireless and thanks to vegetation that would mean putting an antenna on the roof and it would get absolutely buried in snow every winter. That or satellite internet, but I have not been desperate enough for either just yet. The longest outage I've had in five years was about a day.

 

[Q™]

It was insane Fenderman; a truly horrible experience. Earlier I wrote "...We have two (2) choices here: either Verizon FIOS or Cablevision...dumb or dumber...", but that was incorrect. At my home I have a choice of FIOS or Cablevision, but not at the office. At my business location, the ONLY choice is Cablevision or a T1. So I've certainly written enough about my experience, but let me leave you with this in case you missed it: I DON'T CARE FOR CABLEVISION.

 

[Q™]

Indeed, particularly for a business connection where you are no doubt overpaying anyway. The difference between business service and residential? Price, a few IP addresses, and expectations of reliability and service that are rarely met.

It sounds like you might want to use both ISPs with a load balancer (maybe just configured to fail-over in case the primary goes down, and not load balance) so you can at least get outgoing access back up. Many times I have thought of doing the same just at my own home, but the only other ISP serving this area is wireless and thanks to vegetation that would mean putting an antenna on the roof and it would get absolutely buried in snow every winter. That or satellite internet, but I have not been desperate enough for either just yet. The longest outage I've had in five years was about a day.

We pay approximately $500.00 for the SIP TRUNK with 30 DID direct dial extensions (individual phone numbers), unlimited local and long distance calling, 100/30 internet and 5 static IP addresses. Back in the 1990's we were regularly paying $2,000+ (per month!) for phones and our internet was 56k dial-up (until we moved to a T1 which cost an arm and a leg also). I think $500.00 is a bargain.

After THE 30 DAYS OF HELL I went to AT&T (we have good AT&T 4G LTE reception at the office)and bought of of those wireless hot spot gizmos and a bunch of USB wireless adapters for our desktop computers. If THE 30 DAYS ever comes back I'll set us up to access the internet with that puppy.

But let me tell you about AT&T. I called them last year and said "cancel my service...T-Mobile will save me $100.00 a month." Fifteen minutes later AT&T was charging me $100.00 per month less; fuQing bloodsuckers they are I tell ya.

 

[bp2008]

So, the ISP just called to respond to a message I had sent (after I specified in the contact form that I prefer email over telephone, lol). Their prices did in fact go down with this change. If the phone lines can handle it I'll be getting a nice upgrade and saving money.

For those curious, the price changes are not bad at all. From what I knew before and was told about the new plans:

Speed	Old Price	New Price
50/10	$115	$75
50/20	$135	$95
100/10	$200	N/A (base upload is now 20 Mbps on this plan)
100/20	$220	$110

I used to be (and technically still am) on 50/20 for $135, and asked to be changed to 100/20 for $110.

 

[fmflex]

And I bet if you were oblivious and weren't aware they would of happily kept billing you $135 a month. My cable provider was doing that to me until I caught on and now regularly check their prices to ensure I am on the best deal for the money.

 

[johngalt]

Google Fiber went down for 2 hours the other day and everyone around here was losing their mind. Everyone has already forgotten about Comcast and Time Warner apparently. Google even issued a 2 day credit proactively to everyone. My Comcast issues would last for days and weeks. Google fiber has been great.

 

[JimandYen]

Google Fiber went down for 2 hours the other day and everyone around here was losing their mind. Everyone has already forgotten about Comcast and Time Warner apparently. Google even issued a 2 day credit proactively to everyone. My Comcast issues would last for days and weeks. Google fiber has been great.

In the past when Time Warner went out we would have to ask for credit.. Haven't had any issues for a couple years so I don't know if it's still that way.