For years, we've been paying less than $20 a month for DSL. We don't have phone, or TV service, and are now finding ourselves being forced to pay $35 a month for DSL starting next month!
It seems like all bills are doubling and tripling, while salaries have been stagnant for the last 3 decades. Does this piss anyone else off? I mean, really, my DSL bill is going from $19.99 to $35 and this is reasonable? I could pay less, if I get more services.
I am so sick of companies supposedly offering us choices, when really they are taking us by the arm and twisting it to give them money for crappy service. Did I mention it took 60 minutes to get an ATT rep on the phone this morning that could actually help me? 60 minutes!?!?!?!?
Edited to add: There is no more complaining. They are trying to force everyon to u-verse. To do so, there will be no more deals on DSL. Had a conversation with a nice rep that made it clear, I have no options. No more deals.
Well.....apparently, not "everyone's" salary is stagnant--the top 1% have drastically increased their yearly bottom line! Sigh.
I agree, it stinks.
But it is a "service" and technically, we could do without internet at home IF we don't mind the inconvenience of going to public computers, libraries, etc.
What I hate is when you've been a customer with a company for over 6 years and you see an ad that they are offering new customers a lock in price for 3 years for more than $40 less than your paying, but they won't let you take advantage of that price because your not a new customer. WTH???
That's a big jump of $15 difference. I'd bring it to their attention and see if you can wheel and deal a lower rate.
A friend of mine was just telling me this morning, J., that she was in NYC a few weekends ago with friends, and they told her that at some restaurants they've been to, that if they didn't give 20% tip instead of 15%, the servers come after them out the door, pushing them to give them more tip. I can't imagine tipping anyone more who follows me out the door to try to shake me down for more money. OR going back to that restaurant.
I give 20 - 25% for great service. 15 - 20% for good service. I guess I don't HAVE to go out to eat, but having DSL is awfully hard to do without.
I don't know the answer, but I feel for you.
Dawn
I'm also upset with how everything is going up--and the rising prices don't reflect good service, more food/bigger quantities, more for your money, etc.
We have a special chain restaurant where we like to go and eat once in a while. It's not in our town--we have to drive 45 minutes one way to get there. We went there this Sat. Not only had the prices increased (from the last time we were there, about 3-4 months ago), but the portion sizes got smaller and the way they made their hamburgers got worse (can anyone say, it was like someone dropped a salt shaker into the patty?). It was very, very disappointing to pay as much as we did for substandard fare. You can bet I will write and say something to corporate headquarters; not sure if it will make a difference or not, but I feel they need to know that their service is not being well received by the public. In today's economy, I wouldn't think they would want to lose any loyal customers.
And I know exactly what you're talking about in terms of phone, cell, Internet, wireless--to get the best deal, you usually need to use the same company (bundling). But then you're locked into using that company, and it seems like they can do whatever they want to you, including raising your prices for seemingly no good reason whatsoever.
We have AT&T as well; while I haven't noticed any price gouging (we, in fact, just had our entire bundle taken down by, like, $19/mo after I called and talked to a rep about an issue on my bill and mentioned that my husband just had a tibia-plateau surgery on his leg and was off work; ON HER OWN, the rep found a way to help me save some money on our bill for the next six months. I didn't even have to ask her for the help; she just did it.).
I also tremendously believe that if you get angry and harbor anger and fear and a belief that the world is out to get you, you bring in bad karma. If you radiate hope and trust and love and that everyone/everything has good values and virtues, I truly believe you will reap only goodness and help.
I've been working on radiating hope and love now for a while; it's helped enormously while my husband was laid up with his broken leg (a solid 2 months without working). We managed to take out some money on his life insurance policy (which we DO NOT have to pay back, because it was accumulated interest) and, even though we were less $1800/month on my husband's paychecks--and we took $1000/month from the insurance policy to help cover absolute expenses--we still managed to live without the additional $800/month that we normally need to use, just to get through the month. I truly believe we were getting help from on high.
That could just be me, but I truly believe seeing issues in a positive way and giving light and love and hope and compassion to a situation will turn around and give you help back ten-fold.
Thought of switching? Usually you can get a better deal as a new or return costumer. We have tried AT&T (long story - will not go back to them) and Comcast (what they offered was great but they never could get our phone working correctly). We went back to WOW - definitely the best costumer service!
Sorry you had to go through that, but I'm surely not surprised. I worked for AT&T for many years, and I ended up quitting because I thought the company as a whole just got progressively worse over the years. Needless to say, it's even worse than that now. They could care less about the customers, and it used to be that if you complained to the right person (say - maybe a supervisor or someone in upper management) you might get something accomplished. This doesn't seem to happen very much anymore. All you're guaranteed to get is a headache! You might luck up and get a nice rep who will sympathize with you, but even they'll only be able to do so much. And usually what they'll do is just remove you from one plan and put you on another that's cheaper for the moment, but in say 3 - 6 months that plan will be as much or more than the one you started out on. And don't think they're doing it just to be nice ... nope! they get a commission for each of those services sold to you. AT&T is just another company that's out to make money by providing you with crappy service and charging you more for it.
Threaten to leave and go to another provider. That usually works with my internet provider.
When they post an upcoming rate change, I simply call and politely say "I am afraid I cannot afford this rate change...it's not in my budget. I'm going to have to cancel my service and go with someone else, but I really don't want to deal with the hassle. Is there something you can do to help me?"
And they usually do. I've gotten some great deals this way...just by asking.
I worked for yahoo DSl for 2 years as a customer service person. I hated that job so much. The customers were never an issue, they were usually nice. It was the company and the higher ups that dictated policy and such.
My call time, when I was on the windows account, averaged about 2 hours. Once I switched to MAC support my call time went down to average 15 minutes!!! That is how much simpler MAC's are.
Anyway. The promotion usually was that DSL for the lesser amount was for X amount of time, once that time limit is up the customer reverts to the normal cost. It appears your time is up for the promotion. There isn't much out there that is comparable cost wise either.
Our DSL bill went from $25 to $35 with no notice. We of course pay it because we do not have the internet on our phones and like to use it at home.
