Comments on: Review Your Service

By: Maevyn

Maevyn — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 17:51:37 +0000

This is the exact reason that we dropped our home phone service with Qwest & switched over to using Vonage. Qwest is such an asinine company, and we always found that no matter what their current “deal” was, it always ended up being MORE expensive than the last. Isn’t there something out there that rules against false advertising? We had our local and long distance phone service through them. It seemed that no matter how little we talked long distance each month, our next bill was always more than the last. Taxes were forever increases. New “service” fees were continually evolving. We finally just had enough. We’ve been with Vonage for I can’t even tell you how long now, and we absolutely love it. $28 a month for local/unlimited long distance?? I wonder WTF we were EVER thinking by using a bottom-feeding slime like Qwest…

BTW, found you through Kelly over at Redheaded 8itch. Hope you don’t mind my stopping by.

By: Nico

Nico — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 16:23:17 +0000

The thing I hate about cellphones in particular is that if you even slightly tweak the plan it tends to reset the length of you contract. That’s a nasty little trick to prevent you from changing your plan.

By: Jorgeq

Jorgeq — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 00:56:24 +0000

I can’t really complain about any of my services in regards to telecommunication. My ISP is great and I get what I pay for. T-mobile has one of the best customer service out there, as oppose to Sprint.

By: Kelly

Kelly — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 15:57:24 +0000

I totally agree with you that we are paying more than we should for certain things. I’m pretty sure we’re paying way more for our cell phone but when we inquired they assured us that we have one of the best plans going. I don’t know but I kinda find that hard to believe.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 14:49:30 +0000

While I am a fan of being a cheap-ass, it’s not the evil corporation’s fault, necessarily, if the consumer doesn’t pay attention to changes in their fees.

99% of the companies I’ve worked with, or have been a patron of, have clearly stated in their disclaimer/terms of service/usage policy that after the promotional term the prices goes to the “normal-steal-every-last-dime” rate. While that rate may be an insane amount to charge, the company has done their job to notify the consumer of the change. All the consumer has to do is actually read what they agree to - which few people rarely do. There are those few slimeball companies out there to give the public the collective shaft, but from what I’ve seen, most companies cover their asses to avoid lawsuits.

I’ve been bitten a few times by the “oops! my contract expired and now i’m getting killed by fees!” thing, but as long as the company I’m a patron of has done their job in the beginning to notify me of known future pricing changes, it’s unfair of me to blame them for my oversight.

It’s not “unfair” in my opinion if a buddy of mine is paying more for the same service as me if i’m a more recent customer. That’s the point of companies offering sales and promotional offers - to catch the eye of new patrons. If I buy a TV at a non-sale rate, and my neighbor buys the same TV during a holiday sale years later, I shouldn’t expect to get a refund from the company for the difference. It’s not feasible for a company to stay in business if they extend every new, discounted price offering to all its customers all across the board.

By: Dan Lacher

Dan Lacher — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 13:34:35 +0000

I hate to say it but I have been there as well. Since I am what some might say is a ‘budget nazi’ I tend to stay on top of the prices I pay all the time, it I get lack maybe I check in only once a quarter. I have not found the cell phone to be as bad as cable and internet providers. With the swith I just made to DSL over cable I am saving about $30 / month for the same bandwidth speed.