Ancient Aliens: ISP Edition

"Jacques L' Autre" (jacklauterdale) 10/27/2016 at 15:56 • Filed to: way offtopic, cotomer sevis

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Due to a few geographic limitations, and a lack of competing options my current internet provider is able to get away with shilling their services with basically no competition. Their corporate motto is literally, “We’re the best because we have to be.” Not the most confidence inspiring. By far though the worst thing about this company though is their data caps.

Back in May I noticed my internet usage had abnormally spiked from the previous months usage by a large margin. Previously in April we only recorded 330GB of usage out of a 500GB plan, their entry level “Gold” membership. In May though, the bill stated that we had reached 720GB with the same amount of internet usage in the house taking place. After calling to confirm this, I ended up settling with upgrading to “Platinum!” which brings a 750GB cap instead of paying the overage charges with the intent of switching back to “Gold” if I didn’t notice an increase.

Fast-forward to today, October, 27th, and I’m finally getting around to switching back to “Gold” since we really hadn’t gone over the original 500GB plan too excessively over the past few months. After calling in to confirm this I learn that very shortly after the unexplained spike back in May that they have now eliminated Gold, Platinum, and probably Myrrh in favor of an entirely new system that’s angled towards cable and internet packaging, and coincidentally all more expensive than the plans I had been “grandfathered” into.

Let me preface this with the fact that I have no idea if this would be possible, but since it’s a utility company everyone in town loves to bitch about, I figure why not. Is it unreasonable to think that the company purposely jacked up internet usage rates on Gold customers to get them to upgrade to a Platinum level before they introduced their newer plans? Like I said I have no idea if that’s a possibility, but after dealing with them for a while now I do have my suspicions if there wasn’t some sort of ulterior motive.

e36Jeff now drives a ZHP > Jacques L' Autre 10/27/2016 at 16:37

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I doubt they falsely increased the data usage meters, as that would be really illegal. If its a tiny company you might be screwed by the rate changes, if its a big(ish) one you might be able to get your rates lowered by threatening to quit altogether. If they point out they are the only game in town, claim you can go satellite internet(Hughesnet) or that you have a cell phone with unlimited data(usually tmobile) and you’re just going to tether that to your router. Normally this should get you over to a retention department that will have access to plans and packages that normal sales & billing people don’t have access to.

Source: I work for one.

Jacques L' Autre > e36Jeff now drives a ZHP 10/27/2016 at 17:11

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I gather that it’s illegal, I think that more or less comes from me wanting something to legitimately hate about them, haha. That’s a good approach, though they are a smaller company.

e36Jeff now drives a ZHP > Jacques L' Autre 10/27/2016 at 17:40

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Screwing with the data usage reports to drive customers to a more expensive tier/charge them overage fees would be 100% illegal, and, especially if they are small, would likely drive them out of business if caught, hence they probably didn’t do that. Getting fined out of existence is bad for the bottom line.

Threatening to quit is always the best/fastest way to lower the bill, you just need to know your alternatives so you can avoid getting your bluff called.

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > Jacques L' Autre 10/27/2016 at 18:19

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Ugh. I also am in the same boat. One internet provider, although I only have two performance options, on or off. Fortunately it’s decent service that isn’t dial-up (although it gets a little interrupty in the winter for some reason) without a cap (so far as I can tell) but I’m still paying $75/month for it. Robbery is what it is.