Satellite Internet Users?

[tbeltrans]

When we considered ditching Comcast, a guy in our condo association who works for the phone company Century Link said we should get their DSL service because it is only $30 a month. I contacted the people he directed me to, and while it is true that I would pay $30 a month, that was only for the first year. At the end of that, the monthly fee goes up to $72 a month. However, the guy said that if we are good customers (i.e. pay our bill on time), they would give us whatever deal they had going at the time.

I don't want to go from deal to deal. Just give me a price and I will determine if I want to pay it or not. At least the price we have for internet service only is not some temporary deal and is still affordable at about $45 a month.

I am sure Century Link is fine and I don't want to bad-mouth them. I just don't get why these companies can't set a price and stay with it with very gradual increases as deemed necessary over a long period of time. If they are losing money by providing internet service at a certain bandwidth for $30 a month, then don't do that. Set the cost and stick to it.

Most businesses have a sense of what the market will bear and what they need to charge to remain in business. If they didn't, they would go out of business before too long. Airlines and phone/internet seem to have weird ways about their pricing schemes rather than being simple and straightforward. Charge what you need to charge and leave it at that.

Tony

[Chicago Sandy]

Intro deals that disappear after awhile are as old as the hills and not limited to cable, internet, phone service, and other subscriptions. Ditto for expensive discretionary items like designer cosmetics, pricey supplements, tools and such. Just last night I saw an infomercial for an airbrush makeup system (formerly used just by professional artists but now “trickling down” to consumers) that offered a 30-day trial for $20 and then “easy” monthly payments of $30 each (rounded up by a nickel). Buried several layers deep in their website (and never disclosed in the infomercial) was the actual price: $225 plus periodic automatic “consumables” refills. Why not just say “$225” and then "purchase refills as needed?" For that matter, why sell inkjet printers at below-cost prices or even give them away with computers? Why not just say upfront that the real cost is the ink cartridges--a month’s worth of which may well exceed the price of the hardware?

Because they’ve got to catch people’s attention to get them in the door and away from the competition--or to purchase a type of good or service new to them.

Just be glad your music store doesn’t follow that model, especially if you don’t play often enough to change strings monthly...or if you want to try different brands of strings. But there’s always a first time for everything....

[tbeltrans]

Originally Posted by Chicago Sandy

Intro deals that disappear after awhile are as old as the hills and not limited to cable, internet, phone service, and other subscriptions. Ditto for expensive discretionary items like designer cosmetics, pricey supplements, tools and such. Just last night I saw an infomercial for an airbrush makeup system (formerly used just by professional artists but now “trickling down” to consumers) that offered a 30-day trial for $20 and then “easy” monthly payments of $30 each (rounded up by a nickel). Buried several layers deep in their website (and never disclosed in the infomercial) was the actual price: $225 plus periodic automatic “consumables” refills. Why not just say “$225” and then "purchase refills as needed?" For that matter, why sell inkjet printers at below-cost prices or even give them away with computers? Why not just say upfront that the real cost is the ink cartridges--a month’s worth of which may well exceed the price of the hardware?

Because they’ve got to catch people’s attention to get them in the door and away from the competition--or to purchase a type of good or service new to them.

Just be glad your music store doesn’t follow that model, especially if you don’t play often enough to change strings monthly...or if you want to try different brands of strings. But there’s always a first time for everything....

Good points, especially about printers. I don't have experience with the other products you mentioned (or maybe buying them through the means you describe), so I wasn't aware of those until your post. I guess I am just not that much a shopper.

Tony

[KevWind]

Our experience with Hughes went from bad to worse. I suppose the one good thing that came from it is I will have fodder for a song.

[tbeltrans]

Originally Posted by Chicago Sandy

Intro deals that disappear after awhile are as old as the hills and not limited to cable, internet, phone service, and other subscriptions. Ditto for expensive discretionary items like designer cosmetics, pricey supplements, tools and such. Just last night I saw an infomercial for an airbrush makeup system (formerly used just by professional artists but now “trickling down” to consumers) that offered a 30-day trial for $20 and then “easy” monthly payments of $30 each (rounded up by a nickel). Buried several layers deep in their website (and never disclosed in the infomercial) was the actual price: $225 plus periodic automatic “consumables” refills. Why not just say “$225” and then "purchase refills as needed?" For that matter, why sell inkjet printers at below-cost prices or even give them away with computers? Why not just say upfront that the real cost is the ink cartridges--a month’s worth of which may well exceed the price of the hardware?

Because they’ve got to catch people’s attention to get them in the door and away from the competition--or to purchase a type of good or service new to them.

Just be glad your music store doesn’t follow that model, especially if you don’t play often enough to change strings monthly...or if you want to try different brands of strings. But there’s always a first time for everything....

Just a few more thoughts on this...

I do wonder if a business could survive by laying out the price of their product without all the silly games. I seem to recall that this one of Saturn's advertising claims - we tell you the real price and that is what it is.

There may be people who prefer always having to go for "the deal". I like bargaining on items too. However, when it comes to subscriptions, I just want to know what the product is and the monthly price. I now get that from Comcast and have never had a complaint about their service, so that is where I will stay unless they start raising the prices at the alarming rates they did this past year when we had the basic cable bundled with the internet service. Once we got the TV part out of the picture since we never used it anyway, things stabilized.

Raising the price a couple of dollars every other year or so to keep up with whatever is driving their costs would be acceptable to me. I could go for a much cheaper service, but then I would be complaining about various aspects of it the way others seem to.

Tony

[jseth]

When I lived in the redwoods outside of Fort Bragg, Ca., I was forced to use satellite for my internet and TV...

The satellite internet was horrific, so slow that it was unusable for on-line gaming... and forget about downloading/streaming, unless you have all day and enjoy watching "stop and go" shows... It wasn't even that good a price, either, but I had no other options...

I have Comcast and like it okay, but as many have stated, they aren't forthcoming about changes in the bill or any "deals" that can be made... I usually just call and tell them I'm going to switch to something else and then get the "new" deal...

However, last time I called them, I mentioned that I did not feel appreciated for my business, and THAT seemed to trigger some positive responses... the guy on the phone actually had me repeat the phrase, and then proceeded to get me a decent deal for less than I had been paying with more options on the TV side of the bundle...

I'm about to do it all again... PITA, but what are you gonna do? It's the best game in town if you want/need internet/TV and phone service...

[D. Shelton]

Her game is now 42% downloaded Just a couple more days and it'll be ready to roll . My line is still minimally functional : 5-20 seconds for pages to come up , when it's actually working . I should wipe that silly grin off my face until they come Tuesday and look at the line ...