Let me start out by saying I have been extremely happy with my AT&T; Yahoo! DSL line. I have had this line for four or five years and in this time I would guess it has been down less than five times for less than a week of time. I happily pay US$27.99 for the service even though I get about 1200-1300 kbps when the service is rated at 3000-6000kbps. It is fast enough for what I do including email, Internet browsing, downloads of apps, and the occasional VOIP call. Today I did some mentoring with PcAnywhere and was talking on the VOIP line at the same time and there was barely a hiccup.
Last week I got an email from my beloved vendor:
Dear AT&T; Yahoo! High Speed Internet Member,
We truly appreciate your business and would like to remind you that the introductory pricing for your AT&T; Yahoo! High Speed Internet Elite service is scheduled to expire within the next 60 days.To ensure your continued enjoyment of all the many benefits you have come to rely upon from AT&T; Yahoo! High Speed Internet, your service will automatically continue at the low ongoing rate of $34.99 per month*, with absolutely no term commitment! That is the lowest month-to-month rate for AT&T; Yahoo! High Speed Internet Elite service.
How lucky am I? Only a 25% increase! What do these people think they are Blue Cross Blue Shield (who hit me up for a 22% increase this month)? I check their Web site and see new customers get the same price, but get two months free. I called AT&T; and while on hold I checked out Comcast cable who is offering 6.0 up to 12.0 mbps for US$20 a month for six months followed by US$42.50 (or an average of US$31 and some change).
I ask about other deals and mention how loyal customers are treated like dirt compared to new customers. My daughters laugh at me when I do this, but I see it is a trait getting passed down to them because I heard my son beat the crud out of a Verizon sales guy a few months ago. It seems to be an annual tradition with the company now referring to themselves as the “New AT&T.;” For me, it is the same old garbage.
So for my time I was rewarded with a new 12 month contract with one month free, plus two more months free because I pointed out that I was not getting as good of a deal as the new customers. So it pays to be persistent!
I thought I would pass this along to you in case you are “up for renewal” on your broadband plan. I also see they are dropping the monthly US$2 fee to use the AT&T; wireless hot spots around the world. Nice bonus.
I have been paying $32.95 per month for my BellSouth aDSL service that is rated at 1500/256. I have had it for 5-1/2 years and I can’t even get the two tiers above it for even more money.
And, earlier this year AT+T bought out BellSouth so now I pay them that amount for that speed that has been the same for 5-1/2 years. You would think in all of that time, they could squeeze out a bit more for me. But, their solution is for me to move my residence closer to their equipment, rather than the other way around.
Comcast in my town (with Wide Open West as a competitor hanging on the same poles) is $57.95/mo. I really gotta look into changing – WOW is in the mid-$30 range, and better phone/internet/cable packages. I’ve heard that AT&T; is supposed to be offering DSL lines in our area for <$12/mo. I may wait for that….
I checked into Comcast and WOW last year since they are both “competing” in our area. Their prices were within a dollar of each other. No competition at all.