Milkshakes for...

Getting several incidents now of land line phone spam, phone rings, pick up, immediately hear ring tone for new number being dialed. I always hang up immediately.

5 with 1-click running smooth as silk here...

Comcast, for the annual "Let's raise your bill by $20, and see if you don't notice" exercise.

It gets better.... phone up Comcast, to ask why the bill from $120 to $140
- You were on a promotional rate. Now it's gone up to the regular rate
- But on your website, it says that the Starter XF Triple play is $99 for the first year, $115 for the second year, and then goes up to the regular rate of $130
- Our rates vary from area to area.
- I entered the address of the apartment two floors above mine.
- That [$130] is the regular rate for new customers. Your regular rate is $140.

I even casually mentioned the number of FiOS and RCN flyers we've had, offering $99, but that didn't faze them. And I can't really threaten to switch right now, since we're likely to leave within six months, and hence don't want a two year commitment. However, I am beginning to appreciate the level of determination it must take Comcast to score 'most hated company' year after year.

FIOS? That's dead. Verizon has offloaded FIOS to "Frontier". Don't know what kind of entity Frontier is or what is behind that move.

It was too expensive to deploy, especially in this economy. It gave Verizon bragging rights for a while, but now it's done.

We've had a couple of fliers in the past month. I didn't know Verizon were trying to offload it. Perhaps that's why my noises about switching had no effect.

Meanwhile I've just found out that AT&T retail stores don't offer the same prices as AT&T online. And that a new 'free phone with contract renewal' comes complete with $18 activation fee.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/14/2010 08:39AM by YDD.

Yeah, the eligible-with-early-upgrade to iPhone 4 came with an $18 upgrade fee as well.

I wish I could do without (SWMBO likes the wireless umbilical), but things like this make me determined to stick to the most basic service possible. It's not the amount so much as the difficulty of finding what the real price is in advance.

Frontier is only taking over from Verizon in rural areas. Verizon is cleaning up in more urban areas. Makes sense from a business standpoint if it it is mercenary.

Seattle WA and Redmond WA are "rural"?

I believe that a proliferation of longhorns has been sighted in Redmond of late....

And the balding bear, Ballmer.

Or maybe it's the deep and pungent longhorn evidence around the Redmond campus?

I thought Verizon was selling the copper lines, not FiOS, in mostly rural areas to Frontier.

No, Verizon is completely bailing on FIOS.

Can you send a cite?

http://newscenter.verizon.com/press-releases/verizon/2009/verizon-to-divest-wireline.html

Only in 14 states.

At first glance, that seems to say that Verizon is keeping FiOS, and getting rid of copper.

How do you see that? It says Verizon is keeping wireless, and getting rid of wired operations, FIOS being in this definition a wired operation.