Are Internet Service Providers Ripping Us Off?
Yes. Yes they are. One in particular to me anyway. Yesterday, Frank wrote an article about how we shouldn’t have to pay for GPS map updates. If you read closely you might have read that he mentioned me and my issues with paying for an internet connection. Its not that I don’t WANT to pay for it actually, I just don’t want to pay through the nose for a shoddy connection that isn’t even really that fast. Right now I am piggy backing off my neighbor…yea yea I know might not be the most nicest thing but its wide open and free.But I don’t want to do that anymore. I want my own connection, not only because I feel bad that I can completely demolish my poor unsuspecting neighbor, but because I want to work at home more and I need some more serious juice in order to do it. Writing a few articles on a laptop is a far cry from this speed demon desktop I built from spare parts (from power button to windows, it boots in about 30 seconds) and the amount of FTPing I need to do.
So the first issue we run into is choice. Of all the internet service providers, in all the world, we only get one. And I don’t mean “we” as in me and my fiancée, I mean you as well. It is very rare to have a choice in who provides you with an internet connection. I can kind of understand this because there is competition in where they lease these from and ISP’s are very territorial. Of course thats where the competition stops because all the ISP’s are gouging consumers in this country. The U.S. is one of the absolute slowest, not to mention what we pay for it. We put a man in the moon and a robot on Mars? Sometimes I really wonder… So lets move on from that issue, and say “ok, I will just make the most with what I have in front of me.” And that would be Comcast.
Have you been to Comcast’s website? Lets talk about it. For starters, they have a great marketing team. They post the prices for an internet connection at the lowest amount but you can’t get them. $19.99 a month for 6 months is not a bad deal when you consider the alternative of $42.95. But that later price of $42.95 is only for those that get the Comcast cable package. How much is that? $29.99! (For the cheapest package that no sane person would want.) So I need to spend $62.94 (before taxes, service fees, surcharges, amendments, handling fees, breathing charges and charity donations mind you) in order to get internet for the on going cost of $42.95 and get cable TV.
What’s the problem? What if I don’t WANT cable TV? We currently get plenty of HD over the air and its only costs was the antenna. Virtually free and we really don’t have the time to watch all the crap we want to watch. So if I stick to my guns and get just the internet: $57.95.
Dammit.
Is it too much to ask to get a decent connection for under $25? And not for just the first twenty minutes of the contract. And so help me if I have to commit to a contract for a connection that constantly goes down. Can you negotiate with Comcast? No, You probably have to call in the Navy.
This sounds lame, but I feel as though my frugality is making me a victim. It doesn’t seem fair that because I don’t want all the bells and whistle I have to pay more. This brings me back to my original thought: Maybe stealing bandwidth isn’t so bad? Comcast seems like they are stealing…What would you do?
PS – Sorry about the crap image: you can thank MSPaint. No photoshop today.
Related articles you might be interested in:
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader or email.
Comments
I totally agree with you Ben. It is absolutely insane! I feel as if the ISPs are taking advantage of people who don’t know any better. And now with bandwidth limits, metered billing, and filtering; the Internet has become hijacked by our ISPs. I call for regulation to keep the Internet free and accessible to all.
As for your situation… I would approach your neighbor and ask to split the Internet bill ($57.95 / 2).
Thanks Carolyn, I am expecting Comcast to stop by when their Google Alerts notify them of our consumer unhappiness.
Comcast caps data at 250 gigs a month which in the big scheme of things isn’t too bad when compared to other ISPs. But honestly…shouldn’t we have an infrastructure by now to handle more freedom? This IS America right? It almost makes me want to pay more to go with a mom-and-pop shop, but there just aren’t any due to the incredible leasing fees from the parent companies that own the actual hard lines.
I have thought about going over there and seeing if we could split it but we have never met and I am pretty sure he would say no. If I had a friend where that sort of thing was a reasonable option I would totally get a bridge and repeat it for real. First I think, oh what the hell lets just get a damn connection and pay the stupid thing, I get all mad again and figure I am going not going without a fight.
Gah, glad to see Comcast hasn’t changed their ways. When we were living in Albuquerque, it was hell to get Internet. We tried Qwest, but they didn’t service our area. So Comcast was our option… Why they would make me pay for cable as well when I can just watch it online anyways is beyond me.
We decided to just get the stupid thing. We had been using our neighbors’ connections for about a month and I was fed up with my connection dropping constantly. Stupid crappy wireless card…
I am in the same spot as far as options go. I can not get any other high speed service in my area other than satellite or comcast. No DSL is even available. All I really want is internet but they price it where you get the basic cable in for the same price as just internet, this seems like it should be illegal. I would completely drop the TV if it made any sense at all.
Do you have an email Newsletter?