A little over a year ago, I signed up with SBC/Yahoo DSL. Had to agree to a year of service to get what I thought was a pretty dang expensive rate of $34.99/month (not sure, I don’t have my old bill handy…) I have my local and long distance thru SBC, so I wasn’t too put off by the price, I had been paying $24.95/month for dial up through a local ISP.
Anyway, got my last bill and SBC had jacked me up to $59.99/month. $25/month increase since my year was up. Sheese!
So I call them up and explain that $34.99 was not really a competitive rate, and I sure as hell wasn’t paying $59.99. No sweat, says them, we’ll drop you down to $21/month. Same service.
So almost a $40 spread. At first I was kinda pissed that they would just jack me like that, but now I’m glad they did. I didn’t really like paying $35/month, but would have went right on paying it if not for the very noticeable jump in my payment. Now I’m paying $14/month less than a rate that I most likely wouldn’t have ever called up to gripe about.
I mentioned that a friendly reminder would have been nice before they just jacked me. They said they didn’t have my email addy. Oh, you mean the one right here on my statement? Glad they dropped the ball.
And I got them to send me an email saying that I would be credited the difference between the $59.99 bill I’m going to pay, and the $21 rate I have agreed to.
Is this typical of the SBC (now AT&T, again) Yahoo experience? I’m going to be in the market for DSL soon, and I’m not sure which way to go. My email is already a Yahoo account, so I was leaning that way, but not if they’re going to screw me on the price. (I have my doubts that I’ll be able to talk them down the way you did, Duke.) If any Dopers have a recommendation, I’d like to hear it. Thanks.
I have really enjoyed my SBC/Yahoo DSL up until I got this bill. I’d rate the service A+.
I didn’t so much as talk them down, I was actively chewing on some ass when the girl interrupted me and said that if I would commit to another year, she’d see what the best rate was she could offer. She volunteered the $21/month. She also apologized for them not notifying me of the impending increase, but that was the impetus for me picking up the phone to gripe…and ultimately secure a better rate.
If you go to their homepage, you can see the different rates. Then just call them and tell them Duke got $21/month from Stacy
What I’m wondering is, did they give you that sweet price because you also have the phone service (local and long distance)? Maybe she was actually giving you package deal price, not just knocking off your single service price. Of course, that begs the question, why not give you the package price in the first place?
What about Earthlink? Anybody out there know if Earthlink is any good? I saw they offer internet phone service, too. I’d be curious to hear from any of their subscribers.
I got rid of SBC last month because I was promised one price ($34.99 for phone service) and $9.99 for DSL. It crept up every month until it was up to $80. When I’d call to complain they denied ever offering the package I signed up for and blamed the rest on “taxes” and long distance calls (package was supposed to have included free long distance.)
At any rate, I switched over to cable internet and phone and have ne’er been happier. Service is good and fast, bill is sane with no hidden charges. SBC calls every day now to try and lure me back – hah!
It’s funny how one person’s experience with these companies can be a total opposite of someone else’s experience.
Did your bill come as just one total due, or did they at least itemize the charges? I can’t see how they could argue that the cost was due to long distance if your bill is itemized and says, "DSL service — “$$$$$”. Or is there a missing part of the story?
As for cable, the only provider where I live is Comcast, and I loathe that company. I refuse to give them any more money than I have to. I’m looking to move soon–hence my interest in changing my set up–and I might go with a different cable company. Your testimony about the service being fast jibes with what I’ve heard so far regarding cable internet. I just know I’d prefer someone other than Comcast.
The bill from SBC started out high for “installation” and other bullshit related charges. Then, after one month of the promised $50 +/-, they claimed that the “promotion period” was over and that they had not promised the low rate for a year (which they had.) They then snuck in long distance charges and when I noticed they did own that it was their error, but it took two months to get get the charges reversed. I think bait and switch most accurately describes my interations with SBC.
I have Comcast for everything now. Cable and phone are great, and the cable internet connection is screaming fast. All of this comes in for about $75 a month. I’d be willing to do a commercial for them after being treated so snarkily by SBC
A similar thing happened to me - we had cable internet and no landline but SBC sent me an offer in the mail for $14.99 DSL and $9.99 basic landline phone service, so I took that offer. I was expecting it to be just under $40 per month after taxes and fees and all that, still a good deal for DSL and home phone. Now it is 6 months later and they have never once gotten my bill right, I have been on the phone back and forth with them every month, even in touch with a local manager and sent letters. They denied that I ever received that offer and that the offer must have been for DSL for $29.99. I told them they were nuts, I was paying that price for cable internet and why would I switch from cable to DSL for the same price? Finally I got someone to admit that the offer had once existed for people switching from cable internet, a fact that they knew since I had to mail them a copy of my cable bill…TWICE.
Every month they would swear they would fix it and credit me back for previous months and every new month I would get a wrong bill. Finally I got ahold of the one coherent rep. there (after being told that the manager I had been sending my mail to as instructed had been out on medical leave for 6 weeks :rolleyes:) and we have supposedly straightened everything out. Now they extended my service for a year at the $14.99 price and are crediting me back all the overcharges, plus giving me 3 months free for switching from cable. So I figure I won’t have to pay SBC a bill for another 6 months or so. The hassle I had to go through to just get what I was offered was incredible, though.
Nothing wrong with the DSL itself though, I am happy with the internet connection but sheesh! Every single thing that could have gone wrong from the beginning did (I should have known I was in for it when, 2 weeks after placing my order no one had sent our internet hardware as promised. When I called they told me oops, looks like we took your order but never processed your order. It will be 2 more weeks.)
I signed up originally with SBC Yahoo because it bought out Prodigy; I had DSL for the price you mention then had to drop it when I got laid off. After I found a new job, I wanted to up my service to DSL again, but they weren’t offering it in my area any more… :dubious:
So I switched to Earthlink DSL and haven’t had any problems. I’ve got 5 pc’s accessing the internet through a wireless router and haven’t had my rates raised (which they say they’ll do if I start using too much bandwidth). Nice, zippy, fast connection. No complaints.
We tried SBC/Yahoo DSL for awhile and it really sucked, so we went with cable internet. That had to be at least two years ago, maybe three.
The other day I got a letter from SBC saying we may have a credit balance in our former SBC Internet account, and we should call before April 15, 2006.
Sounds like ball dropping is pretty common at SBC/Yahoo. I’ll wait until I get my next bill to pass judgement, but the ads at the bottom of the page are advertising DSL for $14.99/month. Now I did have the (supposedly) higher speed option of the ones listed when I signed up originally, the $14.99 service might not be as fast, and I have some stuff like 2GB :rolleyes: of email that might not be offered at that rate.
If my tale of woe (and the replies) help somebody avoid any pitfalls, then the thread has done a service I guess.
Yeah, I think this has definitely turned me away from SBC. I think I’ll look into Earthlink, unless Ethilrist comes up with any complaints. You’re changing the world, Duke, one subscriber at a time.
All I gotta say is I went back to SBC Yahoo DSL because I switched to satellite and you can’t have a cable modem with satellite. Unless you want to pay for basic cable, plus having the cable modem.
Had I not switched to satellite, I would have stayed with the cable modem.
Honestly I can’t stand having SBC Yahoo but it’s better than regular dial up and I’m not having as much problem this go around as I did before (about a year and a half ago I had dsl).
I say, if you can get your grubby little paws on cable, I’d go with cable. Too bad the cable company charges so freakin much for service.
Yeah, but you can get satellite internet. I know this, but I’ve never encountered anyone who has that service, so I’m not sure if it’s good or not. Supposed to be slower (connection speed) and more expensive, but still faster than dial-up. Or such is my (limited) understanding.
AFAIK, the $24.95 rate was a promotional rate for the first year, so what you saw was the jump to their “standard” rate. I bet the $21 rate is also promotional, so you can probably expect the same thing to happen next year. They hope enough people don’t notice the increase, or are too passive to call and complain.
I’m very biased since I work for a local ISP that provides DSL using the “open” network that SBC/ATT is required to have as part of the telecommunications act of 1996. The rate we pay for the wholesale DSL circuit itself is more than their lowest promotional rate. This is before we provide internet bandwidth, email and other local services, support staff, and other miscellaneous infrastructure. They are actively trying to put small ISPs like us out of business. We are priced out of the market by the very company that we must to business with to provide DSL at all. To us, SBC is the enemy, but they are one of the largest parts of our budget.
If you are satisfied with their service, by all means take advantage of their cut-throat rates. If you have a local ISP in your area that provides the same DSL service for slightly more, you may want to give them a shot, though, as they will (hopefully) value your business more and will probably give you much better support when something billing or technical does go wrong. It might also make you feel better by doing your part by voting with your dollar against one of the vilest corporations you’re likely to encounter.
