Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!caen!kuhub.cc.ukans.edu!mauler
From: mauler@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Re: PRODIGY  ????
Message-ID: <1991Apr2.211616.29412@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu>
Date: 3 Apr 91 03:16:16 GMT
References: <67371@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU>
Organization: University of Kansas Academic Computing Services
Lines: 52

In article <67371@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU>, v067hll6@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu (Marshall A Kelly) writes:
> I'm am try to locate information on PRODIGY. 
> ANd access numbers and Rate for Buffalo, N Y
> 
> Can anyone provide information and or direction to look for such information.
> 
> Please e-mail...
> Thanks
> 
> MArsh!!!

If you are looking for a cheap substitute for CompuServe, FORGET IT!

These people cannot understand the words (at least when they are in the 
same line together), "CANCEL ACCOUNT", anywhere from small Pica letters
on a letter, to big red letters scrawled all across the bill.  Their
services suit the average business professional who doesn't get the Weather
Channel on TV.  Their games suit people who have never played anything 
even close to arcade games, casino games, or computer games.  They have
burned people in the past; their policies cause more people to move away
as quickly as possible; their advertisments may have gotten more people using
modems and computers for telecommunications than ever before, but they sure
don't seem to want to keep customers, UNTIL the customer wants to discontinue
the PRODIGY service.  I have NOT used the Prodigy service for at least three
months now, but they still want to charge me $12.95 a month for the priveledge
of getting on their junk mailing lists.  

Just wait, there's more:  I began my PRODIGY account under a special offer,
an offer promising that one could use the service free for 30 days, then either
pay the fee or cancel the service.  I used it for two weeks, decided I did not
like it, and sent the bill back with a nice letter asking them to 
discontinue service.  They sent the bill back the following month with the
next month's fee tacked onto it!  I sent another letter, firmly and clearly
asking for a discontinuance of the service, remarking on the bad memory of
the people who offered the "no-risk" (yeah, right) guarantee, mentioning that
I had not used the service at all since I sent the last cancellation letter,
and no payment (usually people get hit hardest in the pocketbook).
I received a bill in the mail the following month, with a respectful letter
asking why I had not paid up to then!  I then sent back the bill with big red
letters saying "CANCEL SUBSCRIPTION" written *all over* the bill and a fairly
nasty letter.  Since the bill last month, I think I'll give a call to whomever
is in charge of seeing that businesses live up to their word (I have documents
proving that the offer exists, and that I began it under the offer), and send
a copy of the original offer to PRODIGY, just in case their computers have
a better memory than the people who run PRODIGY.

All I can say, is that PRODIGY is a bad idea, and you should stay away from
them until they announce publicly that they have changed their policies of 
lying to and cheating customers.

Leo Mauler
mauler@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu