Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ukma!husc6!cmcl2!phri!marob!cabreu
From: cabreu@marob.MASA.COM (Carlos Cabreu)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems
Subject: Re: FYI -- PC-P Price "Increase"
Message-ID: <437@marob.MASA.COM>
Date: 2 Jan 89 15:07:59 GMT
References: <8901012214.AA25093@amon-re.cs.odu.edu>
Reply-To: cabreu@marob.masa.com (Carlos Cabreu)
Organization: ESCC  New York City
Lines: 45

In article <8901012214.AA25093@amon-re.cs.odu.edu> tadguy@cs.odu.edu (Tad Guy) 
writes:

>Sorry, I don't buy that reasoning.  The contract we all got with our
>PC Pursuit accounts was clear that it was an unlimited service.  The
>advertising I saw used the fact that it was an unlimited service as a
>selling point.  The people who manage TELENET are not idiots:  TELENET
>must have known that people would take advantage of the
>"unlimitedness" of the service... 

Well, years ago when TELENET introduced its PC-Pursuit product they were
looking to make money during the off-peak hours when their network was almost
completely idle.  I don't believe that they ever expected it to turn into
the behemoth-brute-thing it is now.  Even with all their market saavy,
they could never have anticipated it; Telenet would have never introduced the
product in the first place.

No, they're not idiots, but they don't have a crystal ball either.

>I don't think it is fair to blame USENET and other "heavy" users for
>TELENET's change in policy.  We (yes, I admit to being a heavy PC
>Pursuit user) were working within PC Pursuit's rules.  Perhaps they
>should have done a little better research, or had written in a ceiling
>in the original contract?

It's more than a change in "policy."  It's a change in pricing structure.
It's foolish to think that their apparent "altruism" would last forever.
Telenet has saved me untold sums over the years and I'm grateful for that.
Even their new pricing is substantially better than Ma Bell's.

>The point here is not that USENET users are "abusing" PC Pursuit, but
>that TELENET didn't correctly estimate the number of people that would
>take advantage of their offer for unlimited service.  

At the risk of sounding like a devil's advocate (since I use PC-Pursuit
a lot), they're correcting an oversight of theirs and I'm surprised they
didn't do something about it earlier.

I've always had the feeling that PC-Pursuit customers were treated like
second-rate citizens (for $25.00 a month -- you get what you pay for.)
The thing to look forward to is improved service from Telenet.  They'd
be unwise not to re-invest money after the price hike to improve service.
-- 
Carlos Manuel Abreu MASE CSE CDP CCP /---------/ Cyberphilia/NYC (212) 431-0434
/----------------------------------------/428 Broome Street, New York, NY 10013