Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!ucsd!rutgers!apple!bloom-beacon!oberon!sm.unisys.com!ism780c!ico!isis!aburt From: aburt@isis.UUCP (Andrew Burt) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems Subject: Re: PC Pursuit pricing amendment Message-ID: <2385@isis.UUCP> Date: 8 Jan 89 18:50:04 GMT References: <8901050251.AA14569@nessus.telenet.com> <2384@isis.UUCP> <7400@chinet.chi.il.us> Reply-To: aburt@isis.UUCP (Andrew Burt) Organization: Math/CS, University of Denver Lines: 146 > = <7400@chinet.chi.il.us> patrick@chinet.chi.il.us (Patrick A. Townson): >> = <2384@isis.UUCP> aburt@isis.UUCP (Andrew Burt): >>> = dkpurks@telenet >>> 1. Many people are suggesting that it is the 30 hour monthly >>> usage cap ... which concerns them the most. >> >>Yes, it is. Particularly since PCP was sold as a service with "unlimited" >>usage. Given that there are around 500 hours a month available for usage >>under the old rules, 30 is awfully small. > >But the service which was sold last year and the year before are no longer >available. The service you have been purchasing is being discontinued. Is >Telenet required to make something available forever just because they made >it available at one time? No, of course not, but they could have gone about the matter in a way that didn't look like pure greed was the motive. (And if you want to bring capitalism into it, fine, I've already considered that angle and still feel their actions arrogant and insulting.) Instead, I feel that I signed up for a service that after a very short time was changed to something other than I signed up for. >>> ... Raising the fixed monthly charge >>> penalizes those who use the service less than 30 hours a >>> month (which is statistically the vast majority). >> >>I don't care for ambiguous terms like "vast majority". Is that 50.1% or 99.9%? > > >What difference does it make? Elections are won by 51.1% of the voters acting >in unison as well as 99.9%? About a year ago, Telenet did an analysis of >their traffic on PCP, and found about 80% of the users were on an hour per >day or less. It matters because at 50.1%, 49.9% of the people will be getting higher bills; knowing that, I would feel even more strongly that was an action motivated by pure greed, not to improve the service for those using it. at 99.9% I'd feel it was fairly justified action, just not well presented. What inside information tells you it's 80%, by the way? >How do >you manage to control your telephone bills each month without looking at >the clock from time to time? My phone bill is flat rate. I rather like it that way. If I had to look at the clock all the time I would find using the phone far less pleasureable than now and would use it far less often. As far as PCP already telling me how long I've been connected, thanks for telling me. Now I know. Those semi-random numbers were never explained to be what you say they are. (This lack of proper documentation about telenet has always bothered me, but I never had much cause to care before.) >Do you use any other time sensitive services? Does AT&T tell you when you >have used up your one hour of Reach Out time? Does your local cable company >monitor your use of the system and make you specifically authorize a choice >of programs before playing them, just in case you might have 'miscalculated >how much time you had spent on the movie channel this month'? No, I really prefer to stay away from systems like this. >...You did 'request the package >sent to you' by logging on and entering your password, just like you request >the services of the telephone company every time you lift the receiver and >dial a number. I requested a service with ***unlimited*** calling. >With your attitude, I hope the first time you dispute the charges and >refuse to pay the bill that they cut your account immediatly and put you >in collection. Fine, that will probably cost them more in the long run. >>By the way, I do NOT consider $4.50 an hour cheap. > >No, but I consider you to be cheap. If keeping an eye on expeditures, weighing alternatives, and choosing the best deal is cheap, then I'm proud to be "cheap". I still consider $4.50/hr expensive. Perhaps you would too if you woke up and thought about that being higher than minimum wage, for example. While I make better than minimum wage, how could you have known that when you replied? How could you know, for example, that I'm not making $15k a year? If "cheap" means I'm cautious about spending money, and that I manage to invest some each year so that I'll have some money when I retire, yeah, I'm cheap! Let's not forget, PCP is *entertainment* for many of us. I'm not using it for business. Hence my comparison below to a movie. And to my phone bill. Maybe if more people watched their expenses we wouldn't have the massive consumer debt problem we do in this country. If this is "cheap", I'm all for it. >>At $30 a month >>PCP will cost more than my monthly local phone bill, and that's for two >>phone lines. I have NEVER considered long distance inexpensive. I >>would never pay $4.50 for extensive periods of time on the phone. >> >>Geez, I consider a movie in a theater expensive at $6/person, and that's >>about $3/hour. Let's keep things in perspective, here!) >> >If you want to keep things in perspective, then you should bear in mind that >the least expensive long distance service available is Reach Out at $7.55 >per hour. I don't have "reach out" -- I don't make that many long distance calls. By choice. Because it is so expensive. I prefer to have my options open, not closed. Flat rates are open. Whenever you have to weigh each call as being necessary or not (as in LD and now PCP) then options are being closed. Fun is certainly being lost. And PCP was never more than fun in this house. >If you think $1 per hour is >some sort of ripoff, then I cannot understand why you even own a modem. Yeah, but you can't pay it in $1 increments. You have to pay it in $30 increments! >and I can only assume your monthly phone bill is somewhere between $25-30 >per month since you did not offer this complaint when PCP was charging $25 >per month. I thought $25 was high, you're right. >What do you think your phone bill would be without PCP? Or would >you simply not make as many long distance data calls? You got it. I wouldn't call the systems I do. Period. I'd rent a buck movie instead. -- Andrew Burt ncar!isis!aburt "Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time."