Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!purdue!bu-cs!encore!cloud9!dts
From: dts@cloud9.Stratus.COM (Daniel Senie)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: CompuServe, Free Services, $1.50 charge
Keywords: CompuServe,CIS,free
Message-ID: <5144@cloud9.Stratus.COM>
Date: 7 May 89 02:02:08 GMT
References: <96@aicchi.UUCP>
Organization: Stratus Computer, Inc., Marlboro, MA
Lines: 42

In article <96@aicchi.UUCP>, joeloda@aicchi.UUCP (Joe Loda) writes:
> 
>     Anyone out there have any comments on the new $1.50 service charge
> imposed by CompuServe on their subscribers.  It seemed to me to be a
> fixed charge to cover all the "free" services they are now offering.
> Since this smacks of a monthly minimum to me (according to their feedback
> represenative), charged even if you don't log in during the billing period,
> I cancelled my account.
> 
> Comments?

I have been seriously considering cancelling my account for the same reason.
One of the things I liked best about Compuserve is not having to worry about
the accout if I didn't use it for 6 months at a time. If they had asked for an
$18 a year mailbox charge or something, I wouldn't mind as much. I just really
dislike them charging my credit card every month, even when I don't use the
service.

I'm seriously thinking of using BIX instead. It costs more at first, but they
have flat rates up around the $100 range. I spend that much a year sometimes
on C-Serve... (and other years zero).

The charge is applied as a monthly minimum. If you have a billing option
which is not "free", then you don't pay the $1.50. It is included in the
charge for that billing. Of course the Executive Option charges remain
unaffected. This really was a change to a $1.50 monthly minimum for
credit cards. They made "free" those services (billing, etc.) which should have
been free anyway.

The real clincher for this: I asked if they were going to notify people with
accounts which have not been used in a long time, to tell them of the new
charges. They said NO! They are going to just bill those peoples' credit
cards. (My mother has an account which she hasn't used in a year). The service
rep told me that they were within the bounds of their customer agreement,
which evidently allows them to change their customer agreement without
written notice.

-- 
Daniel Senie               UUCP: harvard!ulowell!cloud9!dts 
Stratus Computer, Inc.     ARPA: anvil!cloud9!dts@harvard.harvard.edu
55 Fairbanks Blvd.         CSRV: 74176,1347
Marlboro, MA 01752	   TEL.: 508 - 460 - 2686