![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-108612-100x100.png\")
I like how $27.99 is \"Easy on the budget,\" where $17.99 isn't. I guess it's easier to allocate the rest of your money when there's less of it.
They are right that $17.99 is the \"Better value\", though, whereas $27.99 is just \"More value\" -- than something.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/css/images/default.gif\")
@bluewyvern: In other words advertising likes to use wording that doesn't really mean shit when you think about it.
I say to Pluto with their antics and go for broke: A commercial T1 circuit and be done with it.
A broker from broadband.com keeps pestering me with rates on T1's, both hybrid (voice/data)for 500 and straight data for 395. He also put a DS3 offer of 2K/mo, that's 3 GBPs up AND down! If you want unmolested service, going commercial is the way go to these days.
@Nighthawke: 3 Gigabytes a second with a DS3? I don't think so. Where did you get your numbers? It's more like 45Mb/s or like 4 to 5MB/s actual speed.
@Nighthawke: A DS3 is the equivalent of a T3 or 45 MBps.
On 2K my guess is he is offering a fractional DS3 at about 20 MBps (still pretty darn good for a business, terrible for a consumer). The pricing sounds similar to our vendor...
@Sheila it is a monthly fee, useful connections if you need high speed uploads since a T1 is 1.5 MBps up and down. For a consumer DSL/Cable is usually better since you tend to download far more than upload (DSL and Cable tend to have higher download rates but far lower upload rates)
Bingo. A T1's true strength isn't its speed anymore. It's the ability to have up to 23 dedicated channels (remember, kids: one channel is for \"call setup\" data!). This is beneficial to businesses or schools with traditional phone service and multiple inbound and outbound line needs.
You know Verizon gives two flavors.
The piddling yet sufficient 90 kilobytes per second download speed for $20, and the 4x the speed for like $10 more.
Ha! We're FiOS customers (love the service) and we can't get paper billing since we don't have a phone line. Likewise, we keep getting sent bulk FiOS solicitations asking us to downgrade our service (y'know, those current resident mailings). More recently, they've figured out that we ARE in fact customers, but have begun sending us mailings telling us to downgrade to the much cheaper and slower DSL. Maybe they're trying to help us through the recession..? I'm with Alex on this one. Verizon: Get help!
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-439678-100x100.png\")
@alexawesome: I got 5 mailings in one day, 2 were in normal envelopes advertising FiOS, 1 in an envelope advertising DSL and another 2 in \"PRIORITY EXPRESS!!!!1!\" cardboard envelopes advertising FiOS
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-537475-100x100.png\")
@alexawesome: We keep getting the bulk solicitations too, but we ARE on the basic plan, and they keep spamming us because they don't know we're customers, and they don't actually offer better deals because we're already on the basic Fios plan.
Is it possible they are advertising two different speeds?
@CSUSam:
I'll bet whoever they hired to do their creative work had some really f-ed up typo between the box ad and the tower ad. They're basically two seperate gif images made in photshop, and the media agencies usually create them for Verizon then disseminate them to the websites they buy space on. In any case the agency f-ed up because they either made a typo, or if verizon is playing pricing they sent the wrong ad to the wrong site.
The $17.99 price is for their 1 Mbps service and the $27.99 price is for their 3 Mbps service. On the ad to the right, you can see the words, \"With speeds up to...\" but the bottom is cut off.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-587956-100x100.png\")
@SnehalataPotts: Yep, I just looked at verizon.com and that's correct.
I can see how that screencap looks stupid at first, but it's actually not.
BTW - To put this in a web development perspective: That website could have ads served from different providers in both of those slots. If it wasn't due to different speeds, such a conflicting display could also happen if:
- The 17.99 ad was the newer one (they lowered prices), and one ad network was a little slow in updating their assets.
- If the two ad networks used different geocode data and the offers were for two different locations (e.g. NY had different pricing than NJ), and the end-user was on the border of both geo locations.
My point is that this article puts the blame squarely on Verizon for being stupid and confusing, but there are at least 2 ways ads on the web can appear confusing or contradictory without being the advertiser's fault.
Or it could just be for 2 different products and no one is at fault for anything.
^^^ Yes, I realize that VZ could be clearer about which price is for which speed. It really irritates me when companies don't mention that sorta thing or put it in the fine print.
Like saying, \"Orange Juice, $5.99\"! Can't really tell if that's a good deal...
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-793925-100x100.png\")
69 News sounds like a porno site.
First is 1MBps plan and second is 3MBps plan.
Wont link to their site but its there.
http://newscenter.verizon.com/press-releases/verizon/2009/consumers-can-ring-in-the-new.html
Verizon media spokesman here, and providing a link to a national announcement that describes our lifetime-guarantee price for our DSL-based Internet service. Up to 1 mbps is $17.99 per month for a two-year commmittment; up to 3 mbps is $27.99 for the same term; and up to 7.1 mbps is $37.99 for the same term. -- Bill Kula
is the 27 a higher speed vs the 17?
Come on Consumerist! The $27/month is for 3MB service where as the $17/Month is for 1MB. Not a bad deal either way.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-335454-100x100.png\")
@orlo: Why? Whatdya got? I pay $50/mo for 8MB down and 2.5MB up. Combining this with $10/mo for T-Mobile VOIP and I'm saving about $27/mo over my old Qwest land line with 1.5 DSL. Booya!
@jokono: Sorry about the \"booya!\" I'm trying to cut back on self-aggrandizing booyas. Actually, I'd like to cut them out altogether. It's a dirty habbit.
@jokono: I'll trade you a handful of ellipses for some booyas. Think about it... It's a pretty good deal ... some of the ellipses are aposiopesis...
I was on Verizon Voicewing which is there VOIP service. I got a letter a few weeks ago they are killing that business. I think they are creating their own problems.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-63807-100x100.png\")
The story from January explains a lot about my experience when I considered switching to Verizon DSL. I tried to call them to get some info on offer for switching from cable. I asked my question to the first rep, who transferred me somewhere else without warning. Asked the question to the second rep, who at least said something about transferring me before doing it. The third rep transferred me into purgatory.
After I tried calling again and went though the same experience, I decided that Verizon didn't want my business.
funny how being handy with the crop tool in photochop can create a story out of thin air...
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-131723-100x100.png\")
I really wish I could get these rates, but I would have to cancel my service and wait a week to become a \"new customer\" In the meantime, someone else could call and request DSL and take my spot at the switch, and if they run out of DSL lines at the switch, I'm screwed.
$44 a month DSL FTL!!
A 2 year contract is just excessive. People move.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-529488-100x100.png\")
They don't even know I exist. I put in my address, and its like \"we can't find you\"
A lot of companies have pricing problems. Most are due to different promotions running at different times but no expiration dates are sent to the ad service or they don't get any response and lower the price any more. I saw this one today (but I'm assuming it is just a typo) [www.gearxs.com] Gotta love that 'Free Shiping' though...
I have two Verizon land lines and used to have DSL with them.
Verizon's customer service (help line) is the reason that I no longer have DSL with them (changed to satellite Internet) and plan to dump the landlines in the next year.
I live in a rural area, have Verizon DSL and have no options for other broadband service. Last year when I renewed my DSL I was offered a \"deal\" on renewal. My price decreased and my speed was to increase.
Lo and behold my speed mysteriously went from 1.5 mb to 750 Kbytes. It took me two months and innumerable hours on the phone with reps to get them to restart my 1.5 mb service.
It seemed to me that by craming people into the slower service they could get more revenue. For example, my 1.5 mb service costs $29.95, the slower 750 kb (and it really is slow) is $17.95 to %21.95. They can have twice the number of people at the slower rate and increase their revenues by roughly 10-30%.
![[www.gearxs.com]](\"http://www.gearxs.com/mailing_list/symantec_banner.jpg.\"){kind=link}
I wanted to get the best deal on Charter Boardband. I called Charter and they gave me like 49.99 a month but I told them i saw their ad at best buy and they said oh well its only 19.99 for 6 months. Like how that works?
@Joey Mendoza: At the end of every promotional period you qualify for a new promotion (or so I am told by a comcast agent). Not so sure about Charter, but I am guessing it's a similar deal. You get charged a low rate for 6 months, then you get charged out the ass. But what they don't tell you is you can sign up for the new promotional deal they have at that time which is always better than what you might be paying at the end of your offer.