Sky-High Internet
By: Ron Burley | Source: AARP.org
Comparing Internet Service
If you’re in the market for a new Internet provider, here’s some cautionary advice:
- Do your own research. Be it from DSL, cable, or satellite, performance varies with the provider, geography, and infrastructure. If you don’t know your neighbors, this is a good time to bake a pie, knock on their door, and ask how happy they are with their Internet service.
- Get a guarantee. Don’t sign a long-term contract for a new service unless you can get at least a 30-day, money-back-satisfaction guarantee in writing.
- Waive the ETF. If you’re paying for the equipment up front, there’s no reason to agree to an early termination fee. At the very least, the ETF should be prorated across the term of the contract and tied to the cost of the equipment.
Q: Last month, my son signed me up for the WildBlue Internet service from DirecTV. The telephone agent assured him that it would be very fast, but neglected to say we’d have to pay over $500 for installation, a fee-per-foot to bury a line, a monthly protection plan fee, plus a Tennessee Satellite Privilege Tax.
Installation was a nightmare. My son had to help the technician install the Internet dish. Then, I spent an entire day configuring my computer for the new service. After all that, we found that the satellite was only marginally better than our previous dial-up connection. After numerous calls to customer service failed to make things any better, I decided to cancel, but was told I would have to pay an early termination fee of $30 per month for the remaining term of the contract, totaling $660!
At this point, it appears that my only choices are to pay the outrageous fees or be stuck with a service that doesn’t work and costs about $70 per month. I live on Social Security and can’t afford that. It’s doubly sad because my son was on leave from Iraq and thought he was doing something nice for me. Can you help? —Jeanne Henry, Hilham, Tenn.
A: Ambiguous advertising claims, installation problems, and outrageous fees add up to a hat-trick of frustration. It’s certainly not the user experience you contracted for. Let’s take a look at your complaints one at a time:
Ambiguous advertising claims: WildBlue’s Web site promises “a user experience similar to most DSL services.” They don’t mention that satellite systems contend with the cosmic speed limit of light and radio waves, 186,000 miles per second. This is important, because geostationary satellites orbit more than 22,000 miles above the surface of the Earth. Click your mouse for an Internet page and your request is shot up to a satellite, then back down to Earth. A server locates the information, which is then squirted back up to the satellite and down to you—a round-trip of roughly 90,000 miles and almost half a second. Loading one Internet page can require any number of round-trips. Equipment-switching times slow things even more. True, once a connection is established, downloading files and streaming media can be quick. However, if you’re Web surfing, the wait can be maddening. Weather issues and high-traffic times can also degrade the performance of satellite-based systems.
Installation Problems: Blame the deregulation of the communications industry. Twenty years ago, a technician would have had to pass a test and get a license before being hired to install a satellite dish. No longer. The FCC has eliminated all licensing requirements.
Outrageous Fees: Early-termination fees, or ETFs, originally helped companies recover the cost of equipment they provided to the customer. Ideally, they were prorated, so that if you cancelled halfway through, you only paid half as much in fees. However, somewhere along the line, companies started using ETFs for customer retention—penalizing you if you cancelled early. These shortsighted policies only create angry customers who feel trapped by uncaring service providers. In your case, you paid for the equipment, which means there’s no reason for an ETF. For a long time I’ve advocated that ETFs be outlawed. Congress may have finally wised up: A pending bill would severely restrict the use of ETFs.
Lastly, as you’ve discovered, your dissatisfaction may be considered irrelevant. Many companies just claim that “a contract is a contract” and hold you to it whether or not they’ve actually lived up to the spirit of the agreement.
As a longtime satellite Internet and television subscriber, I’ve had to deal with these folks a few times myself... and was therefore able to reach into my personal database for an inside contact. I wrote an e-mail describing your situation to Jon Gieselman, senior vice president of advertising and communications at DirecTV, which is a reseller of the WildBlue Internet satellite service. Gieselman responded quickly and promised to look into the situation. A day later, I received a call from Bryan Bjerke of WildBlue’s public relations team. His opening offer was to waive the early termination fee. I responded that, while that was appreciated, I didn’t think it was fair that you should be out of pocket more than $500 for installation of a system that didn’t live up to what they’d promised. He said he’d “see what they could do,” and less than an hour later, Bjerke called back to say the company would indeed waive the $660 in pending termination fees—in addition to refunding the $704.01 in installation charges and other fees already paid.
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