Resistance is futile – You will be assimilated!
July 25th, 2005 at 13:49This week I’m trying to sort out the broadband dilemma that we’ve been landed with.
We have our (primitive) broadband connection with our ISP (owned by Telco #1) and have our phone account (local and toll) with Telco #2. This has worked well in the past because ISP #1 has been good to us and we’ve got our phone plan with Telco #2 just how we want it.
So when we get an email from our ISP telling us we have to move to Telco #1 for our phone to keep using their broadband we get stuck (and very grumpy). Telco #1 claim that Telco #2 won’t carry our current ADSL connection any more so we either have to:
- Move our phone connection over to Telco #1 (who don’t have the plan we like at Telco #2), or
- Change ISP’s to one supported by Telco #2 and suffer the significant grief associated with changing email addresses, ISP transfer charges, and going with an ISP we don’t want to use.
Feel like we’re stuck between two very large Borg motherships – one way or another we’ll be assimilated into the collective whether we want to be or not.
BTW – It doesn’t help too when you phone around other ISPs and their help desk people just end up confusing you. They’re all set to sign up new customers but don’t seem to cope too well with transferring customers.
July 25th, 2005 at 5:07 pm
Yuk, big companies can be so frustrating! And the small ones nearly as inefficient, it almost gives one hope for the church…
July 26th, 2005 at 10:28 am
go luddite.
July 26th, 2005 at 1:06 pm
Thank you, Stu
A true Luddite wouldn’t have broadband though, nor a blog.
Just want true “consumer choice”. We all know it’s a myth but mostly we have enough choice to fool ourselves into thinking we’re making “informed” and “genuine” choices.
Take all the “BitStream” options available at the moment – the great “unbundling” of (low-end) broadband for the masses. At the end of the day everyone’s offering the same packages for the same prices. Maybe you’re meant to pick on the basis of whether you like their logo or TV ads, rather than on whether you’re getting real bang-for-buck.
See: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?ObjectID=10336430