I cannot begin to count the ways in which I think my local cable/internet/telephone provider sucks.
Their customer service people, particularly in the billing department, are rude and incompetent. They are in my honest opinion also as useless as tits on a boar.
Their prices are literally outrageous, but I guess when you have no competition other than satellite companies you don’t have to charge reasonable prices.
I received my latest bill in the mail today.
$67.74 total, $38.49 for 100 GB hi-speed internet, $18.95 for telephone (which I don’t use), $7.50 for modem purchase, and $2.80 for fees. I decided I was going to drop the telephone since I don’t use the landline and am already paying $40.00 a month for my cell phone.
The $18.95 per month for the telephone is a bundled price (because I have my internet with them too). That price includes only local calls, if I was dumb enough to use them for my long distance calls I’d be getting socked for another 5 cents per minute.
I have 450 minutes every month on my cell phone (mostly those 450 minutes never get used) and that includes nationwide long distance so why would I use Bend Broadband for long distance and pay another 5 cents per minute??
I’ve already switched to Dish Network for television -7 months ago-and they charge literally less than half what Bend Broadband was charging me.
My Bend Broadband bill would be over $150.00 per month every month if I was intelligence-challenged enough to get my TV programming from them.
Just for shits and giggles, I decided to check my actual internet usage for the last 2 months, since I pay for 100 GB a month no matter what I actually use (unless of course I go over 100GB, in which case they charge me through the nose!)
Any unused GB does not roll over into the next month and they have no smaller packages available.
Last month I used 18.3 GB total.
The month before that I used 17.9 GB total.
As again any unused GB does not roll over into the next month, I am royally being screwed and it gets even better (for THEM, not me!!).
I do not download movies, songs, etc. I use my computer for email, maintaining my two blogs, the rare visit to Facebook or its ilk, being an admin at 4 incentive-based sites, clicking, surfing, searching, and chatting with friends.
The $38.49 per month for 100 GB of hi-speed internet access is a bundled price because I have my landline telephone service with Bend Broadband along with the high-speed internet access.
If I drop the telephone service my bill for the internet access goes up $10.00 per month.
So lets see I’m already being grossly overcharged for my actual internet usage, and if I drop the phone service the bill would change to $58.79 including the monthly payment for the modem purchase (I thought that stupid modem was already paid for too).
If the modem is paid for with the May 2, 2010 payment and I drop the telephone service the bill changes to $51.29
However, knowing this company they will manage to increase the bill somehow, they’ve already raised rates by 9% (whinging that the cost of TV programming has gone up markedly) at least once in 2010.
Last month the same services cost me $66.39 because they charged for partial months after raising their rates in the middle of a billing period, how bloody convenient for THEM.
The month before that the same services at a supposedly 9% LOWER price cost me $65.95……hmmmm whats their excuse for that other than gross overcharging?
Hmmm, doesn’t Dish Network get their programming from the same sources, how come they can charge $45.00 per month and Bend Broadband is ‘forced’ to charge $82.00 to $95.00 (they were dumb enough to include a 2010 price list in my bill) for the same programming .
In my case the pricing would probably be even higher if I received it from Bend Broadband as all the channels I enjoy watching are all on digital cable, such as Discovery, A & E, TLC, The History Channel, DIY Network, Food Network, and HGTV.
I was paying Bend Broadband $127.74 each month until November of last year (2009) for digital cable (including their converter box and remote), 100 GB hi-speed internet service, modem purchase (April through November), telephone, and taxes.
Only one television (out of 3 in the house at the time) was hooked up to cable and I had NO premium channels at all (in this case premium refers to channels such as HBO, Cinemax, and Showtime).
I now have 2 televisions hooked up to Dish Network and pay $43.99 per month for America’s Top 200 programming. I could get America’s Top 250 programming for $53.99 and still be paying at least $30.00 less than Bend Broadband would charge.
The digital cable from Bend Broadband was $84.00-$86.00 a month so when that was dropped my bill should have been $41.00-$43.00, but it never has been anywhere near that low since September 2009 when I switched to Dish Network.
In fact, they charged me for a full month in October 2009 after I had already switched the TV to Dish Network and the customer service representative still had the stone balls to say ‘there will be a credit on your next bill’ when I complained. So what, the idiots got to use MY money for a month while delivering no service at all.
Since they are really the only game in town when it comes to reliable internet access I will grudgingly stay with them. Since they will screw me even worse money-wise if I unbundle the services and drop the telephone, I will also grudgingly keep the telephone service.
I have however made up my mind that the computer will be on 24/7 and I already added the 4 additional email addresses that I am allowed to have (for a total of 5). I will be damned if I pay for 100 GB every single month and use less than 20 GB every single month.
I’m amused that two of my new email addresses are ‘using100GBifitkillsme’ @ bend broadband and ‘bendbroadbandsucks’ @ bend broadband. I’m nothing if not creative when it comes to expressing my disgust with poor customer service and price gouging.
Personally I think this company has lost a lot of business to Dish Network and other satellite providers. I think they are trying to make up for those losses by gouging the hell out of the people who are forced to remain with them for whatever reason.
Am I impressed with Bend Broadband? I DON’T THINK SO!!