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 GuspazGuspazPremium,MVM
join:2001-11-05
Montreal, QC
kudos:16 | ISP errors should invalidate contracts Well, the obvious thing would be to forbid ISPs from anti-consumer lock-in contracts. There is no good reason that they should exist, as a superior option is offering the ability to pre-pay for a year. It's pro-rated by nature, and consumers would have a much better idea what they're getting themselves into with a pre-paid year rather than a one-year contract.
The primary problem with contracts is that ISPs often refuse to terminate them even when they themselves make substantial changes to their service offerings. Witness examples of Bell refusing to let customers out of contracts even though they've change the service from unlimited to 30GB cap, and begun throttling P2P. Many people find that they can't use the service for the things they bought it for, but Bell won't let them out of their contract.
That said, yes, ISPs should allow customers out of contracts if they can't provide a reasonable speed. You have to keep in mind that in the vast majority of cases, poor DSL speeds are caused by the distance from the customer to the CO. This is something that ISPs know *IN ADVANCE*, before the customer orders. If they sell 7mbit service to somebody 6000m from the CO, well, duh, they're not going to get 7mbit. If they still insist on selling the customer the service (at this point, let's assume it's an error on the ISP's fault and they forgot to check the distance, or had an error in their database), then that's the ISP's error, and they need to correct it. | |
| If the ISP is changing the service, especially to the detriment of the customer, then THEY are breaking the contract. So it's already invalidated.
Most people don't want to go to court over something like this but if they wanted to charge me $250 after THEY changed the service then you better believe that I'll take them to small claims court. If even 1% of users did this you would see them stop this crap immediately.
Although, as another poster pointed out, the best cure for this and all the other crap they pull is COMPETITION. If we had real competition (10+ ISPs to choose from) then this stuff would fix it self, so to speak. | |
GuspazGuspazPremium,MVM
join:2001-11-05
Montreal, QC
kudos:16 | In Bell's service area, they do have competition. Yes, those competitors still use Bell's lines, but other than a base charge for the line ($20.50/mth for the standard 5mbit service), the ISPs decide how much to charge (typically $30-40/mth).
Many of these ISPs don't even offer contracts. My ISP refuses to offer contracts, saying that they're anti-consumer. They do offer the ability to pre-pay a year at a bit of a discount, though, since people kept asking for stuff like that.
Anyhow, the competition (from both the cable internet providers that service the same area, and the wholesaler DSL ISPs) hasn't stopped Bell from getting worse and worse. Many of the wholesaler ISPs offer better quality at cheaper prices.
The thing is, Bell is the big telco, so they seem content to hold onto their core customers, the people who don't know anything about technology and are just happy if their hotmail loads eventually when they open their browsers. There are so many of these customers who just care if it works (at any speed), that they can let the wholesalers deal with more demanding consumers.
So, unfortunately, it seems like the only way that we're going to get good service is if the CRTC (our version of the FCC) continues to regulate the phone companies (Bell, Telus) requiring them to share their lines at reasonable prices. Better than nothing, I suppose. | | |
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