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Posted on November 30, 1999 by Joy Stoyle | Posted under Communications
Australia For 10 cents With Time Warner Digital Phone Service
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If you have had experience of dealing with a number of phone companies you will know as I do that they are all as bad as one another and that customer service is just so much marketing hot air because they've got you and they do not need keep on trying. At last there is a genuine alternative to those local phone monopolies. Technology has sneaked up on them from behind and they haven't heard the twig snap. I first heard about this with a company called Vonage. They provide a digital telecommunications over your Internet channel, thereby missing out the phone people completely. I have had good experience with my local cable company, Time Warner. The final straw for me with my phone company came when they threatened to cut off my service when I was only a few days late in paying my bill. I could neither understand nor tolerate this appalling example of customer service. Just because they can't trust some people to pay their bills they behave towards everybody as though they are bad payers. It is the worst kind of mistrusting customer relations and made me want to run for the hills. As though it weren't bad enough to even threaten me, a good customer, with disconnection, they saw no problem with charging me a disconnection fee and then if I wanted to get reconnected. Damn me if there wasn't three separate reconnection fees as well. One for local services, one for long distance and one for other optional services. Here was little or no leeway for people who get into short term payment difficulties or who just forget to pay while they away on vacation. So enough was enough and when I got wind of the Time Warner Cable digital services and their special introductory offer I was straight onto them. And I wasn't alone. The thought of getting a better deal, a better service and sticking it to my phone company was too much to resist. I decide on their "ALL IN ONE" package because it had everything I needed; fast Internet access, domestic phone connections, and digital cable plus DVR. All this was for just $125 a month. For me that meant a monthly saving of three figures. I was really pleased with the after sales service too. I had to have my modem reset once since I had it installed. One phone call and they talked me through the procedure so I was only without service for a few hours. Of course the digital system relies on a constant electricity supply, so I lose it when the power goes off, but this is only a minor and infrequent inconvenience. The reception quality can be a bit variable but I think this is teething problems and will improve with time. I'm a big fan of all the modern features on my new digital phone such as caller ID (I don't answer if I'm unsure of the caller), call waiting, and lots of other stuff too. My phone is linked to my TV too, so caller ID is displayed there. It only displays the callers number and state of origin but not their name. This is OK since I can usually know who it is on the end of the line. I had call from Europe once that showed up as Maine so I was a little puzzled for an instant. But I'm sure they will iron out the bugs quickly. It is the much lower costs of long distance calls that really pleases me with my new digital service. Anywhere in the US or Canada is free. And intercontinental calls are much less than even than the old land line rates. For instance Australia is just 10 cents per minute. About The Author: |
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