Fri 11 Apr 2008
I've noticed a few random web surfers coming by looking for information on Qwest's heavily-advertised "Price for Life" program for DSL and thought I should let them know what exactly they're getting into. On the surface, it seems like a great idea: you guarantee that your price won't increase for as long as you have DSL service. The reality, however, is filled with more loopholes than the US tax code, all designed to keep your price inflated and gouge you for additional fees.
So how much will you save? That all depends on how long you keep the service. Qwest offers the same price for the first year regardless of if you go for the "Price for Life" or not. What's the difference thereafter? A meager $6 a month or $72 until you can escape the $200 early termination fee.
And what exactly triggers this early termination fee? Aside from obvious things like disconnecting service, you'll also break the contract for altering service including changing your speed tier, changing your ISP or even moving. Considering that Qwest plans to roll out 20Mbps service within the year, it seems like a terrible idea to lock yourself into a speed for two years that will be obsolete before you complete the term of the contract. And why would Qwest charge you an ETF when you keep the line and only change the ISP, even if the ISP wasn't them to begin with? It's almost like Qwest wants to lock a bunch of their users into lower speeds to throttle bandwidth. Hmmm.
All in all, the program is a bunch of clever marketing with a whole lot of consumer-unfriendly gotchas. Do not want!
April 12th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Jesse. I do not see any problem signing up for 2 year service. Why? Because we all know Qwest will not meet the stated goals. Or they will roll it out but not in my town (Springville).
I wonder if they will focus on UTOPIA cities for the rollout? To keep people from leaving. Because if UTOPIA gets off their asses and builds out those phase 2 cities, I can see many, many people leaving their Qwest behind. So their goal has to be to build out there before UTOPIA fixes their problems.
April 14th, 2008 at 11:09 am
Qwest isn’t telling consumers is that bandwidth prices have always gone down over history. So if you want to sign on for the same price forever while your neighbors pay less over time for more, then Qwest is more than happy to do that for you.