Well, I called customer Service at Verizon and asked about plans that
have dropped their rates in the order of $15 per month. The rep was
only aware of a Verizon Freedom package that cost $39.95 per month. If
it was the Verizon Freedom Extra package at $56.95 per month, it still
says $56.95 per month on the website.
(Heck, my bank was advertising free online billpaying for the past six
months, and the website still indicated it cost $6.95 per month until
I emailed them about the discrepancy).
Verizon won't entice me back until they drastically drop the cost of
their unlimited local calling, included caller id and call waiting, and
add a very low rate long distance plan. I just don't use enough LD to
pay a fixed amount per month for unlimited LD calls.
Lena
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And if you had not issued that
challenge to the rep (showing that you had some sort of clue about
their new rate structure) and had ordered the service -- either from
the web site or the phone call -- you would still be getting charged
at the $56.95 rate. Ditto SBC; there are _so many_ different
promotional rates in effect at any given time, most of which are tied
to various lengths of time and with varying conditions, you can get
most anything you want at any price from them these days. Two
questions you may wish to ask the rep on a subsequent phone call: (1)
is this new rate a promotional thing for new/returning subscribers
only and if so (2) how many months is it good for? Is any contract
required, and if so, for how long?
A couple other questions it might be fun to ask: Like (the old) AT&T
long distance plans which could never get installed correctly on the
local telco computers, do you need to call them month after month to
get the credit issued; is there any conditions now or in the future
regarding a 'tie-in' to DSL service where you must take the one to get
the other; and three, not at all very politic but interesting none the
less: telco is _supposed to be_ a common carrier utility operated at
cost. Did the operating costs suddenly make it feasable to offer this
'reduced rate' now; if it was feasable earlier, _why wasn't it offered
earlier_? If this new deal is for _all customers_ and not just new
customers, should existing customers expect sometime soon to see a
notice in their bills about the new rate structure? You may quote TD
as the source of these nuisance questions if you wish. PAT]
Lena (lenagainster@gmail.com)