[SGVLUG] Is anyone else getting boiler-room cold-calls fromEarthkink/India?

[Claude Felizardo]

On 1/9/06, Emerson, Tom <Tom.Emerson at wbconsultant.com> wrote:

[snip snip snip]

> Long story short, other that potential pain and frustration due to changing ISP's, I'd be looking at $540 (+taxes & fees) for the first year (and another $120 for the next year) to UPGRADE my inbound speed to 3megabits and DOWNGRADE my outbound speed to 128k (8x up & 1/3 down...) or stick with what I have for $300 (and therefore less taxes and fewer fees).
>
> Though the "fewer fees" part is due, in part, to the fact that my line and service was provisioned "so long ago" that I'm grandfathered into NOT having to pay some relatively recent and arbitrary "fee"  (long distance recovery fee or something like that -- mebbe $5 or thereabouts...)  I've heard (via the dslreports' and pacbell's own forums) that if my line gets "reprovisioned" for any reason (i.e., a speed change), then this "fee" will now apply (and once applied, cannot be revoked, even if I return to my former settings) so I'm kinda stuck with "staying quiet" until something breaks anyway...

oh oh.  What's this about not having to pay extra fees?

I recently renewed with sbc.  They were running a promo that expired
end of december, $27 for loyal customers.  I had switched to the $30
rate last year.  I was worried about my static IP status which I've
had since 1999 so I called the 888 number and got as far as a level-2
tech who said i had to be careful about this.  if I go through the 888
number and they changed my original "code" I could lose my static
status.  He also warned that if I ever change my speed, I'd lose my
special status.   He suggested I call back during regular business
hours and use the 877 number which I did a few days later.  That guy
said there'd be no problems and that I should use the URL in the email
I got which I did.  I called back after new year's to confirm that I
had the $27 rate and still have a static IP.

Just checked and it still works.  I thought of cycling my router but
hey, it says the DSL connection has been up 17395 hours.  That's 2
years!    Hopefully I'm not jinxing that with this message.