Iowa Telco Charges $80 Per Month to NOT Have a Landline

[froggyboy604]

Iowa telco Ogden Telephone Company has given its captive customers an ultimatum: either tack on a traditional phone line to their DSL service for $30 per month, or pay an $80 fee to the company. Users tell local Des Moines news outlet KCCI 8 they're unsurprisingly annoyed by the massive new charge, but say they have no other option for connectivity.

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This is an expensive charge for not having a landline. Paying $30 for a landline would be the better option than paying $80 for no landline telephone.

It can be annoying living in a place where there is only one expensive and bad internet service provider, or all the other ISP are as expensive and bad, or worse.

 

[Demon_Skeith]

A dick move to be sure, but the only reason they can do this is because their customers have no other choice. Its times like these I wish I was rich so I could maybe start some kind of fair telecommunications company in America. I would rip the current system in half.

 

[froggyboy604]

A dick move to be sure, but the only reason they can do this is because their customers have no other choice. Its times like these I wish I was rich so I could maybe start some kind of fair telecommunications company in America. I would rip the current system in half.

I agree it is a bad move, and this is what happens when there are no other choice where you either pay for a landline, or pay more money for not having a landline.

The people who paid for a landline instead of paying more money for not having to a landline can now more easily make many phone calls at home, and use a fax machine to fax the government, the ISP company, and TV and internet news companies to complain about their ISP unfair pricing.

 

[OursIsTheFury]

Can't really argue with that. They have no choice but to follow, or they could get another internet provider that doesn't do ultimatum like this one. I once had an internet provider that decided in the middle of my contract that the package now has a 10GB per month limit. I said fuck that, I went to the competition and got the same package for the same price but with no limit and a lot more reliable with the connection. I haven't looked back since.

 

[Demon_Skeith]

I agree it is a bad move, and this is what happens when there are no other choice where you either pay for a landline, or pay more money for not having a landline.

The people who paid for a landline instead of paying more money for not having to a landline can now more easily make many phone calls at home, and use a fax machine to fax the government, the ISP company, and TV and internet news companies to complain about their ISP unfair pricing.

I feel bad for the sales representatives who will take most of the heat for the anger of their customers.

 

[froggyboy604]

Can't really argue with that. They have no choice but to follow, or they could get another internet provider that doesn't do ultimatum like this one. I once had an internet provider that decided in the middle of my contract that the package now has a 10GB per month limit. I said fuck that, I went to the competition and got the same package for the same price but with no limit and a lot more reliable with the connection. I haven't looked back since.

There is no other wired broadband internet provider alternative in this Iowa town. The only alternative is dial-up internet where you need a phone line, and phone number. If you have a phone line, and phone number, it maybe better to use DSL which is faster, and have better reliability than dial-up. Dial-up still cost $10-20 a month, so users may not be saving much money by switching to dial-up when they need a phoneline, phone number, and subscribe to dial-up.

I feel bad for the sales representatives who will take most of the heat for the anger of their customers.

I also feel bad for the DSL tech workers who come to people's houses to setup, and fix the DSL service since some people may complain to the tech worker in person.

At least, sales representative can hang up the phone if the costumer is verbally abusing them by calling them bad names, and shouting very loudly.

But, offline tech support can be dangerous if the costumers choose to use physical violence to express their anger.