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Paying for a service you don't want

Posted by: under Buyer beware Updated: January 22, 2010 - 11:46 AM

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A soon-to-be Twin Cities resident is trying to decide what company to use for his cable and Internet service, but he thinks he’s being duped by the bundled packages that are offered by several companies. Here’s what he wrote to Whistleblower:

“(The company) has ‘super duper first time customer deals’ only if you get all 3 services (cable, internet, and phone). I don’t require a land-line (not many people do these days, and I haven’t had one in ages) so I’d like to try to save some money by opting out. This is where it gets weird. Opting out of a land-line actually costs me more money because I no longer fall into the ‘super duper first time customer deals’ category. My question is this: why are cable/internet/phone providers practically pushing land-lines onto their customers? … Are the providers simply artificially increasing the demand/usage of land-lines? If you ask me, land-lines are going the way of the dodo bird and these companies don’t want to see that part of their business fail.”

What do you think? Do you have any suggestions for this reader as he searches for an alternative to the package deal?

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