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Has anyone signed up for one of these?
Saturday's mail included a Hawaiian Tel flyer addressed specifically to our names (not just “resident” or “valued customer”). It's offering $49.99/month pricing for “life” on their “MyChoice Plus” bundle of land-line phone service plus 3 Mbps DSL.
We've been subscribing to Hawaiian Tel's local phone service (no long distance) and 3 Mbps DSL since March 2007, paying roughly $57.87/month:
Residence Line $14.40
Touch Call $1.65
Statewide 911 Emergency Service Surcharge $0.27
Intrastate Surcharge $1.81
Federal Universal Service Fee (Primary Line) $0.83
PUC Fee $0.04
Telecommunications Relay Service $0.05
Federal Excise Tax $0.77
General Excise Tax $0.31
Subscriber Line Charge Sgl Ln $6.50
TOTAL LOCAL CHARGES $26.63
Hawaiian Telcom High Speed Internet $29.99
General Excise Tax $1.25
TOTAL INTERNET SERVICES $31.24
We haven't really had any reason to complain about or mess with our Hawaiian Tel service. We don't have cell phones and don't plan to get any. We subscribe to Oceanic's standard analog cable service but it's not reliable enough for us to sign up for their Internet or digital phone service. (A connection box at the top of our street floods out after every big rainfall.) No HDTV, no plans to get one.
In addition to what we already have, the bundle would throw in free nationwide long-distance calling. In our case that adds up to maybe $20/year on an AT&T calling card, although it could rise when our kid starts college in 302 days. But she'd probably call us on her cell phone anyway.
My first question is whether that bundle is $49.99 instead of $57.87, or whether the bundle is $49.99 plus fees/taxes instead of $14.40 + $29.99 plus fees/taxes. The first is a savings of only $7.88/month while the second starts at $44.39 and adds at least $10.58 of fees/taxes for just free long-distance service. The phrase “Taxes, surcharges, and fees apply” is buried down at the end of the fine print but it might only apply to their wireless service.
I wonder if “life” is “my lifespan” or “until we persuade the bankruptcy court to jack up your rates”. The flyer includes the usual fine-print weasel words that essentially let them do anything short of a class-action lawsuit. Otherwise Hawaiian Tel could be stuck with us for 20-30 years. But in 20-30 years cell phones might be given away in cereal boxes and phone bills might be a nickel.
I'll call Hawaiian Tel next week (or as soon as I can get through to customer service). Has anyone signed up for a $49.99 bundle? Any other gotchas I should watch out for?
Saturday's mail included a Hawaiian Tel flyer addressed specifically to our names (not just “resident” or “valued customer”). It's offering $49.99/month pricing for “life” on their “MyChoice Plus” bundle of land-line phone service plus 3 Mbps DSL.
We've been subscribing to Hawaiian Tel's local phone service (no long distance) and 3 Mbps DSL since March 2007, paying roughly $57.87/month:
Residence Line $14.40
Touch Call $1.65
Statewide 911 Emergency Service Surcharge $0.27
Intrastate Surcharge $1.81
Federal Universal Service Fee (Primary Line) $0.83
PUC Fee $0.04
Telecommunications Relay Service $0.05
Federal Excise Tax $0.77
General Excise Tax $0.31
Subscriber Line Charge Sgl Ln $6.50
TOTAL LOCAL CHARGES $26.63
Hawaiian Telcom High Speed Internet $29.99
General Excise Tax $1.25
TOTAL INTERNET SERVICES $31.24
We haven't really had any reason to complain about or mess with our Hawaiian Tel service. We don't have cell phones and don't plan to get any. We subscribe to Oceanic's standard analog cable service but it's not reliable enough for us to sign up for their Internet or digital phone service. (A connection box at the top of our street floods out after every big rainfall.) No HDTV, no plans to get one.
In addition to what we already have, the bundle would throw in free nationwide long-distance calling. In our case that adds up to maybe $20/year on an AT&T calling card, although it could rise when our kid starts college in 302 days. But she'd probably call us on her cell phone anyway.
My first question is whether that bundle is $49.99 instead of $57.87, or whether the bundle is $49.99 plus fees/taxes instead of $14.40 + $29.99 plus fees/taxes. The first is a savings of only $7.88/month while the second starts at $44.39 and adds at least $10.58 of fees/taxes for just free long-distance service. The phrase “Taxes, surcharges, and fees apply” is buried down at the end of the fine print but it might only apply to their wireless service.
I wonder if “life” is “my lifespan” or “until we persuade the bankruptcy court to jack up your rates”. The flyer includes the usual fine-print weasel words that essentially let them do anything short of a class-action lawsuit. Otherwise Hawaiian Tel could be stuck with us for 20-30 years. But in 20-30 years cell phones might be given away in cereal boxes and phone bills might be a nickel.
I'll call Hawaiian Tel next week (or as soon as I can get through to customer service). Has anyone signed up for a $49.99 bundle? Any other gotchas I should watch out for?
In my defense I wasn't working off a script, only a talent breakdown. Still...
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