The Last Straw – Why I am Switching from AT&T for Internet

I did it folks!  The deed has been done and on 4/2/2016 – my internet plan will be changing.  After a long fought battle, the decision has been made.  There are quite a few reasons and I want to explain the steps, research and methods used to ultimately come to this action.  Please continue to read on how, what and why this occurred!Internet

The Factors

Obviously I wrote in a recent article that I was asking the community if my internet price was too high for the speed I was receiving (6 mp download at $37.00 per month, which was with a $15.00 credit).  The responses were amazing – some saying yes, but most saying I was receiving good value.  I wanted to analyze this further and see if there was some ass kicking I can do.

My first factor was speed per dollar, which I was paying $6.17 per mb download speed.  There was a new provider on the block called WOW! and they were offering $25.00 per month for 30 mb download speed (for the first year, and it may increase $10 after 12 months).  Using the promotional price, this equates to $0.83 per mb download speed.  Therefore – speed and price per speed were big factors here.  I could switch for 5x faster speed and also save 32% of my internet bill.  Secondly, at this point, price became a factor due to the lack of speed I was receiving for what I was paying with AT&T.  At that point in time – I thought, it’s OK, I don’t need that fast of a speed right now and I haven’t had any outages of my internet over the last 12 months.

However, the next dagger that led me to switch was a recent message from AT&T…  This message was over the soon-to-be implemented (May 2016) Internet Cap.  Wow.  You now will have to pay $30 extra per month for unlimited home internet usage and/or pay an extra $10 per month for each 50gb you use.  I performed a quick usage calc from their calculator and I would blow through this with my Netflix streaming.  No way, not in my house – no ceiling will be placed over me right now other than my own roof.  AT&T (T) made it easy for me to want to switch at this point.  That was a huge factor on me – I already watch data on my phone but now I had to watch data for internet at home?  C’mon!  (Could be a reason why Bert wouldn’t want to buy a house!) Now to the actions…

The Actions

This was March 31st.  Once I heard the news about the internet cap, I had to call AT&T (T) and get to the bottom of this.  I wanted to give them a shit and ask for some sort of discount or customer appreciation facet to keep me.  Here I am calling… on the phone for 15 minutes with a gentlemen in the customer loyalty department.  He acknowledges the concern of the internet cap and even suggests to pay an extra $30 to avoid it – after I said I want my bill to be matched… Really?!  REALLY?!  I did, I did ask first to see if they can match my bill at $25.00 to the competitor, even if my internet speed stays the same, as I figured – if I go over with another 50gb, it will still be cheaper with an extra $10 charge than what I’m paying now and it will avoid me having to call WOW! network.  Well – they couldn’t match and wouldn’t match it.  Strike 1.  Then, I asked if the faster internet was now available on the street I lived – he proceeded to tell me each street perpendicular to me had the faster internet speeds, but that my location was not acceptable to them just yet.  Strike 2 – no internet speeds.  I then proceeded to just tell him what position I’m in – here is a new company that is offering me 32% less of an internet price, for 5x the speed AND they can come & install in the next 4 hours if they wanted to, additionally – I own over 150 shares!  Response – they appreciated me as a customer, they hope that I stay but understood why I would leave, given that there is nothing that they could do to keep me as a customer.  Strike 3 and YOURRRR OUTTA THERE!

After this “wonderful” conversation with supposedly the loyalty department, I called WOW!.  They were true to their $25 per month price point on the internet speeds and could virtually come out to my location at any time that I wanted.  I chose April 2nd between 12pm and 4pm for them to arrive.  They were also trying to sell me on equipment insurance of $5/month and then to use their modem at $10/month – but I chose to waive on all of those fees, as I believe I am to keep my modem currently and in the almost 60 months of having AT&T – they changed my modem once, and that was to virtually only test the internet speeds in my neighborhoods.  Further, if AT&T needs their modem back – I have quite a few left at my family’s house and/or can pick one up off of Amazon for a fairly inexpensive price point.  However, the decision was made and there was contact on the swing – WOW! will be coming and for $25/month I will be receiving NO capped internet and 5X the internet speeds that I was receiving beforehand.  I will now save over the course of 12 months, $144 or 32% of my internet bill.  One caveat, however, is there will be a $50 installation charge on my account, which the payback period will be 4 months of usage, not too worried about this.  If this promotion expires and goes to $35 – I’ll see what else is out there and if they are still offering the $24.99 promo package – I’ll then ask for it again.  Easy enough.

Summary & Lessons Learned

Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose.  I have learned that it’s in your control with the services you have in your life – insurance, car, housing, career/employment, to spend, to invest, etc..  It’s also partly your responsibility to make sure you are attempting to receive what you want in life, even as little as the best internet value you can receive.  We have the control of choosing and that’s a very powerful tool.  I am definitely learning how strong your decision is in making choices, even as little as this is.

Would you have done the same?  Would you have at least tried to work with AT&T as I had or would you have packed your bags and left as well?  What do you think of the deal and new service?  Any other pointers or methods you would have employed in this – doesn’t have to be limited to internet, but it can be for other things?  Thanks everyone, hope you all have had a great start to April!

-Lanny

20 thoughts on “The Last Straw – Why I am Switching from AT&T for Internet

  1. I have Xfinity Triple Play, which is, television, Internet, and home phone. They operate the same as other providers, a 12-month fantastic rate, then rates go up a few dollars every month. Before you know it your bill has doubled. The first time this happened I called and threatened to cancel. After a bunch of back and forth, I was sent to their customer retention office. Long story short, I have their direct phone number now. I call every twelve months and without negotiation they lock me into new 1-year contracts at a very low price. It didn’t take much negotiation, and I pay less than new customer introductory rates all the time.

    • IH,

      Thanks for the comment!! NICE moves. I always have to do this as well. Funny though, that AT&T was unable to – help on any facet of my deal I had. They didn’t seem to care/mind, so why should I, eh? So weird, this was the first time I ever was told – that’s all they can do. Well, what they can do is stop providing me what sort of service they had and maybe, just maybe I’ll look back into them in a few years. Loving my fast internet by the way!

      -Lanny

  2. You did the exact same thing I would. Call up your service provider and ask them to match. I also have Xfinity along with Investment Hunting (commenter above/below) and while Comcast (parent company) are known for their awful customer service. They are pretty spineless and will do everything they can to match competitors rates. I do the same thing calling them every 12 months and offer to cancel.

    A lot of these internet providers are moving to a tiered system of payment models based on how much you use. Netflix and other streaming platforms take up bandwidth that they have to provide. So they are hoping to make users pay more. I get it, but hate it.

    Currently I’m trying to pick up shares of Comcast because no matter what, people have to have their internet. =)

    • WS,

      Thank you very much. Is there a provider there that literally just doesn’t do this for consumers? I am curious – is there anything out there? I understand the cap and paying more for what you use, I do understand that’s the direction it’s going. I wanted to taste the unlimited home internet for a longer period before I have to re-consider again. Looking forward to making a call in 12 months from now? Tune in to one year from now – as I am hoping I didn’t have to make the call!

      And I’m still keeping AT&T stock for that being one of the reasons! Have to have internet.

      -Lanny

  3. Sheesh we have AT&T at our house so I need to check and see if that’s going through there too. We recently dropped our cable down so we’re doing a lot more streaming and I’m sure we’ll go well over their cap.

    Just did some quick searching for our area and it says that for up to 6 MB internet the cap is 300 GB per month according to an article from last week. I’m curious why there’s such a big difference between our cap and y’alls.

    It looks like you made the better move anyways assuming the Wow internet is reliable. It’s cheaper, no cap and faster.

    • JC,

      Nice so you have 300GB. I did an analysis and if I streamed 30 hours of Netflix (easily Possible); that equates to approximately 130GB on HD. I think there’s a good calculator out there.

      But yep – Cheaper, reliable, fast. DAMN!

      -Lanny

  4. Its absurd that that they even said they were capping data. Who caps Home internet data? Plus they said you can get unlimited data for an additional $30 which is about an 85% increase on your current rate. No way, I would’ve been looking to get a hold of the competitor right away. Add in the fact that the competitor is offering 5x the speed and at a discount of $10 on your current rate. Absolutely sign up.

    Now to be fair I personally hate contacting big companies like that due to the horrendous wait times. Plus from working at a similar big company I know that people have to wait up to an hour at times before even contacting a rep at times. However it seems that the cable and internet providers have learned recently this was one of their biggest flaws and have made great strides to improve this aspect. It seems like WOW made signing up quick and painless which is another added bonus.

    Also I know that these big media providers just try their best to squeeze the most dollars out of one customer. Sure they may have promotional offers, but stick around a year or two and they’ll find ways to constantly raise the rate on you. It pays to switch providers once the promos stop or at least call and try to get the current provider to extend the current offer.

    • TDM,

      Agree 100%. It was a no-brainer for me. But I agree – constant monitoring on our end has to occur when it comes down to this. This is where they can legally increase their revenue as a substantially high amount as a % of customers do not call to switch, negotiate or try to do something about their fee. My AT&T internet pricing over 5 years has fluctuated no doubt from $23 to $52; I was at a happy medium – but once the cap to internet was going to be imposed and pairing that up with slower speeds – See ya! haha. Thanks for your comments and coming by!

      -Lanny

  5. Hey Lanny,

    did you get any info about hotspot at the same time? I’m looking to buy one for my road trip. I think T Mobile have the best package, but I have yet cross the borders to buy one (on my todo list for May!)

    Cheers,

    Mike

  6. Good thing you made the switch. That is BS that they weren’t willing to lower prices to keep you even though you had a much better option in your back pocket. Sometimes these companies are just so dumb. Their loss and your gain I guess as you now have faster internet without a cap!

    • MoneyAhoy,

      It is straight BS! Faster internet and I will be honest – it is lightning fast right now. Wish I could have stayed and not jump through the hoops, but luckily – I still have a few springs in my step, eh? Thanks for stopping by!

      -Lanny

  7. Well, I am also a user of at&t internet for last 6 months and I think they offer much better services as compare to others. They also provide the same as they promise in their service package.

  8. AT&T is a good service provider but yeah we have other options as well. If you are not comfortable with anything you should try to switch it’s the best thing one can do. I have also switched a couple of service providers.

  9. Well, everybody has a different opinion. From my experience, I was very disappointed with AT&T services. Internet was disconnecting all the time and a support was not incredible neither. I switched to Comcast and I must say I am much more happy with them. I even pay less than before. But as Jonathan says, try more providers and see what’s the best for you. Good luck!

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