A while back, I complained about SBC’s $250 installation fee to have “business class” DSL hooked up at my residence. There’s no difference in bandwidth (I currently have 3.0Mbps/512kbps), but you do a /29. SBC actually advertises it as “5 IP addresses”, which is what you end up with after you subtract one each for the router, the network address, and the broadcast address. When you work in I.T., however, and a lot of it is working remotely, it’s really worth it to have a static IP address. For me, I can have holes punched in the corporate firewalls so that I can VPN in a helluva lot easier. When the guy at “Team Data” at SBC informed me there was no way to get the upgrade without paying the $250 fee, I told him in no uncertain terms where he could stick the $250.
Today, I stepped outside for a smoke and got a phone call. It was Kevin, a sales rep. at SBC that I’ve been dealing with for some quotes for a DS-1. After telling Kevin that I’d gotten a quote that was $150/mo. less than his, he came down $125 (after waiving installation and throwing in a router) and so we began to converse again. :-)
After we were done, I asked him if he knew anything about the $250 fee and if it were possible to get an upgrade to business-class without paying that installation fee. “Give me about five minutes”, he said. In five minutes, he had the order placed to get me upgraded to the business-class package (at $74.95/mo. versus the $24.95/mo. I’m paying now), and had a router being shipped out to me. Oh, did I mention there was no $250 fee to get it set up? I’m not sure what SBC’s problem is in this area, but if there are many more people like me out there, SBC is losing a load of money because of that $250 installation fee ($75/mo. times 12 months is about $900, if my math isn’t failing me). I can’t see why they’d want to lose $900 in revenue instead of just $250, but hey, I guess that’s why I’m not in that business…
I’ve read on some of the forums on DSL Reports about others trying to get the fee waived, to no avail. It could be that Kevin done it just so he land a $10K+ deal, but I don’t really care, to be honest. If you’ve been wanting to upgrade without paying the $250, get in touch and I’ll give you Kevin’s direct line. Maybe he can take care of you too.
Recent Comments