Rant About "First 6-Month" Offers
A few times every week, we all get offers from the local cable company or telecom that has a low-low-low price in a 48pt font. The price is so low that we open the letter and read a little. I’m staring at an offer from AT&T right now, but it could be from the cable company just as easily.
$29/month for U-Verse TV +
HD-Ready DVR Included +
No Equipment to Buy!
Wow! That sounds like a great deal. How can I possibly pass it up? Then I read a little more, you know, the fine print.
For Six Months
So what’s the price after 6 months? Will they say?
There Aren’t Any Compatible VCRs – i.e. the content is stuck on this device
This probably isn’t a big deal for most people. I’ve been VCR’ing content for the last 10 years (not with a VCR), so my personal library is huge. With U-Verse (or the new digital cable boxes), we can’t easily do that. People with DVD Recorders will be disappointed too. Basically, we have to be there to press record and we can’t use the U-Verse system for anything else while doing that. Most of the new digital cable boxes make this difficult too. Have you ever tried to get an IR blaster working with your cable box or with U-Verse? I have. It isn’t 100%.
This could be important for parents with children who want to take some of the shows with them in the car or on vacation to keep the kids happier.
I don’t really use a VCR for this. I use a computer, so the content is fairly portable and can be converted into almost any format that is convenient for me to be played back later.
The price will triple in 6 months + 1 day
Actually, I don’t know what the price is since their offer doesn’t say – at least not in an easy to find way. I did read the fine print.
Access to HD content is $10 more per month!
Yippy! Is HD content really a premium service still? Seriously?
Prices Subject to Change without notice
It actually says that in the fine print. Sweet!
AT&T High Speed Internet Access Required – U-Verse style
I wonder how much that costs? Is it an additional cost? Probably. I bet the $14.95/month broadband isn’t sufficient.
Wireless Phone with Internet Access Required
Huh? I have a cellular phone with another company. I can get on the internet with it. Their fine print doesn’t say which wireless phone is needed. Cool, but I bet they won’t honor my plan.
$36 One-time Installation Fee Applies
There are 6, I counted them, six, footnotes in the offer.
I wonder what the taxes and other fees are.
This really isn’t the fault of AT&T. The different governments tax all sorts of things in strange ways. The taxes change all the time. The good news is that these tax rates are usually much, much less than local sales tax rates.
Total Price … $76 + Tax
In month one, the price will be $36 + $10 + $30 or $76 + tax. That’s much different from the $30 on the front page.
What’s the price after 6 months?
I still don’t know. They won’t say because then the price subject to change at any time may not apply.
And they wonder why we don’t want to sign up with them?
