🚀 go-pugleaf

Stray Cat wrote:
> 
> On Mon, 09 Nov 1998 00:46:58 GMT, trish@nym.alias.net wrote:
> 
> >I'm surprised at the contents of the 'Price Increase' posts
> >I've been reading. I only know Chris Caputo from the con-
> >tacts I've made when I needed help, and from the excellent
> >feedback he's provided thru his posts to us (his clients). I've
> >seen him setup a Chat interface, put up a status page,
> >offer free months during what must have been a nightmare
> >upgrade process, and by his never failing to respond to me
> >when I had problems. His offer to provide survice at no
> >cost during the upgrade period really didn't surprise me that
> >much.
> >I just assumed the price increase had nothing to do with me,
> >since he didn't address the information to me.He has a
> >business to run...and I want the uncensored newsgroups
> >he provides. He has never failed to support me when I needed
> >help and I have no reason to believe he's suddenly turned into
> >a different person.
> >After almost a month lurking in the abuse newsgroups, I feel
> >like I've just escaped from a looney bin. I want the anonymity
> >and support that I get with Altopia, and I'm content to leave
> >the business management to Chris Caputo.
> >
> >So, as far as I'm concerned, go for it Chris. I'm not planning
> >to go anywhere else unless you or Uncle Sam makes that
> >decision for me.
> >
> >Trish
> >
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> 
> No argument with any points you have made.
> 
> Still, I feel that Chris should have announced the change, even though it
> doesn't apply to existing customers, and more recently, to existing
> "loyal" customers who were blindsided by the change when they went to
> adjust thier service.
> 
> On the other hand, I can see why he may not have wanted to announce the
> change. If you were here when service changed from $5.00/month for
> everything (binaries and non-binaries along with unlimited bandwith) to
> bandwith restricted, two tiered service (non-binaries only or both
> non-binaries and binaries), then you would remember that this did not go
> over well to say the least. I was looking at a 300% price increase;
> others on even faster lines saw thier potential cost go a lot higher.
> 
> I chose to stay, but quite a few didn't. I don't remember whether I went
> from the $5.00/month to $20.00 or $15.00. I had ISDN at the time and my
> total monthly cost for all of it (ISP, teleco, Altopia) was running $145
> per month. It was getting hard to justify that. When retention started
> dropping, it was impossible to justify that - I cut off the ISDN and went
> back to modem.
> 
> Anyway, I've changed my usenet habits and have dropped down to a lowly
> 28.8K connect and $10.00/month here. I'm satisfied and I made the
> decisions.
> 
> Anyway, in summary, I think it would have been better to announce the
> change, state who it applied to, and dealt with the protests then (which
> Chris has to do anyway). Customers don't like surprises. They like them
> even less when they read about them from other customers first.
> 
> --
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Very well written, Trish.  I agree with 99.9% of what you said.  But
since I have not spent much time in altnet.general, can someone tell me
what the price increase is all about??  Has the cost of partial and/or
full access gone up??  And if so, to what??  Thanks.