Back in 2017 I made a post about how my SuddenLink internet connection is slow, and how it felt like I was being ripped off. Fast forward to 2022 – it’s still nowhere near as fast as it’s supposed to be, but today I want to talk about something that is – believe it or not – more annoying than paying $125/month for residential 400Mbps internet service that I’m only getting about 20Mbps speeds on.
This is part two. You can find part one of this series here: SuddenLink – Slow Speed, Bad Service, and Creepy Sales Tactics – Part 1
SuddenLink Is Taking Advantage of Customers
If you want to see how tired people are of the garbage internet service and bad treatment that customers receive from SuddenLink, you can check out this petition on Change.org that has just over 5,000 signatures, or this site that gives information on a class-action lawsuit against SuddenLink, or this news story about how the Public Service Commission in Charleston West Virginia made SuddenLink pay $2.2 million in fines because they “intentionally reduced its maintenance work and budget, reduced the number of full-time employees, changed its method of communicating with customers and ignored thousands of customer complaints”.
Nevermind that SuddenLink often operates in service areas that don’t offer comparable competition. They will enter contracts with cities to keep a soft monopoly on cable internet service, and so when you have problems with them, it can be difficult to find an alternative internet service.
Nevermind that SuddenLink gets sued (and loses) in court over their practices that they continue in areas not covered by those lawsuits. Usually when people see someone make a stupid choice, they adjust their behaviors. But nah, not for these internet service “providers”.
Nevermind that r/Suddenlink is literally FILLED with angry, unfulfilled customers. No, we’re not here to talk about that today. We’re here to talk about something even MORE egregious.
SuddenLink Monitors Your Web Traffic to Attempt to Upsell Their Service
“Okay, Wess, you’ve gone off the deep end again.”
Except that I haven’t. Let me explain what happened to me a few days ago.
I understand that this is a bold claim. And *maaaaaybe* I’m wrong, but I don’t believe that I am. And of course, I brought receipts. 😉
I was pretty sick of my internet connection randomly dropping, and who really wants to pay $125/month for 20-30Mbps? Honestly, I know that I can live without the internet…but I don’t really want to. Plus, my girlfriend and I use the internet for work, shopping, etc. so it’s pretty much a necessity to have a good internet connection.
If I were outside of town in a more rural area, HughesNet would be an option (although there are some major downsides to satellite internet, such as outages during severe weather, which is a major problem if you live in storm-prone areas). I had, however, heard that Frontier was bringing fiber internet to our area. I searched for Frontier and checked their website to get more information. They were offering 1 gig service for only $59/month, so I did a check to see if I was in their service area. Unfortunately, I wasn’t. It’s coming…but it’s not there yet.
And then the phone rang. My phone said that it was “potential spam”, but I was expecting a call from a number that I didn’t recognize for other reasons, so I answered the call.
It was SuddenLink calling with a new offer. They were trying to sell me 1 gig service to my already existing account for “only $30 more per month” plus adding a bundled service which I don’t use to “save even more”.
First off, bundling services you don’t need isn’t exactly “saving”. If your cash outflow increases, you’re simply paying more. But that tells me that they can afford to adjust prices downward a bit.
I had a fun conversation with the sales rep (and I absolutely recorded the call, I haven’t decided whether to make it public yet though) where I explained what I was doing online, what my suspicions were, and told her that she should talk to the other reps and let them know about the weird timing of the call.
Coincidence? Perhaps. Although it was VERY specific…the pitch was tailored to exactly what I was reading. Weird, eh? And the timing was even more off.
I believe that I mentioned receipts, right?
In the words of everyone playing Among Us, “sus”.
I decided to ask SuddenLink on their Facebook page what was up with that.
As you can guess, SuddenLink DID respond…but they were completely useless.
SuddenLink Is…
At this point, I think it’s safe to say that if you have an alternative to SuddenLink (or any other Altice-owned ISP), you should strongly consider going with them. That said, at least the connection is *ok* most of the time, but it will randomly drop (because of issues with the router talking to provisioning…but that’s a whole other post). But who really wants to pay $125/month PLUS have to deal with SuddenLink stalking you to see if you want to be treated better PLUS having to call them periodically and argue over the bills that they will magically increase for literally no reason at all. Honestly, I wouldn’t be shocked if they tried to nuke my account after this series of blog posts.
From what I hear, that process would be faster and less painless than trying to call and cancel on my own. But that’s a topic for a different time.
We all deserve better treatment than this from a company that we give so much money to.
If you’ve ever been treated like garbage by SuddenLink, please leave a comment and tell us about your experience.Â
Relevant Links
- SuddenLink – Slow Speed, Bad Service, and Creepy Sales Tactics – Part 1
- My SuddenLink Internet Connection is Slow…and I Feel Like I’m Being Ripped Off
- ARRIS SURFboard SBG10 DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem & AC1600 Dual Band Wi-Fi Router (Amazon)
- Act now to save BIG on high-speed satellite Internet with HughesNet Gen5! Check out special offers available in your area!