How to annoy your current customers by making them jump through a hoop 2005

If you, like me, were an early adopter of PacBell DSL and rode the bumpy ride for years, put up with service which was once atrocious and is now, under SBC, tolerable to good, and you now pay something on the order of $49.95 a month for your connection, you too might have seen advertising promoting the service for much less for new customers. Which hardly seems fair since they never offered it to an existing customer like me at a new rate.

Turns out all you have to do is call and say "Hey there SBC PacBell, I pay $49.95 and that's waaay more than you charge new customers. Please start charging me $19.95 a month since that's the going rate."

And they'll just do it. I mean, great, suddenly I'm saving $360 for the next twelve months, but jeez, why should I have to call them?

They could have said "Hey, existing customers, we're about to change our pricing. It'll be $24.95  but for you and your friends, we'll offer it at $19.95. Your bill will change next month and you can tell your friends just to mention the 'SBC is on the cluetrain' promotion and they'll get the special price too!" and I would have been really happy and said nice things about them and recommended them to friends.

Instead I'm pissed at them because who knows how long ago I could have gotten this price. I'm sitting here thinking "Gee. That's a really great sushi dinner or a pair of hightops or a bottle of single malt or the donation to the Carter Center I've been wanting to do every month or two. SBC PacBell, you've been ripping me off! Jerks!"

*sigh* Can we have open source internet and phone service soon please, universe?