How far should an ISP go?
Some Questions.
Who is your ISP? Better yet, who is your broadband ISP? Whether you have have DSL, Cable, or wireless who is it? Is it a national ISP who has hundreds of thousands of customers, or a local mom n’ pop shop that has less than a thousand customers? What type of service do you EXPECT from your ISP?
What an ISP is supposed to do.
An ISP’s job is to get you access to the internet. Route you an IP address and let you loose on the information freeway. That is what you pay your monthly fee for. Whether you drive a Ferrari (DSL or Cable) or a Pinto (dialup) on that freeway you pay your monthly fee to drive that vehicle.
Technical Support
Another job of the ISP is to offer basic technical support to their end users. Somebody cannot get to their email because they have no clue what Outlook Express is, then that is the ISPs job to get that user configured with Outlook Express. The basic services they offer they must support. I agree whole heartedly, infact I have spend hours on the phone with people that call my day job with the crazyist questions, you wonder, what were they thinking?
Beyond ISP support
There are limits to what an ISP should due as part of their “technical support”. The company I work for will gladly setup your wireless lan for you if you cannot figure out the hand holding that most wireless routers offer while setting up wireless. This should not be part of what an ISP offers, unless they charge a substantially extra fee for this service. By offering this to end users they are taking away from the lively hood of struggling IT professionals that make a living offering services of this type. They should not have to compete with an ISP that is offering this service for FREE! What the fuck?
Another thing that this particular ISP does is clean up users PC of viruses, spyware and adware. Again for no extra charge. This is crazy, again, taking away from business of struggling professionals that are trying to provide for their family. I guess that is the beauty of free enterprise and the wonders of capitalism.
Struggling for life
I suppose going beyond the call of the traditional ISP support is essential when your services are over priced. This particular ISP is almost double the price of what most people can get dialup access for now days. DSL is almost as bad. If they didn’t offer this type of service their customer base would be shrinking even faster than it already is. Losing more accounts than what your bringing in is always a bad situation for any business. But should they do this at the price of offering FREE services which would normally cost a few bucks and stimulate the local economy just that much more? I suppose anything to keep the owner comfortable, while the employees are the ones to see the effects of a failing business. Lets not forget about the customers, who will eventually suffer when the business can no longer make ends meet and shutdown.
Final Thoughs
I offer dialup service for $10.00 per month, with Accelerated dialup for only $2 extra. The above rants on the “particular” ISP is not the ISP I own. It is the ISP I am working for until I can support myself with my own computer consulting company, Marriner Technologies. My services are backed by me personally and I take pride in my offerings. If you are interested in dialup service or network and computer consulting or repair, please visit http://www.marrinertech.com
Richard :: Dec.27.2005 :: Personal Thoughts :: Comments Off
