Originally posted by KyleC
I was mad enough with that experience that I did some research into how the ISP business works, and the following is my understanding of how it worked at that time:
If you look at the access numbers for these "nationwide" ISPs for any particular city, you will find that many of them use precisely the same access (phone) numbers. The ISP that I am using now is the third "nationwide" ISP that I have had in this city, and the modem numbers for all three (in any city) were the same; the only difference is the modem login ID. You have a modem logon that is something like, YourName@ISPsName.net -- this is a signal that the ISP is a reseller who bought a block of time from someone else.
Note that it isn't YourName that is important -- downtime due to running out of purchased connection time will be by *ISPsName*. If the reseller ISP oversells for the total block of time that it has purchased, *IT* is cut off in the middle of the billing period when customers in aggregate consume the time quota -- and so are you as its customer. So when the Qwest modem number quits working for you, perhaps the Sprint one will work for a few more days before the reseller has used up its monthly time quota with them.
The moral of the story is similar to what many of us here have learned in choosing a hosting service: Don't ever pre-pay a full year. Doing so gives the reseller a wad of cash up front for paying its monthly fees to an Internet service, and when that money runs out, so does your connection until the reseller brings in enough new suckers to pay the bill. If you pay month-to-month, it might be a little easier to get out, albeit perhaps by contacting your credit card company when you find that the ISP is unreachable. As former FeaturePrice customers know, a "30 day guarantee" on long-term pre-pay is a red flag that something is probably wrong.
So why do some ISPs advertise faster or more reliable connections at higher prices when using precisely the same modem access numbers as hundreds of competitors? Simply because they can and nobody challenges them. About blocking ports -- think about how that's done when several resellers go through the same modem bank. Ain't so customized as some would lead you to believe.
Anyhow, former Feature Price customers might understand why I feel it so important to warn others about reseller ISPs who are more interested in generating revenues than in telling the truth in advertising, than in answering the phone, than in answering email, etc.
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