Speed Connect Just Generally Bodes

UPDATE: Speed Connect listens to whiny customer and Facebook poster, fixes poor Internet signal in record time. Kudos to them.

So, anybody out there in Blogland familiar with Michigan’s SpeedConnect? Or is it Speed Connect? I blame Apple and marketeers in general for the degradation of capitalization and spacing in today’s society, so I’m not going to fret long about their name.

Why am I worried about a Michigan company? They bought our Idaho ISP, lock, stock, and Dolores.

Their web site is full of marketing-speak but pretty light on information. They have yet to announce their acquisition of BridgeMaxx, our similarly spacing-challenged ISP. But that’s not what’s worrying me.

It’s money.

Speed Connect charges more for their basic services, to the tune of an additional $10 per month, than does our current ISP. That does not bode well. I cannot fathom for a second that this company will come in, look at the overall pay structure, and think, “You know, there’s nothing the matter here. Full speed ahead at current pricing!” No. That won’t happen. So our internet is going to get more expensive.

BridgeMaxx isn’t helping either. We got a very excited letter from them letting us know of the change. They spent nearly a page explaining how the billing cycle will change as we transition over to Speed Connect, but nary a word on prices – and nothing on the fact that the lowest-tier plan, which is most comparable to what we already have – will charge us an extra $2 per gig after 5 gigs a month. I have no idea how close I ever get to five gigs, but at this point I don’t want to know.

Speed Connect, in direct answer to my question, sent this reply. (I’ll reproduce the entire email below so you can read my question to them as well.)

Hi Brian,

Thank you for contacting SpeedConnect!  First and foremost, welcome to SpeedConnect!  We are very happy to have you as a customer and have some exciting upgrades coming your way soon in regards to speeds.  We would like to upgrade everyone's speed up to 8Mbps and this process is already underway.  Our leaders are working extremely hard to wrap their arms around the business in this transition and you would be informed of any changes to you (sic) account in advance.

Again, we welcome you to SpeedConnect and we appreciate your business!

All the best,

Joe

On 5/30/2012 7:13 PM, Davidson, Brian J wrote:

I've got a quick question for you on Speed Connect's recent purchase of Bridgemaxx: Is the price I pay for internet service going to go up? I note that Speed Connect charges $10 more per month for what appears to be the basic plan than what Bridgemaxx charges, and that's without the $2 per gig charge over five gigs.

Thanks,

Brian

Note the complete lack of an answer to the pricing question. So perhaps they don’t know yet. Perhaps also I will grow an udder and get milked. We’ll see what happens, but I’m not optimistic. And the speed upgrade thing? I like that. But they’ll probably couch that in a price increase as well. May as well glue some gears to it and call it steampunk.