Wow! I'm with Bell Lite, and I like it. We aren't gamers, and we do watch some shows on the net, and Lite works for us.
As far as I know they only offer 4 plans, Lite, Lite plus, high and extreme. Good for you!......but you're right, why should you pay for something you aren't getting??

I had the same issue with my phone service years ago. It really bugged me.

There are some times I think high speed would be nice, but I'm still on the neanderthal thing called 'Dial up' I don't do business on my machine, mostly the Kitchen Table, play games, a little research and shop on line. It costs me only $13. a month, for 50 hours. Yes it is slow.....but heck, I'm retired, I have time.

***"Why did they let me go on paying for something that was no longer available."***

I had something similar happen with our Homeowners Insurance. They advertise that they review your policy periodically & I called my agent to discuss how I was insured. His response was something akin to a used car salesman, filled with insurance jargon that was foreign to me. I tried to pin him down with understandable language. He squirmed & weaseled. A couple of this type of conversations ensued. I directly confronted him with how I perceived our interaction. It irritated the h-e-double-hockey-stick outa me. I did research on new companies & went with a much better rated company, got better insurance & at a cheaper price for not only homeowners, but also auto insurance!
Lessons learned:
#1. Nationwide is NOT on your side.
#2. Periodically heck what you are paying for.

I am cutting back on things I don't use. I got rid of my Expanded TV service and have the very basic, about 6 channels. I also cut my cable internet to the slowest version and it is fast enough for me, much faster than ATT. I also cut my call id, but I think I will get that back. I hate to miss calls.

I've given up my private Email accouint on AT+T, just getting too expensive. I don't miss it. Friends know my phone number and I really don't miss it.

"Why did they let me go on paying for something that was no longer available."

What were you paying for that wasn't available? You were paying for high speed Internet and you were receiving high speed Internet.

We are each only one of thousands of customers for the service providers. They are not non-profit companies. They are not going to pay hundreds of employees to sit and review customers' packages to make sure that the customers are paying the lowest dollar amount possible.

And just because a particular plan is no longer available doesn't mean that it would always be cheaper to switch to another plan. I've had the same plan for my cell phone since my carrier was known as Pacific Bell Mobile (then Pacific Bell Cellular, then Cingular, and now AT&T). I've added data to it (because I have a BlackBerry) but the dollar amount I pay for the number of minutes I have beats any of the plans currently offered. And I have way more than enough minutes each month...

Lindsey, I think she meant the service she was receiving was now available for a "lower" price than she was paying and she was still being charged the "higher" price. I know that happened in my case. They will give you the lower price if you call and ask for it, but if you don't know to do that they just keep charging you the higher price.

Jannie, Google has free email called gmail. And my email is AT&T Yahoo which is also free.

Here is a link that might be useful: Google's gmail

I have internet for 19 bucks, cell phone for 39 (no caller id fee, it shows missed calls, received calls, and numbers from people that call), and TV for free. Well, not free, I had to buy an antenna. :)

There really isn't much on, but that means I don't watch much either. Don't even have a way to record a show... so, if I am not here, I don't get it.

Cheap. Works.

Oh, almost forgot. Do have the cheapest netflix set up, where I can watch a DVD, send it back, and they send the next one. With that, I and my daughter watch instant movies too.

One more thing, Been using Gmail since 2003. Works great. Access everywhere I have ever been.

Moni

It sounds like you have to pay for usage, is that right? I have cable and I am online 24 x 7 unless I turn it off. I also had Juno at one time and SWB before this cable. I was never charged for usage, just for the speed I wanted.

"Lindsey, I think she meant the service she was receiving was now available for a "lower" price than she was paying and she was still being charged the "higher" price. I know that happened in my case. They will give you the lower price if you call and ask for it, but if you don't know to do that they just keep charging you the higher price."

Yes, I understood that. What I was trying to say (perhaps I should have been blunt) was that we are adults. Folks need to learn to be responsible for themselves, and not expect someone else to take care of every little thing for them. As I said, above, the Internet Service Providers are NOT non-profit companies. They are not, as a general rule, going to go around contacting their customers saying, "Hey, guess what? You can pay us less (and knock our profits down) and still get the same thing you're getting now - heck, you might even get more."

Life doesn't work that way.

I had an experience with SWB that worked out well. I found out I had been paying for call waiting or something like that and I had not ordered it. I had paid that for a long time and had not noticed. When I called about it they credited my bill for months until I was paid back. I don't know why they did it that way but I got it back.

Well lindsey when I grocery shop I would expect a can of corn to be the same price regardless of what shelf it's on. And I believe I was responsible. I contacted them and asked why I was paying such a high price for a service that they now offer for much less.
But you are correct about one thing. As consumers we must look after ourselves. Don't assume that your being billed correctly or are receiving the best deal. Investigate and inform yourself.

Hi again mush,

I've used both Yahoo! and gmail for email - both very useful - and free.

Son was just checking what options may be available for me rather than dial-up - heck, I'm 82: time's getting shorter. I haven't got time to twiddle my thumbs waiting for dial-up to load!

It seems that at about 20 km. from the city, 13 from a village, and about 5 from a switch, I think, I'm too far out to get high-speed service over wire.

So we were told the other day when he went searching for an ISP on www.canadaisp.com? ca? I think was the address: got at least a couple of dozen potential providers.

Our rural municipality has arranged for increased speed for much of the area via 15 towers, one of them about 12 miles away, but it needs line-of-sight ... and that would require more or less going through old uncle's barn ... or putting an antenna on its roof, or on the silo. We're going to see whether I might be able to do that, and send signal over the air to the house, about 300 feet away.

There's another tower in another county that may be closer, but I haven't been able to find from a neighbour using it how the system works through that.

Another guy who lives near me gets a signal from a nearby grain elevator, operated by a telephone company, that gives him fast download of print and small graphics, but not of material in motion and some of the included ads have that, so if one has limited download capacity, it might get eaten up more quickly than one expected, were one not able to get rid of them.

ole joyful