UCAN

My wireless phone plan, from 1997, has no monthly charges. That is why I jumped at it and have held on to it. I accepted the terms of the Pioneer Plan and I have kept my end of the contract, for all these years, along with thousands of other San Diegans. I wish I could say the same for Sprint.

Skype Pro Customers who signed up for 12 months of unlimited service at $36 seem to be running into some problems and hidden gotchas with Skype.

UCAN has received some complaints that telemarketers have been trying to get Cox customers to upgrade from basic cable to digital cable as part of the transition. THIS IS NOT REQUIRED.

If you have basic cable connected to your TV you will not need a converter box and you do not need to upgrade to digital cable. Digital cable and High-Definition are different services, and you do not need either service for your television to work after the transition.

Your telephone rates have increased by between 70-276%.....in just the past year. From a few years ago, we are looking at 1000% price increases. Remarkably, many consumers aren't even aware of these price shocks. And when they find out, they feel helpless to do anything about them. They're partly right thanks to irresponsible regulatory oversight. But there are some ways to fight back..............read on.

 

It's funny how phone companies that lobby regulators for "pricing flexibility" only seem to move their prices in one direction: up. "Flexibility" implies the ability to flex in multiple directions, and while I recognize it's just another fancy lobby-speak term, it's time to call it what it really is: "price increasing flexibility." It's certainly flexible, because the respective company may decide to raise a particular rate 3% or 300%, but make no mistake, there will be no downward flexing.

As if it were a surprise, the phone giants are raising rates again, some by as much as 300%. This USA Today story points to a growing source of criticism. While the largest telecom companies continue to lobby for decreased regulatory oversight on the basis of increased competition, their phone service rates are rising. In California, phone companies have been largely deregulated since late 2006, but as this chart from TURN shows, major service providers such as AT&T and Verizon have increased rates over and over again. Basic economics tells you that in a competitive marketplace prices should fall...so what can you do? Ditch your landline phone. Internet phones can provide a wider variety of services at a fraction of the cost of traditional landline phones. Using your cell phone as your primary phone can also be cheaper than maintaining a landline phone.

Britney Spears has declined to appear on the Dr. Phil show, but recently UCAN's Executive Director, Michael Shames, was drafted to help Dr. Phil explain to his viewers why it is not necessary to use violence when dealing with large utilities. 

The program airs on Thursday, January 31, and you can read the preview for "vigilante justice" here.

Dr. Phil's patient will be a 75-year old granny named Mona Shaw. Shaw received national notoriety and an almost cult-following after she visited a Comcast office on August 13, and smashed up the company's equipment with a hammer.

Hopefully, Michael will have the opportunity to show Mrs. Shaw how to properly complain to a large, uncaring utility with bad customer service.  His organization, UCAN, specializes in resolving difficult utility complaints on behalf of its 33,000 members.

It's a great day when you can turn the tables on your cell phone carrier. Thousands of visits to my post on January 2, have resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars in waived Early Termination Fees (ETFs). Don't be left out, you have less than a week to use the MATERIAL CHANGE clause in your contract to avoid the dreaded ETF. Your window to cancel expires January 31. When talking to Sprint or Nextel, remember to stick to fact that there was a MATERIAL CHANGE in the contract when Sprint added the Administrative Charge and the Regulatory Charge.

Most of all stay calm, but relentless, when you stick it to the man. Keep your comments coming.

Worth noting - You can download our Cell Phone Buyer's guide (only four pages) and we guarantee you'll never get ripped off on a mobile phone deal again!

Yahoo! Tech recently reviewed a new web service called Validas that claims to help you reduce your monthly cell phone bill. I used it last weekend and tend to agree with the Yahoo article. I had a $200 bill and Validas didn’t come up with any savings for me. From my own experiment, I concluded that heavy users might be able to benefit from the service, but it's not clear that it benefits those with uncomplicated cell phone use. It was relatively easy to use, which is good (and I like the 5-upload package). But not all that easy for novices…..downloading the bills from the carriers could be off-putting to people not comfortable with computers. Finally, I’m nervous that the per-use charge may be a discouragement to many users. In the circles in which I travel, many are unaccustomed to paying ANYTHING for such services. So I expect many will be resistant to Validas' fees.

Mona Shaw did to her cable and phone company what many of us only fantasize about ... More

If only Mona Shaw had known about the UCAN Fraud Squad ...

 

According to an article posted by PCworldcom, "Congress is working to improve 911 service to VoIP customers".  There have been allegations by companies like Vonage that the major telecom carriers have been blocking access to 911 services to VoIP customers.