baineschile
2600
Premium
join:2008-05-10
Sterling Heights, MI | AD this morning
$99 - Triple Play, HBO, HD, and $100 cash back through Comcast.
$109 - Triple, Whole Home DVR, $200 cash back through UVerse.
Not bad. |
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MyDogHsFleas
Premium
join:2007-08-15
Austin, TX
 ·AT&T U-Verse
 ·AT&T Southwest
| I prefer rebate cards over checks
Checks are a pain in the ass. You have to go to the bank, or prepare a mail-in deposit, to receive the value. A whole separate step.
Rebate cards skip that step. Go to store (where you would have gone anyway). Use card. Receive value. How hard is that?
They even provide a web site where you can register your card and track the remaining value.
I really don't need an attorney general to waste my taxpayer money because stupid people can't deal with a rebate card.
Oh, and the concern about having a small amount left on the card which you can't use? Dude. Get over it. Any retailer has the ability to accept two forms of payment for a transaction. Simply hand the cashier your rebate card, say "Please charge $4.73 to this one" (or whatever the amount is), then pay the rest with another card or cash. |
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Bobcat
Premium
join:2001-02-04
Bedminster, NJ | Keep the cash
Lower the regular (monthly) charges. |
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funchords
Hello
Premium,MVM
join:2001-03-11
Washington, DC
·Verizon Online DSL
 ·Skype
| An HSI account is $40 a month profit...
A good friend of mine who has studied this more than I have reports that Internet profits are about $40 per account.
I thought that was high, but then that figure that was also in a PALI Equity Research piece by Richard Greenfield on May 21st "Content Owners Must Follow..." (sorry, no link, free subscription required).
So $200 after four months is a pretty darn good rebate. That said, wouldn't it be better to cut the price by $20 or so and you can retain your customers because you're giving them a better deal?
PS: I still think it's funny that people see value in having a wireline phone.
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Robb Topolski -= funchords.com =- District of Columbia -- KJ7RL |
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baineschile
2600
Premium
join:2008-05-10
Sterling Heights, MI
 ·Comcast
·magicjack.com
 ·Verizon Wireless B..
| reply to Bobcat
Re: Keep the cash
said by Bobcat  :Lower the regular (monthly) charges. Eh, if you get $100 cash back on a 24 month agreement, thats only like 4 bucks less a month. I would rather take the bigger sum and buy some baseball tickets  |
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glinc
join:2009-04-07
New York, NY | nice
I'm pretty sure verizon $150 cashback is no longer available.....they already replaced it with a compaq netbook or a camcorder |
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Eat Me
join:2002-09-25
Sussex, NJ
·PenTeleData
·Future Nine Corpor..
·VOIPo
·Vonage
| Money is money
I can use an amex gift card to buy stuff.
I can use cash to buy stuff.
Sure, I can't put the amex gift card in the bank, but chances are that I will need to buy $200 of stuff anyway, and I can just put the cash that I didn't spend in the bank.
What am I missing here? |
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baineschile
2600
Premium
join:2008-05-10
Sterling Heights, MI
·Comcast
·magicjack.com
·Verizon Wireless B..
| reply to funchords
Re: An HSI account is $40 a month profit...
said by funchords :A good friend of mine who has studied this more than I have reports that Internet profits are about $40 per account. Grandma Baineschils has ATT which she pays $25/month for (in conjunction with POTS as well, of course), and a few friends have the "economy" comcast internet, which is about the same price.
Personally, I pay 42.95 for Comcast, so I dont know how their profit ratios are that high.
I can see that type of profit on a commercial of business unit, but thats because they charge them huge amounts, and only add a few smaller added services (hosting, tech support, etc) |
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baineschile
2600
Premium
join:2008-05-10
Sterling Heights, MI
·Comcast
·magicjack.com
·Verizon Wireless B..
| reply to Eat Me
Re: Money is money
said by Eat Me :I can use an amex gift card to buy stuff. I can use cash to buy stuff. Sure, I can't put the amex gift card in the bank, but chances are that I will need to buy $200 of stuff anyway, and I can just put the cash that I didn't spend in the bank. What am I missing here? I think people would at least want the option to put it in the bank or a rebate card. |
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JSRoman
Premium
join:2005-03-10
Callahan, FL
| reply to funchords
Re: An HSI account is $40 a month profit...
Cutting the price of an item/service makes it extremely hard to raise the price of that item/service in the future.
Once folks get a taste of free or reduced pricing they come to expect it. Look at Gm car sales, cash rebate vs no cash rebate, the current battle over metered billing, pay news sites like WSJ. Murdock is on record as saying he won't make it free since he thinks if he does he would never be able to charge for it in the future.
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»www.seabee.navy.mil |
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funchords
Hello
Premium,MVM
join:2001-03-11
Washington, DC
·Verizon Online DSL
·Skype
| reply to Eat Me
Re: Money is money
said by Eat Me :I can use an amex gift card to buy stuff. I can use cash to buy stuff. Sure, I can't put the amex gift card in the bank, but chances are that I will need to buy $200 of stuff anyway, and I can just put the cash that I didn't spend in the bank. What am I missing here? Cash has
- no expiration date
- no transaction fee
- no balance fee
- no usage restrictions
- no approval required*
- worldwide acceptance
(*a major problem with gift cards is that people use them in restaurants. The approval transaction hold from a restaurant is processed for the bill amount plus a percentage estimated for the tip, making a restaurant a difficult choice to use a gift card because it's hard to calculate that just right to use the entire balance of the card, no more and no less.)
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Robb Topolski -= funchords.com =- District of Columbia -- KJ7RL |
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funchords
Hello
Premium,MVM
join:2001-03-11
Washington, DC
·Verizon Online DSL
·Skype
| reply to baineschile
Re: An HSI account is $40 a month profit...
said by baineschile :Personally, I pay 42.95 for Comcast, so I dont know how their profit ratios are that high. I'm sure it's an average. With Comcast, that $42.95 rate means that you don't rent your modem -- and, correct me if I'm wrong, means you have a reduced tier unless you also subscribe to TV or phone.
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Robb Topolski -= funchords.com =- District of Columbia -- KJ7RL |
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funchords
Hello
Premium,MVM
join:2001-03-11
Washington, DC
·Verizon Online DSL
·Skype
| And now a word from Consumer Reports
»www.consumerreports.org/cro/mone···s-ov.htm
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Robb Topolski -= funchords.com =- District of Columbia -- KJ7RL |
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NYR 56
join:2000-12-05
Smithtown, NY
clubs:
| reply to funchords
Re: Money is money
said by funchords :- worldwide acceptance Actually it is far easier to use an amex gift card worldwide than cash. On top of that, you can't use cash for internet purchases but that gift card will work just fine. I don't see why this is a big deal, I use credit cards for every purchase anyway. People just look for things to get companies in trouble when it really doesn't matter. It's a promotion, just enjoy it instead of trying to catch them in an insignificant mistake. |
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BB User
@charter.com
| reply to funchords
Re: An HSI account is $40 a month profit...
said by funchords :A good friend of mine who has studied this more than I have reports that Internet profits are about $40 per account. That's a useless stat without a baseline price and timeframe. |
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funchords
Hello
Premium,MVM
join:2001-03-11
Washington, DC
·Verizon Online DSL
·Skype
| reply to NYR 56
Re: Money is money
said by NYR 56 :said by funchords :- worldwide acceptance Actually it is far easier to use an amex gift card worldwide than cash. No, it's not, but whatever. It's not a big deal.
said by NYR 56 : On top of that, you can't use cash for internet purchases but that gift card will work just fine. That's probably true.
said by NYR 56 : I don't see why this is a big deal, It's not a big deal.
said by NYR 56 : I use credit cards for every purchase anyway. People just look for things to get companies in trouble when it really doesn't matter. How does this get companies in trouble?
said by NYR 56 : It's a promotion, just enjoy it instead of trying to catch them in an insignificant mistake. I don't think it's a mistake. In fact, I think I said, "So $200 after four months is a pretty darn good rebate." Smart people will amortize that over several months before jumping on the next bargain and they'll be better off for doing so.
However, and here is the bigger deal, this does nothing good for the state of broadband. It keeps it expensive and doesn't expand it to any unserved or underserved customers. Customers who they lure in with these deals are the customers likely lured away by the next one. In that way it's short-sighted. It will help them have a good quarter, but not necessarily a good future.
But you are vigorously defending in a fight where there is no vigorous offense. I don't think this is a big deal, there just wasn't anything else to talk about on BBR yet this morning.
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Robb Topolski -= funchords.com =- District of Columbia -- KJ7RL |
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funchords
Hello
Premium,MVM
join:2001-03-11
Washington, DC
·Verizon Online DSL
·Skype
| reply to BB User
Re: An HSI account is $40 a month profit...
said by BB User :said by funchords :A good friend of mine who has studied this more than I have reports that Internet profits are about $40 per account. That's a useless stat without a baseline price and timeframe. Which is, probably, why I followed it with the next paragraph.
Sheeesh, tough room this morning.
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Robb Topolski -= funchords.com =- District of Columbia -- KJ7RL |
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Bobcat
Premium
join:2001-02-04
Bedminster, NJ | reply to baineschile
Re: Keep the cash
I was thinking more along the the lines of reducing the monthly rate by $20.
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It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice. |
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NYR 56
join:2000-12-05
Smithtown, NY
clubs:
| reply to funchords
Re: Money is money
You disagree that it's harder to use cash than an amex card? When I was in Italy any US cash I had could only be used at the exchange places, my credit card, however, could be used at any moderately sized business.
Companies get in trouble when people start suing them saying it isn't "cash back" but a rebate card. Talk about a waste of resources.
Cablevision is only in areas that are saturated with broadband. They are not looking to expand geographically so this is a natural way for them to try and grab customers from fios. Most people are not like DSLR users and will not jump ship every few months for a deal so whatever customers they get, they most likely will not lose many of them.
I'm not really vigorously defending it but rather as you said, there isn't much to talk about and I'm pretty bored at work.  |
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n2jtx
join:2001-01-13
Glen Head, NY
·Optimum Online
| reply to Bobcat
Re: Keep the cash
said by Bobcat :Lower the regular (monthly) charges. I agree. Keep the cash and guarantee me the triple play price for as long as I remain a customer or perhaps offer extremely long contract options such as five years. If I ever drop CV then I lose the ability to ever get that price structure again. That sounds a way to keep and hold a customer yet give them the option to leave knowing they will never get as good a deal again.
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I support the right to keep and arm bears. |
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