 bgraham
join:2001-03-15
Smithtown, NY | What a bargain All I have to say.  | |
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quatrix
join:2005-02-11
Davie, FL | Durrrrrr "Paying $50 a month for the next fifty years would only cost you $30,000, so that's quite a bargain indeed."
Sarcasm duly noted, but obviously broadband prices aren't going to stay constant for FIFTY years. | |
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 | matt314159
join:2006-01-18
Hesperia, CA
 ·Charter Pipeline
| Re: Durrrrrr said by quatrix  :Sarcasm duly noted, but obviously broadband prices aren't going to stay constant for FIFTY years. Yeah but consider the time-value of money. You could do so much better investing the 70 grand and paying month-to-month. That's finance 101. Even if the prices go up, you're better off holding onto your money and paying for the service as you receive it.
I think it was hilarious how charter tacked on the "oh, by the way...uh, we are giving the money to charity!" about halfway through the auction. You can almost hear the suits at the top grumbling "damnit we NEEDED that money!". | |
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| | zed260
join:2007-09-30
Cleveland, TN | Re: Durrrrrr well it does give them some tax benifits | |
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morbo
Complete Your Transaction
join:2002-01-22
00000
clubs: | Re: Durrrrrr the "winner" should have just paid month to month and donated the remaining $50k to charity for their own personal tax benefit. | |
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kyler13
Is your fiber grounded?
join:2006-12-12
Arnold, MD
 ·ViaTalk
| said by matt314159 :Yeah but consider the time-value of money. You could do so much better investing the 70 grand and paying month-to-month. That's finance 101. Even if the prices go up, you're better off holding onto your money and paying for the service as you receive it. Seriously. Even at a measley 2% APR, a savings account would earn you $116/month (on $70,000) which would probably cover any forseeable rate hikes over the subscriber's lifetime. | |
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| maxpower
join:2006-10-09
Providence, RI | It seems sarcasm runs rampant in these "news" postings, something I don't see from ANY other source for "news."
Anyway, this guy is getting ripped. | |
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mrchris
America the pitiful
Premium
join:2002-10-01
North Babylon, NY | IF they're still around in the year 2058..what will the idiot who bidded 70k+ do if the company goes bankrupt in 2015? | |
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techjoe
Premium
join:2004-02-20
Worth, IL
 ·Sprint Mobile Broa..
| Charity I was rolling my eyes at the auction, but now that they are helping Habitat For Humanity I applaud them. I've done a few rehab projects with DADs and HFH and it's a really great organization to work with and support.
Cheers, Charter.
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Baka wa shinanakya naoranai | |
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tenpin784
I Went To The Dark Side?
join:2001-03-30
New Durham, NH | wow Just wow.
And I am not talking about the game. | |
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rbrugman
join:2002-09-22
Marquette, MI | Dumb I wonder how it feels to be the "winner" of an auction for a company with no cash, that could go under at any time, and that you would have to live for another 150 years to actually see some return on. I feel sorry for the "winner". | |
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| Chainzz
Aka Snippy
join:2004-07-26
Amherstburg, ON | Re: Dumb I have no sympathy, more people now a days have more money than brains. That would just about finish my mortgage, must be nice to just blow money like that!
my 2 cents | |
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Doctor Four
My other vehicle is a TARDIS
Premium
join:2000-09-05
Dallas, TX | A Fool And His Money Are Soon Parted.
Enough said... | |
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cbrain
join:2000-05-21
Silver Spring, MD | Discount broadband for life! I'll provide broadband for life for anyone willing to pay me the discount price of $70,000 up front.  | |
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| zed260
join:2007-09-30
Cleveland, TN | Re: Discount broadband for life! heck ill do it for a mere 50k its a bargain | |
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yngbearsac
join:2001-11-19
Sacramento, CA | Idiot For Life? All I have to say is, there are some dumb people using Charter! | |
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Monster Rain
Premium
join:2002-08-03
USA
| Re: Idiot For Life? said by yngbearsac :All I have to say is, there are some dumb people using Charter! There are idiots everywhere. And no offense, most of them, in my experience, live in CA. | |
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ossito16
join:2004-07-31
Whiting, IN | which politician is happy now all you have to do is find which politician (or there wife) has a sweet spot for habitat for humanity and can directly effect any decisions concerning charter cable. Sure they are not doing this to be kind. | |
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zed260
join:2007-09-30
Cleveland, TN | fios if charter is worth 70k for life whats fios worth | |
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| frost203
join:2005-09-17
| Re: I bet he doesnt pay People are considering the typical monthly cost of residential broadband. I didnt notice anything that said a business owner could not use it. with that in mind the typical monthly cost could be several hundred a month easily for broadband to a business. consider that let say $300 a month for a decently fast business line, then 20 years of broadband will be about $72,000. I have seen a business account that cost nearly a thousand a month for internet access, so something like that would be more like 6 yrs to recoupe the investment. | |
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zelone
@rr.com
| Re: I bet he doesnt pay Hmmm, well, this doesn't appear to be equal to a business account worth a thousand a month. The site does say it is for residential customers only. The big difference isn't just speed (I think my residential is faster than many business accounts) but the ToS, QoS, and guarantees associated with it.
Doing this for charity is one thing -- doing it for financial justification that it's "worth it" is just dumb. Even if you could only earn a weak 6% on that $72k in investments, that's still about $360/mo in appreciation. More than enough to cover the costs. Heck, even 1% would cover $60/mo. | |
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pepperxn
join:2001-02-21 | LOL! I can't believe someone actually paid this much. This winner is actually the loser. I don't see the company lasting more than 3 years. Maybe this person just wanted to show off by bidding the most. Like on eBay, someone bought "nothing". | |
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CyberSultan
Premium
join:2006-07-20
| How to get out of paying Looks like the only thing the winner needs to do is not pay.
"The Winning Bid
After the bidding timeframe closes at 12:00 p.m. CST on March 26, 2008, the highest bid will be declared the winner. The winner will be contacted by telephone and email on or before April 2, 2008. Once notified, the winner must make full payment to Charter within 48 hours of notification. If full payment is not received within this time period, the next highest bidder will be declared the winner and so on until the winning bid is paid in full. Details regarding the specifics of payment and installation will be discussed with the winning bidder when such winner is notified as the winner." | |
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AnonProxy
Proxy of Anon
Premium
join:2001-05-12
ß | It was actually me and my fake account They will have to redo the auction. | |
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marigolds
Gainfully employed, finally
Premium,MVM
join:2002-05-13
Saint Louis, MO
| It's all for the wii I'm telling you. All of these bids were for nothing but the wii. The only way to get entered in the wii sweepstakes was to place a bid. Considering how few bids there were, that is better than a 1 in 2800 chance of a free wii for just bothering to place a fake bid. That's why bidders ran up the price so fast too. They wanted to make sure they scared off any legit bidders.
Meanwhile, all you have to do to get out of your bid is refuse to pay; there is no other penalty at all. A really clever strategy (which I bet someone also did) would have been to bid about $500 and then have a couple of friends in the charter footprint ram the bidding up thousands of dollars immediately. Your friends each refuse to pay and you end up with broadband for life for less than the price of one year of service.
--
ISCABBS - the oldest and largest BBS on the Internet
telnet://bbs.iscabbs.com
Professional Geographer
Geographic Information Science researcher | |
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Larriat Sam
@usps.gov | Re: It's all for the wii I'll bet you're spot on! Wouldn't it be cool if every bidder refused to pay until they got down to the guy who bid the first ten bucks! (Way unlikely but it is technically possible.) | |
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Jameson
1010
Premium
join:2004-05-28
Fallbrook, CA
clubs:
edit:
March 27th, @06:14PM
| Staged? Who thinks this whole thing is staged just for publicity and maybe some business..? | |
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| ltjordan
join:2001-12-02
Hyattsville, MD | Re: Staged? It has to be some kind of practical joke. I hope no one's that stupid. | |
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Jameson
1010
Premium
join:2004-05-28
Fallbrook, CA
clubs: | Re: Staged? Who knows...we will see how this plays out. | |
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dvd536
as Mr. Pink as they come
Premium
join:2001-04-27
Phoenix, AZ | Weeeeeeeeeeeee! So everything after 120 years is gravy!
only problem is life expectancy is 50 years less than that!
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You can never be too rich, too thin or have too much Bandwidth | |
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Neoistheone
join:2007-01-13
Tornado, WV | JUST THEN Charter sells the Winner's cable system and the new Cable operator dose not honor his/her life time payment.
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When you ASSUME, you make an ASS out of U and ME. | |
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verteggio
join:2002-07-26
Lawrenceville, GA
| I live in Lawrenceville.... I live in Lawrenceville... and man, I have a hard enough time paying my monthly rate for the service I get. From the techs in the local office on Breckenridge that think rebooting the modem 3 times in a row fix things (when I call to report an outage), to installers that damage your property and don't care, to service outages and interruptions like no other place I have lived - I can't beleive someone is bid to pay $71K for that type of service. | |
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Charter 'Broadband For Life' Auction Ends With $71,540 'Winner'
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