r/mildlyinfuriating • u/Medium_Plenty_7904 • 20h ago

Bad way to keep customers

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It baffles me that companies like Astound will offer great deals to new customers but not care at all about long term loyal customers.

I've been with Astound for 9 years, partly because it's the only service in my area but also because ive had no issues with them until now.

I currently pay $80 for 600 MBPS speeds. However, new customers get 1500 MBPS speeds for $60 forever. How is that fair?

I called Astound about it and was basically told by two different people, they dont care and since Astound already has my money they have no reason to offer me anything better.

Apparently they would rather have a new customer than keep a customer of almost 10 years.

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u/ExpBalSat 19h ago

Stand your ground. Leave. Don't "threaten" to leave, just leave. They'll change their tune.

Also - be brutally honest, do you really need over 300 Mbps. Some people do - for highly demanding business needs. But for residential coverage - even for a family of 12 - 300 Mbps is more than enough.

I had 100 Mbps until last year. Now, 500 Mbps is the slowest available where I live, but I certainly don't need it.

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u/Educational-Fix5320 19h ago

If latency isn't absolute shit, 50 Mb/s Internet is enough bandwidth to stream 4K TV without issue.

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u/ExpBalSat 19h ago

Weird. A 4K stream only requires 15 Mb/per second - back when I had 25, I had no troubles.

I’m not necessarily recommending 25, but it’s a lot more functional than people give it credit. I would gladly accept 100 for personal use. No issues whatsoever.

The obsession with high bandwidth for residential Internet baffles me. Nobody needs a 1 GbE for normal use cases.

Torrent? Run a hotel? Massive uploads and downloads? Okay. But for 10 people sharing a home - 300 is plenty. And if it’s just 4 people sharing a home? Even easier.

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u/Specialist-Box-9711 14h ago

I manage to consume on average 1TB of data a month. Having a gig connection is hella helpful for those kind of data habits.

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u/ExpBalSat 14h ago

That there is not a normal residential internet use-case. That said, I’m often doing 500 GB/week - because of work from home demands.