Should I drop Frontier all together?

September 2008 - Below is a complaint letter I sent to Frontier's Management in regards to a recent sales experience I had with them. What do you think I should have done? Left well enough alone and stuck with digital service? Called to revert my services? Cancel Frontier all together and go with Charter phone?

Good afternoon,

My name is Mac Noland and I'm a customer of yours in Apple Valley, MN. A few weeks back a young man showed up at our door on a sunny Saturday afternoon informing us, in so many words, that Frontier may be doing some digging near our house to install new "digital equipment," or something along that line. I cordially thanked him for the heads-up. He then took out a long list of names and said that he could also sign us up for digital service. Being we're not really interested in the digital features (e.g. call waiting) I thanked him again and tried to shake hands.

Not taking my hint, he said that our current phone bill was around $27 dollars. I don't pay out bills, but I remember my wife telling me the monthly charge was around $28 so I figured he was right. He stated; the new digital service was only $24.99 so it would actually be cheaper. My goodness, that does sound like a good deal. So I signed up right away. He then went into internet service at which point I became skeptical (as I usually am) and said that was quite enough. The digital phone would be enough for us today.

Two nights ago, my wife opened our Frontier bill and to my surprise started asking me pointed questions about what I had signed us up for. Our bill went from around $28 to over $40. I looked at the charges and other than around $5 in setup fees, I couldn't find any mistakes. Sure enough, the charge for our new service was $24.99. I then started to read the entire thing (which I've never done) and found that in addition to our $24.99, we are charged around $10 in taxes, and such.

I took all this information and forged my way to the basement where I keep all the old bills. There starring at me was our previous Frontier bill. I opened it up right away and found that, we also paid around $10 in taxes. What was different though, is the price of the service. It was only $17 (or so).

Honestly, I should have done more research before I signed up. It's my fault. However, my entire complaint here is that your service/sales person sold me on the fact that the digital service, and all its amenities, are less expensive than my current services. In fact, they are not.

We actually really liked the digital services. In fact, I had a note to call back about the internet services as I think my cable company is being a bit aggressive with their charges. But instead, I called back two nights ago and reverted my services to what I had before. It's not the dollar about - I'd actually be happy to pay the extra money for call waiting, caller ID, etc. But the young man's disingenuousness upset me. So much, that I decided to revert our services.

If you'd like to talk in person about my complaint I'm more than willing. You can use this email address or look my number up and call me. Again, it's not the dollar amount. It's that your service/sales person was not genuine. And that is frustrating.