patrick@chinet.chi.il.us (Patrick A. Townson) (04/10/89)
In January, Telenet announced a complete revision of its PC Pursuit program,
setting maximum usage terms and new pricing.
***** That deal has now been called off *****
A letter dated March 29, 1989 from Floyd H. Trogdon, Vice President and
General Manager of Network Services has been posted on the Net Exchange
for subscriers. It states that it supercedes all previous memos and
contracts, effective July 1, 1989 as follows --
THREE types of accounts will be available:
REGULAR membership in PCP will be $30 per month for 30 hours
during non-prime (overnight/weekend) hours.
FAMILY membership in PCP will be $50 per month for 60 hours
during non-prime (overnight/weekend) hours.
Regular memberships are for the use of the subscriber only. No one else
is permitted to use the account. Family memberships are for the use of
one or more persons in a household. If you, individually, expect to use
more than 30 but fewer than 60 hours per month, you would also buy this
plan, even if your 'family' consists of yourself only.
The third plan is HANDICAPPED membership. This allows 90 hours per
month for $30; but there are requirements you have to meet including
proof of your physical handicap. Contact Telenet Customer Service for
more specifics on this.
EXCESS HOURS used (over 30 or 60, depending) of non-prime time will be
billed at $3.00 per hour, regardless of how many or few are used. This
is a decrease from the original plan of $4.50 per hour on overtime.
PRIME TIME usage will be billed at $10.50 per hour, regardless of time
remaining on your PCP membership.
The billing will be in arrears each month; that is, you will be billed
for July usage during August, etc. If your usage exceeded 30 hours per
month, under any of the above plans, then you will receive call-detail
with your bill.
GRACE PERIOD/FORGIVENESS: Every call will automatically be given a one
minute free period for the purpose of establishing the connection. This
will prevent charges due to network congestion or busy signals at the
remote end. Calls of one minute or less will *not* be billed at all.
The MINIMUM CALL PERIOD will be two minutes (after the first minute has
passed). Otherwise, the time will be rounded to the *nearest* minute
for the purpose of billing.
NEW PASSWORDS AND I.D.'s FOR EVERYONE: During April, 1989, *all* users
of PC Pursuit will be assigned new user identifications and passwords.
On May 1, 1989, existing passwords and ID's will be killed.
Call detail will be provided beginning in June for people who use more
than 30 hours per month, to enable them to sign up for 'family membership'
if desired.
The fee to establish a new user on the system will be $30 as of July 1.
The fee to change a password will be $5 as of the same date.
However, *existing users* will NOT have to pay a fee of any sort to
adjust their account upward or downward from regular < == > family plans.
All existing users will be automatically defaulted to REGULAR memberships
on July 1, regardless of any changes made in the past few months. If you
wish to have a FAMILY membership, you may convert your account beginning
in June (possibly before).
These are just excerpts from the new rates, terms and conditions of
PC Pursuit, as published on the Net Exchange BBS. Because there was much
confusion and delay in responding to earlier requests, the increase
scheduled for May has been postponed to July 1, under the above terms
and conditions.
PC Pursuit Customer Service: 1-800-336-0437
PC Pursuit Telemarketing: 1-800-TELENET (modem #) 1-800-835-3001.
Connect on Telenet to @pursuit to get the full report.
--
Patrick Townson
patrick@chinet.chi.il.us / ptownson@bu-cs.bu.edu / US Mail: 60690-1570
FIDO: 115/743 / AT&T Mail: 529-6378 (!ptownson) / MCI Mail: 222-4956