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Frontier's latest promotion promotes one price, but you'll pay considerably more thanks to profit-padding fees, surcharges, and taxes.
Frontier Communications is mass-mailing its latest DSL promotion to customers — a year of their fastest tier DSL service for just $20.10 per month.
Labeled “FrontierFast,” the promotion claims you will get a “groundbreaking value” on their fastest Internet service for $20.10 per month, with a Price Protection Plan and a $4.50 monthly modem fee. Frontier says you will enjoy:
- Breakthrough speeds at an unbeatable price
- Dedicated, unshared connection that won’t bog down during peak hours
- Safe, secure Frontier Mail and a personal online portal powered by Yahoo!
- Free professional installation
- A three month free-trial of Peace of Mind Hard Drive Backup and unlimited technical support.
Sounds reasonable… until you explore the terms and conditions that are attached to it. Frontier has created a minefield of tricks and traps designed to maximize their profits and make you jump through hoops to minimize your exposure to them.
Let’s explore:
- The $4.50 monthly modem fee makes it $24.60 for 2010. The modem fee is nothing more than profit-padding.
- That “Price Protection Plan” is really a nice way of saying “contract term” committing you to sticking with Frontier broadband for one year, or face a $200 early cancellation penalty.
- That “Peace of Mind” trial is anything but if you forget to cancel before the three free months are up. If you don’t they’ll charge you an extra $9.99 a month for the service. Forgot to cancel during the trial? Then pony up a $50 cancellation fee if you want out. At least the free trial is optional. Do yourself a favor and opt out before Frontier opts-in your wallet.
- The promotion is available to new customers only, and you are required to bundle it with phone service -and- pay installation fees for that phone line, if you don’t have one already.
- Service is subject to availability, speeds are not guaranteed, and your credit will be checked before you get service.
- Taxes and surcharges apply, and they do add up fast. You can easily add an additional $10 when combining the modem rental fee with the other fees Frontier collects for various taxing authorities.
- Don’t forget Frontier defines an appropriate amount of usage at just 5GB per month in their Acceptable Use Policy.
Broadband service shouldn’t have to come with a minefield of fine print and profit-padding fees and surcharges. The out-the-door price should be published so customers can truly understand what they are getting into, before exposing themselves to those steep cancellation fees. They should also not have to worry about a ridiculous 5GB limit in Frontier’s Acceptable Use Policy.
I was a little disappointed at this article Phillip. Normally you do a good job at breaking down the lies and problems with the ISPs, but this one seems to be lacking in the proof department and seems to be little more then bashing. Here are some of the holes / fluff I’m see that was added to this article: 1) The $4.50 monthly modem fee makes it $24.60 for 2010. The modem fee is nothing more than profit-padding. I half agree / half disagree with this statement. For the most part it is a profit padding. However, don’t forget… Read more »
1) The modem rental fee runs month-to-month and even well after the modem is paid for (and you can be assured they are paying considerably less than the retail Tiger prices you quote, particularly for Speedstream modems that apparently were discontinued — at least in the retail market), you are still paying. At the end of the contract, if you don’t return the modem you’ve paid for more than once over, Frontier could subject you to a nasty un-returned equipment fee equal to, or more than the price of the modem bought new, which earns them even more money. It’s… Read more »
Well, these loops that Frontier put in there I could see coming a mile away. I’m curious though as to what kind of speed this package would give me. My Frontier line is already on Frontier MAX and Frontier refuses to give anyone anything faster than 3Mbps/384kbps in my area except for businesses who will get 6Mbps/768kbps service. Rochester NY isn’t that far away from here either. Those modems that Frontier hands out aren’t too friendly to the PS3s and Xbox 360s as over at DSL Reports I get a lot of topics popping up about people asking for help… Read more »
Some of your statements are misleading in the way you present them. You wrote: “4. The promotion is available to new customers only, and you are required to bundle it with phone service -and- pay installation fees for that phone line, if you don’t have one already.” That suggests to me that only customers new to Frontier for phone service are eligible for this DSL promotion from Frontier. That’s not what I get from Frontier’s advertising: Frontier wrote: “New Frontier Residential High-Speed Internet customers only.” It makes sense to me that they would offer this to new HS Internet customers… Read more »
“If you don’t have one already” should have made it clear the promotion was accessible to existing Frontier phone line customers. I am one myself and received this promotion targeted to our household, so it would have been a waste of their time to mail something targeted to us and not be able to qualify for it. The offer also promotes free installation, but fine prints the part about customers having to pay an install fee for telephone service, if needed. Credit approval can impact whether you can get a phone line or not, but is also contingent on whether… Read more »
All that I can say is, do your homework!!!!!!! A simple serach will show you that numerous attorney generals have gone after “frontier” for “misleading” advertising. If you were one of the lucky ones that got screwed, Frontier refunded the difference and knocked $17 your bill for the rest of your contract…. The total cost they had to refund $300,000. This only applies to the people who knew about it and filed a claim. I for one, like to SAVE money, so I am always shopping around. There is an old saying, you get what you pay for! Out of… Read more »