Below is an open letter to Click! Network management.
For nearly six months now, Click! Network subscribers in the City of Tacoma and surrounding areas have had to pay 33% more for their broadband Internet service than similarly situated customers of Comcast and Qwest.
Why is this? There really is no rational answer.
How could anyone have failed to notice that Comcast and Qwest had changed their product offerings, effectively lowering their prices? How could anyone have thought that Click could be competitive with the “big boys” by allowing their rates to remain 33% higher than everyone else?
Click’s management decisions defy logic.
I sent Mayor Baarsma and the Tacoma City Council a letter outlining these and other problems in great detail, about a month and a half ago. Councilmember Julie Anderson sent me back a note thanking me for the information, then later I heard from the Mayor that three council members were going to meet with Click management to hear their response to my charges.
And since then, nothing.
In all fairness, we’ve had a bunch of holidays in the interim.
But metro Tacoma citizens are still paying 33% more than Comcast and Qwest customers for the same exact service – and I for one, am getting tired of it.
My big gripe is that the only reason municipal utilities exist is to provide citizens with essential services at prices the same or less than the competitive market rates.
If Comcast or Qwest charges 33% less than Click for the same exact service, then what’s the point of having a city-owned internet service? So we have an option to pay more to get the same service? I think not.
Maybe it’s to help pay for the Tacoma Public Utilities executive’s recent raises? Or if not that, then what? I really don’t have a clue.
In Into to Business 101, they teach you that for a business to be competitive, it needs to set its prices in accordance with the going market rates. If you set the prices too high, you’ll eventually lose all your customers. Likewise, you need to have a similar range of product offerings if you want to attract and retain customers. These are some of the most basic concepts in marketing. Very, very basic stuff.
But apparently Click management does not comprehend.
Continue reading “The High Price of Doing Business With Click! Network”