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Broadband provider becomes Best Buy marketing arm
By adamg on Mon, 08/11/2008 - 12:07pm
I've been using Speakeasy for broadband since back in the day when 384k speeds were way cool. They provide good service and when things go wrong, their customer support has been helpful and quick - especially important for me since I often work at home for my all online day job. Fortunately, that didn't change when Best Buy bought them. But today I got this:
Effective immediately, Speakeasy is changing the Privacy and Security section of your Service Addendum and the Privacy Policy of the Master Service Agreement. These changes will allow Speakeasy to share your customer data with affiliated companies, including our parent company Best Buy and its subsidiaries. We are committed to protecting your personal information and will only share it for the purpose of providing products and/or services to you.
No, no, no. Spamming me with Best Buy ads is not providing me a product and/or service. It is sending me e-mail I didn't ask for and don't want to get (the Best Buy circulars in the Sunday paper are enough for me, guys). Oh, well, that's why God gave us e-mail filtering rules, I guess.
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Comments
I haven't gotten this
I haven't gotten this email.
I've had Speakeasy ADSL here for about 8 years, and I've sent them a lot of other customers through word-of-mouth.
I pay Speakeasy a few times what Verizon would charge, for the benefit of Speakeasy reliability, cluefulness, and decency.
If Speakeasy said, "I am altering the agreement; pray I do not alter it further," they'd be a pariah among many of their traditional bread&butter customers. In that case, I'd assume they'd decided to kiss their non-VOIP business goodbye. But if they dissed their DSL users, and word got out, that could be bad for their VOIP business. Seems like a lame move.
(Really, Best Buy is for discount prices on televisions and plaintive cries to purchase high-margin extended warranties -- not for reliable business solutions. I really hope BB aren't pissing away the goodwill and reputation of the Speakeasy brand by BB-ifying it.)
I hope this supposed Speakeasy policy change is a mistake that will be corrected promptly.
An aside
Best Buy's "discount prices" on items are usually just bringing them back down to what you can find elsewhere already. You are better off finding someone else's one-time sale price. For example, a few months ago I bought a Panasonic HDTV at Sears on sale for about $1400. At the time it was still running about $1800+ at Best Buy.
Right now, Best Buy has it for $1500 list and $1250 on sale. But Sears has it at $1200 on sale and Panasonic's employee discount program (if you search around a bit you can figure out how to get access) has it for $1150 (free shipping).
Best Buy always *seems* to be worth the buy but it actually isn't if you're willing to shop around a bit. I also find most of their salespeople are completely unknowledgeable "extras" shills ("ok, i'll get you that camera...do you want AOL?") and their business practices are less than reputable (search around consumerist.com a bit).
Oh, and they pimp Monster Cables like they're what Vishnu uses when he's in the need for stereo wires without questioning what kind of system you're hooking it up to (hint: the cables shouldn't cost more than the head unit).
I know, I always seem to get
I know, I always seem to get better deals at Circuit City. Even when Best Buy does have a good price they play it to its maximum potential by dropping it was down "100 dollar laptop here!" and people line up around the block and they end up having 25 of the product. They rarely ever have a decent deal except for their early morning line buster deals, and those are mostly just taking crap and giving it away to get you to come into the store.
I was actually shocked to be in Best Buy and on the way out was going to grab a soda. I think the cashier said 2.25 for a 20 ounce soda. I left it on the counter and walked out the door. What gaul they have, claiming to have great prices then charge me a ransom for soda lol.
Which part of gaul?
After all, Gallia omnia est in partes tres.
What's really odd/ironic/sad
Speakeasy has always been the "white hat" DSL provider. They were never the cheapest, and it was often difficult to get Verizon to set the line up properly for them (since Verizon had little incentive to do so). You went to them on principle, not for a good deal.
In other words, Speakeasy's target market was exactly the kind of person who hates Best Buy.