cheaper isn't always better

One common misconception many people have about frugal living is that it emphasizes cost as the single most important determining factor in selecting a product or service.

Well, that's not always true. Every time you choose between a variety of products or services, you're making a trade-off between price and a variety of perceived outcomes. These outcomes can be categorized as personal effects, which represent how the individual relates to the product or service, and interpersonal effects, which reflect how the buyer perceives the product or service will affect his or her relationship with others. The personal effects are identified as:

• perceived quality (how good the product is)


• perceived emotional value (the pleasure or happiness derived from it)

Interpersonal effects are:

• perceived conspicuous value (others will be impressed by it)


• perceived unique value or snob appeal (it's a prestigious product and only a select few will get to have it)


• perceived social value (yay! Everyone has one, so I need one too!).

More than one of these conditions can be present in any purchase. Put them together with varying levels of price sensitivity, and the balance between these factors becomes a fascinating insight into human behavior.

Of course, sometimes imbalance leads to bad decision-making. This is the case with my phone service.

First, a little background: I didn't cave and get a cell phone until last year, and the only reason I did was that the bossman, Mr. Zero Boundaries, made me. Call on Saturday morning? Sure! Phone at 6:00 a.m. during the week? Why not!

My cell phone is paid for by my employer; I would never let anyone irritate me like that for free. I thought about dumping my land line, but cell service in my concrete-bound Manhattan apartment is iffy and my parents have a hard enough time hearing me bellowing down the receiver without adding static into the mix. As a result, I decided to keep my land line.

My land line, as a rule, is an annoyance. While it's nice to be able to call anywhere in the country for a fixed rate, the taxes and fees that go along with a standard land line service are astronomical. I muddled along with it for years, though, until one day I was motivated to change. My DSL provider, Earthstink, sent me notices on a weekly basis advertising their high-quality, high availability VOIP service plus DSL package for significantly less than it costs to get the two services from different providers. In January, I finally took the bait.

How sorry I am.

I have had phone outages every three weeks like clockwork ever since. It normally takes between thirty minutes and three hours to reach a first-level technician, and my call usually has to be passed up the line to levels two and three. This transfer involves more wait time, along with the same damned conversation, over and over: No, I have no dial tone. No, I don't have another phone to plug into the jack; I only have one phone. Yes, I only have one phone. I can't plug my phone into another jack; there's only one. Yes, one jack. Have you ever been in an apartment in Manhattan? I have had between seven and nine phone outages in total since getting Earthstink phone service, and each time it requires a committment of two to six hours to get a resolution or at least a trouble ticket. Trouble tickets often take two days to resolve.

While it's great that I have a cell phone to call in reports about my land line not working, the fact that service is iffy means that I frequently lose connections halfway through. Once I got a callback from a concerned agent, but normally it means lining up in the tech support queue all over again.

When going through this yet again last night (three hours in total plus a callback at 1:45 a.m. to tell me that my phone line was operational), I realized that twenty bucks a month in savings is not worth the rage and spikes in blood pressure I get from dealing with Earthstink tech support. When you trade away an expensive but perfectly good service for a lemon, as I did, what recourse do you have?

1. Do your homework before you change service providers. The Better Business Bureau is an outstanding resource for making an informed decision about what you're getting into.

2. Document, document, document. Each time you have a failure of service, write down who you spoke with, the substance of the conversation, when you spoke, and how long it took. Nothing speaks louder than a written record.

3. Keep your cool. At least one person I spoke to was willing to say anything just because he wanted to get the crazy white lady off the phone. While going medieval on some schmuck whose job it is to answer the phone may make you feel better in the short run, in the long run it's counterproductive: no first point of contact you reach has any significant decision-making power, and yelling at the first point of contact doesn't inspire that person to want to be helpful.

4.Ask to speak to a supervisor. Unfortunately, this didn't really work too well with Earthstink. Each time I asked, I was told that it wasn't possible to speak to a supervisor, but that my complaint would be escalated (my ass it was), or I could send a complaint through the website feedback form. The website feedback form is cathartic in a way, but similar to yelling at the person on the other end of the phone, it doesn't generate a response.

5. The Better Business Bureau can help. The BBB does an excellent job of investigating complaints, and their records are public. Once consumer issues are brought to the BBB's attention, the path to resolution usually gets a lot shorter.

6. Get familiar with other consumer advocacy groups in your area. A quick Google search turned up Consumer Advocacy, Consumer Action, the FTC Consumer Complaint form, and many others. Before contacting a consumer advocacy organization, however, make sure that the organization is a legitimate non-profit, rather than a thinly disguised ad for paid legal services.

7. If all else fails, get a lawyer. I don't agree with how litigious US society is, but if you're truly at the end of your rope or there are genuinely heavy personal damages, sometimes legal help is in order.

I'm not a legal expert, so don't follow this advice blindly: look at your individual circumstances and make your own conclusions about the best course of action. In my case, the BBB now has a long and bitter complaint about Earthstink on their hands. I can hardly wait to see how it plays out.

In the meantime, if you're considering the combined DSL and phone package through Earthstink, make sure you save steps 1 through 7 above; you'll probably need them.

You have been warned.