Chilled Out Bearded Man

Dear RCN,

I am writing to you in the hopes that you will improve yourself.

Your billing system is preposterous. Every month when I check the bill, I worry what new surprises I will find. When my bill increased recently, I tried to figure out where the difference was, but the actual names of the line items had changed. How am I supposed to read my bill every month if the names of the line items are changing?

The question of line item names should really be nonexistent because you offer 3 services that consumers care about:
1) Cable
2) Internet
3) Phone

When I used to get bills from your competitor Time Warner, I had 3 line items:
1) Cable
2) Internet
3) Phone

Do you see how nicely the line items match the services above? That’s how your bill needs to be. We don’t want to see that we are paying for a cable box. We know we have to pay for a box, because there can be no cable without a box. Include the Cable Modem in my price. I can’t have internet without it. The Bundle Discount is meaningless. Show me the bundle as an item and somewhere on your site show me what’s in it. That’s all you need.

In fact, you don’t even need to show me those 3 line items. You should just create packages and have the elements of the package on your website and in your brochures. Then have one line item on the bill.

You are wasting time and money by dealing with all of these line items on your bills. It takes me at least twice as long with one of your customer service people as with Time Warner customer service, because we have to walk through all the line items when I call RCN. When your sales people are trying to sell me a new “package” (bundle, etc) it takes them way too long to figure out and explain the offerings.

Lastly, I would like to bring up my price increase. The increase this year was almost $40 in two months. It was an increase on multiple products, but you have to be kidding me if you think I am going to just accept a $40 increase on a $157 bill. That is a 25% increase.

The short of it is that I will most likely be leaving your service, because your customer support did not seem to understand my situation. In fact they asked if I wanted to remove some of my services. (I may be mistaken, but I believe that will cost me $5 based on many articles I have read. I forgot to ask.) No, I don’t want to remove my services. I want the services, I just want your company to have some sanity about their annual price increases. A 25% increase is unacceptable.

This is by far the worst increase I have seen, but billing failures seem to be a regular event at your company, probably due to the inanely complex billing system. I deal with some sort of RCN billing error one to two times per year. That is one to two times more than it should be.
Make some packages and let me choose one. Show me 1-3 line items on my bill. Then I will stay with your company. I am done playing this ridiculous pricing game. I deserve better as a consumer of a company of your size and stature.

Best Regards,

The Chilled Out Bearded Man

P.S. In case you are wondering, I left Time Warner because I moved to a location that did not offer Time Warner. But, there are other choices and I believe Time Warner may be available to me now.

For my trip to Brazil, I need a tuxedo for a formal wedding I will be attending. Since I have a few weddings coming up, I figured that if I could find an affordable tux it would be morth worthwhile to buy a tux, than to rent on. I searched around for the best deals on Tuxedos.

Century 21: Not a big selection. They basically had Hugo Boss for $500 and Calvin Klein for $250. I was hoping to spend under $300 and I didn’t like how the Calvin Klein Tuxedo fit me.

Macy’s: Decent selection, but the pricing here was an issue. They had a really nice Jones New York Tuxedo for $300 and a few Calvin Klein suits, but most of their products were over $500+. They were pretty knowledgeable about the brands, but didn’t seem to know anything about styles.

Men’s Wearhouse: I was shocked to find that they only had a tiny selection of Tuxedos scattered throughout their enormous suit selection. They had a Calvin Klein, which fit me better than the Century 21 Calvin Klein, but was about $500. The guy who helped me was like a car salesman. He was gonna make a sale, whether I liked what he was offering or not. It made me uncomfortable, so I just told him that it was out of my price range.

Syms: This was the best option. They had a large selection of tuxedos for around $300 and under. Their tailoring is also quite affordable. It was $10 to finish the pant legs and adjust one sleeve length. Be careful what you choose at Syms, because they have some really quality tuxes mixed in with some lower quality ones. Don’t be afraid to ask for assistance in choosing a nice suit. They were very helpful and knowledgeable and it didn’t feel like they were trying to close a deal.

I ended up purchasing a Joseph Abboud Tuxedo for $300 at Syms. They had every size from 36 and up.

So how did I learn about tuxedos if I never owned one before?

Simple. The Black Tie Guide. This is a very thorough guide explaining what to look for when purchasing a Tuxedo and its accouterments (accessories).

Now that I have a tux, I hope I get invited on the next Tuxedo Travels…