Complaint Review: Farm-Market Broadband - Cameron Texas

I have been a member of Farm to Market Broadband for many years. It used to go by the name of T-LAB. Mr. T claims the company "charges outrageous prices when it comes to serving the rural areas." Not so!  Own a farm in the country and I have never been charged outrageous prices for their service! My bill is $53.00 per month and because it is automatically charged to a credit card, that payment is never late. Last month the credit card it was charged to expired; I was not disconnected and I was not charged extra for being late on a payment. Farm to Market Broadband sent me an e-mail about 10 days after the card had expired to let me know I needed to update my payment information, which I did. No muss, no fuss and no extra charge.

There are a lot of trees between my farm and the tower that my antenna uses and I was told a couple of years ago when I experienced connection problems that sooner or later a couple of my trees would have to be topped off. This year the trees interfered with the tower so much that I recently decided to change my IP and go with a direct link to the internet so I am going to Hughes Net in order to not disfigure my trees.

I can't remember exactly how long I was with Farm to Market but it's been at least twelve or thirteen years. In all that time I have never had a problem with them. I can't figure out what Mr. T's gripe is because I've never been treated with anything but total and polite respect and a quick response to any problem I have encountered over the years. I hate leaving Farm to Market Broadband because they have been extremely professional, reliable and courteous at all times. Since that is the complete and utter truth I can not in good concience let Mr. T's outrageous complaint against a good, reliable and local company stand without responding to it.  

I agree with Mr T from Rockdale, I live in Thorndale and am new to the area.  In austin i paid Time Warner about $65/month for service.  When I moved out here, there were only 2 providers and I heard that Hughes.net had sporatic service, so I opted for F2M.  The price gauging they do should be illigegal.  I currently pay $160 a month, which includes 50/month for my initial "set up" fee of $300!!!!!!  My usual monthly fee is $80 plus all of the taxes, making run about a 100/month or so.  This is completely outrageous!!!!!!!!

And yes, they forgot to email my bill (or maybe it went to the spam folder) but within a few days, and without me knowing it (it was my first bill) they cut service off immediately!

Where would you get the absurd notion that I would be associated with John McCain or the GOP? What does that have to do with not paying your bills? I have lived in my vehicle. I've not known where my next meal was coming from. I have gone without medical treatment and medication when I was uninsured. If I couldn't pay a bill, I always understood that there would be consequences and I accepted them. I'm sorry to hear that you have run on hard times. You can make all the excuses you want about why you can't pay a bill on time, but you shouldn't expect your broadband provider to make special exceptions. Everybody that can't pay a bill has reasons why they can't. Frankly, with all of the issues you brought up, I think maybe you should be asking yourself if you can afford broadband access. If you absolutely have to have Internet access, have you considered a low cost dial up provider? As you stated in your original post, they charge outrageous prices to serve rural customers. For someone in the financial condition you described (and as one who has been there), paying even 62.95 for Internet service seems pretty absurd when you can't afford your medication.

Flynrider Phoeix, Arizona U.S.A. A few comments 'If you are 10 days late or something like that. they cut your service off.' (I don't see a problem there. If you pay your bill on time, this is not an issue. I imagine that they instituted this policy because of customers like you.) I can imagine you speaking these exact words, Let me tell you something. I work at a retailer, I get paid low, low, low, wages. By the time my bills get paid. I have nothing. You need to understand this point. You need to come to live in central texas to see for yourself how businesses operate before making a statement like you made. You see no problem because you may be affiliated with John McCain or the GOP party. They are for the wealthy class, and the folks with alot of money. I am talking condos, mansions, and nice lexus and ferraris. Maybe perhaps people like the celebrities. I want to make it clear to you flynrider, There are others who live in their cars, give thanks to the GOP who let the Wall Street meltdown and did nothing to help the poor and needy. That is find and dandy for allowing medical mileage to be recorded and medicines to be deducted off the income tax return. It really doesn;t add up to be worth the tax cuts. Its basically for the wealthy class. Study history carefully and put yourself in a poor person's shoes to see what they how they are living. This is from being taxed on everything from sodas to anything you can think of even the air we breathe. You have to step back and re- analyze the post that was put above. Now to clear things up, I do pay my bills, I do do without my meds to make sure bills get paid. Then I threat to have seizures because of my obligations to bills. You don;t know that huh. My medication runs at 100+ dollars a month. I am out of work. People like Flynrider need to take a good look at all this. I also drive a vehicle needing a major service. The engine could die anytime, lucky I am able to drive 60 miles to and from my destination. I fit the poor class. You got to understand that businesses that engage in bad practice love pulling poor people under the rug to keep from letting the truth out. This is all I have to say here.

I have used an ISP before, I was able to get out of the contract. I hate the fact that you cannot get out of the contract for ANY reason. I wished we had ways to get out of paying high a*s prices for some lousy service. I feel 62+ dollars is way to much for 1 me package. they need to lower the price to affordable level. They need to buy cheaper bandwidth to make it cheaper for consumers to utilize the resources or money for something else. You need to realize I been through hell and back.

"If you are 10 days late or something like that. they cut your service off." I don't see a problem there. If you pay your bill on time, this is not an issue. I imagine that they instituted this policy because of customers like you. "We as Americans need legislation banning the use of contract to trap individuals into a binding agreement. " What are you talking about? The definition of a contract is a binding agreement. Don't like it, don't sign it. "They have written into their contract that if a customer is behind. they can be sued in court." This doesn't have to be in the contract. If you don't pay what you owe for services rendered, anyone can sue you in court, contract or no contract. I'm not sure what you're complaint is. It sounds like you don't pay your bills on time and you want this company to give you a free ride. People like you are exactly the reason why they need to have contracts with enforcable terms.