There has to be a better experience than this

No one likes poor quality, however, sometimes what you have is worth dealing with versus changing when you don't know for sure that the new product or situation will be better.  As well, with time our expectations of service change based on what we have.  As an example, my first wordprocessor only saved 1/2 page in memory, and my Yahoo mail account used to have a storage limit.  I had to actually delete emails to get below the storage limit.  Same with my work email.  This would be unacceptable in today's email environment.

We bought Coniston, our house in Vermont in 2008.  It is in the boonies of Vermont and for a few months we went without Internet.  We quickly decided that we needed to add some technology to this paradise of quiet.

Rod did quite a bit of research including having one provider come visit the house for a microwave dish, but they could not find a signal.  We ended up with a local provider Wild Blue which provided up with a satellite dish and very very very very slow speed for browsing, reading mail, searching google, etc.  We stuck with it since this is not our primary residence, and for the last year we have been considering Fairpoint, a DSL through the existing phone line.  NO, we are not putting in a land line although for billing they had to give us an unworkable one.  Our last dozen visits we have used the hot spot on Rod's iPhone which was faster than the satellite dish.  This is just unbelievable that an iphone has faster connectivity than a huge dish.

We brought the Fairpoint wireless modem up with us last night and after one call to tech support, we installed the wireless modem.  Ipads, iphones and my Mac are all connected.  We do not even have to have a computer hard wired to the modem.

The difference in speed was unbelievable.  It is not painful to browse websites and check mail, and make casebook updates about the impending birth of our granddaughter.  We immediately got on the phone to cancel Wild Blue.  I do not want to pay one more cent to them for inferior service.  We have choices about what we use for service, but I feel like they are not being competitive and their prices is high for the service we get.

What I do not understand is why it took us so long.  We complained a lot about the speed.  When Chris and Meg lived here they installed Direct TV because of the slow speed and never updated iTunes or any other updates on their phones or iPad through the Internet.  They went to Starbucks for that.

The learning for me is to listen more quickly to that inner voice which says, "there has to be a better quality experience for me available for less cost".

I have had a similar experience with another professional lately.  I went to her for 3 years and after most visits and that amount of time, and that inner voice saying, "there has to be a better experience", I switched to a different professional.  The experience is 100 times better.  Again, why did I wait?  Inertia, loyalty, stupidity, lack of knowledge, comfort.

So Wild Blue, you lost us as a customer because you refused to upgrade the speed of the satellite dish.  Yes, we are in the boonies, but I am telling everyone I know about this experience, including this blog post, which might tell people I don't know.