Amish, I had one of them stop by last week at my house too! I was very surprised.
Here's what I learned after grilling the guy intensely.
- They install a small UPS where the phone line/cable comes into the house, must be plugged in at all times. You have 8 hours backup if the power/cable fails. If the power is out longer, you have no phone.
- The costs they quoted didn't include "federal line cost charge", "local number portability charge" and whatever other non-phone company charges/taxes that are on your bill.
- Price quoted to me was 30.95/mo for 2 lines, caller ID, call waiting, and three-way calling.
- It included 7 cents/min long distance with AT&T.
- If you use their cable internet, you can't choose your ISP (at least where I live). And @Home apparently has a rep for bad email problems (and a crappy newsfeed, if you use Usenet).
- He offered to have two phone jacks installed free anywhere in the house as part of the free installation.
- They offered a 30-day free trial. Unfortunately, after the 30 days it cost $80 to switch back to the local telco. But since I wouldn't even get a bill by then I didn't take the chance.
I've had AT&T cable, AT&T wireless, and AT&T long distance and have had billing problems with every one of them. I was afraid that my bill would turn out to be like $5 more a month than he said, and I would be expected to eat the $5/month because the alternative was pay $80 to switch back.
I hope you don't have any problems, and it goes smoothly. I realize many problems are regional in nature, hopefully in your area it will go well.
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