We've been customers for more than 12 years and I've always like 'em. For one thing, they don't tack on a fee when we're late with the bill. I can't think of another company that lets us get away with that any more. I'm fairly sure that the slightly higher price we pay for not having one of those combo long distance/local services is more than offset by the fact that we don't pay late fees with these guys. Yes, we're kind of sloppy with the bill thing. . . .
Plus every time I've had to call them, I get a pleasant human almost right away. The problems we've had over the years have always turn out to be our local company (I wish WALD would go local.)
UPDATED: If you do decide to check them out, ask if they're still giving away a year of Ben and Jerry's ice cream with every new account. Yum. (They might have discontinued that when B and J's sold?)
Actually their prices aren't bad. . . And if the service isn't enough to convince you, how about the letter we got in our email box today. The letter from Kieschnick can be considered advertising (kind of like this whole diary) but it has some good information in it -- just like their bills, which are actually interesting.
In light of new revelations about the big telecommunications carriers' handing over domestic calling records to the National Security Agency, I am writing to let you know where Working Assets stands on the NSA's increasingly alarming activities.
Working Assets believes that the warrantless monitoring of phone conversations ordered by the Bush administration is illegal and unacceptable. We also unequivocally oppose the disclosure of domestic calling records to the NSA by our nation's telecommunications providers. As reported yesterday in USA Today1, AT&T, Bell South and Verizon sold customer call records to the NSA. Working Assets would never, under any circumstances, give (let alone sell) records to the Bush administration without a warrant or court order.
In fact, as Working Assets' President, I recently signed on to an amicus brief supporting the ACLU's law suit against the National Security Agency. We are the only telephone company participating in this lawsuit.
Working Assets has never been approached by any government agency seeking our help in illegally accessing the content of conversations by our customers, and we would refuse any such request. We are actively engaged in opposing warrantless monitoring, in pushing for full disclosure by the government regarding the scope of the monitoring, and in protecting citizens from intrusive and illegal exercises of governmental power. Additionally, we are fighting Bush's nomination of General Michael V. Hayden, the architect of the NSA's illegal wiretapping program, to head the CIA.
If you are a member of AT&T (including Cingular and SBC), Bell South or Verizon, your telecom company willingly sold the private telephone records of American citizens to the Bush administration's illegal domestic spying operation. Please contact your provider now, and let them know that this is simply unacceptable.
Contact AT&T: http://www.consumer.att.com/...
Contact Verizon: http://www22.verizon.com/...
Contact BellSouth: http://www.bellsouth.com/...
You can also find out more about Working Assets Wireless and Working Assets Long Distance at http://www.workingassets.com.
You may also be interested in a new book we are publishing, entitled How Would A Patriot Act?, a compelling analysis of how the NSA's wiretapping fits into a larger scheme by the Bush Administration to violate Constitutional restrictions on executive authority in an unprecedented manner. Click here to find out more about the book.
As a telecommunications company, it is our special privilege to facilitate communications among our fellow citizens, to enable conversations on matters personal, commercial, social and political. It is therefore our special obligation to oppose warrantless interference into those communications, whatever the government's justification may be. We will keep you posted on new developments as they arise.
Thank you for your ongoing support.
Michael Kieschnick, President
Working Assets