#CIS RATES, etc.
7 messages in this thread
Hi John,
Thanks a lot for the info. So there are others using MII ? Sony would have
you believe I'm about the only one ! Actually it is inconvienient to ALWAYS
have to dub to Beta SP plus additional expense. However, in my opinion it is
clearly superior for graphics work, and I picked it up as a demo unit for about
1/3 the price of the BVW series. The construction of the machine is
outstanding, and I'm no Panasonic freak – I hated their 7750 machines when they
first came out. I'll probably get stuck with it too eventually, but I intend to
drive it 'til it dies !
W/R/T CIS charges, I'll have to pick up CisNav for Windows. Quite a while back,
I BELIEVE I had the DOS version with a 2400 baud modem at that time, but never
got into it and think I recall a lot of problems. Do you buy the one you are
referring to through CS somehow, or retail outlets ? I've never been into BBS's
and Info Services much before, except in spurts – then I get a few month's
bills and STOP ABRUPTLY ! (about $500-600 last month, ridiculous). However,
this forum is the best I've ever seen plus I've recently commited to trying to
become more proficient with 3DS, so …………..
If you don't mind me asking (I've been meaning to look into this), can you
(with or without CisNav) somehow just log on, capture everything new in just
the IPAS and 3DS sections at once, and get out ? I also am manually doing this
and reading off-line, but haven't seen any way to tell the system to do just
this. Also, when doing this manually by section (IPAS, 3DS) threads, am I
missing some of the messages compared to requesting ALL new messages ? In other
words, are ALL messages sorted into one of the many subjects under a category,
or just ones that were composed giving that subject name when posted ?
Lastly, even though manually driven, I can usually get in & out pretty quick,
but as I said, I think the 800 number given to me by CIS has a $23/hr. rate or
so, plus I think there must some other charge as well besides the $9/mo..
Obviously, I haven't done my homework on this, but if I am to continue logging
on here I HAVE to reduce this substantially. What is the rate for a 9600 baud
local number ? I thought CIS told me the 800 number was the least expensive ?
Is it true there are other charges other than this plus the $9/mo.? Is your
14.4k access also twenty something bucks an hour ? Sorry to hit you with all of
this, but you seem informed in such matters. Thanks again.
Bill
You can get in and out of any forum/service you tell CisNav to go to, and
download only thread summaries or all messages after a certain date, or from a
particular person, or whith a particular thread title, etc…, and you don't
have to sit there and baby sit it, it does it at the push of a button.
As far as rates, you've been ill informed, or you're using an 800 number I've
never heard of. I don't pay anything for any local access, and the forum+
rates for 9600 are something like $8.00 per hour. If you have to dial the 14,4
– (800) number then it's an additional $8.00 per hour, so it's only useful for
large binary files, not messages. I don't know why you're paying so much for
your service. Are you outside the U.S.?
John Tissavary (La Luna cie)
"I must be misinformed" turned out to be quite an understatement!
After conversing with you about this, I called CIS Support today and
learned that someone at CIS had given me an 800 WATTS number to use
(supposedly the least expensive method) which I have been paying
$18-19 / hr. for since Nov.-Dec. ! They said, "sorry for the mis-
information". Also, about that time I received a huge promo flyer
from CIS stating that I "may have won up to $500 in free connect time
– check your E-Mail" I checked that day and many times since, but
never saw anything. On inquiring into this matter, the support rep.
said that they had a problem with people getting that message.
Receiving that flyer is what prompted me to start using CIS. After
much bitching on my part, he agreed to give me a $25 credit toward
future charges – best he could do. What if I had "won" $500 ? What a
scam. Both of these 2 issues have been severely mishandled by CIS in
my opinion, and cost me hundreds of dollars ! Yes, I'm furious.
Do you know of anyone higher up that I can complain to ? I can't
believe this. B/T/W, the local access # they gave me for Atlanta at
14.4k baud is $9.40/hr. and 2400 baud at $4.80/hr. – which is what I
am logged on at now! I appreciate your input regarding this matter.
Glad you liked the mesh unroll IPAS suggestion. Hope some ambitious
programmer does as well. Thanks again.
I think you've probably been had, and I'm surprised CIS would do
something like that. They have always "seemed" pretty reputeable to
me. I would call back and demand to speak to a WAAAAAY up there head
honcho type person, and I would point out that their mishandling of
your account and misinformation given is not good buisness and
illegal to boot (WRT $500 winnings). That is really infuriating to
hear. I hate sweepstakes enough as it is. I mean I'm sure I'd be
happy to get free money, but I'd rather not get all that crap in the
mail and forfeit my 1 in
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 chance of
winning $1,000,000 taxed 50% in installments over the rest of my
life. Woops, another rant slipped out… sorry =-)
WRT 800 WATTS, it's possible that they didn't have a 14,4 line in
Atlanta when you first called. This is a relatively new thing, and
they're adding cities as they go. I couldn't tell you for sure,
though.
I have definitely been had. B/T/W, they told me everyone would
receive $10 min / $500 max credit. Very tricky. Was first told
Atlanta had 14.4k local access for several months, after the whole
story developed, that was changed to "I think it was in January" I
really hate to throw money away – unless I WANT TO THROW IT AWAY <g>.
This is not directly related to your question, but I did a simple
study of which pricing plan is the most cost-effective for accessing
CIS. These calculations are based on the following (2/6/94) rates:
Stardard Plan Alternate Plan
————————————————–
Monthly Fee : $ 8.95/month $ 2.50/month
————————————————–
300 baud: $ 4.80/hour $ 6.30/hour
1200,2400 baud: $ 4.80/hour $ 12.80/hour
9600,14400 baud: $ 9.60/hour $ 22.80/hour
————————————————–
The formula for when the Standard Plan costs less than the Alternative
Plan is simple:
nr + m < nR + M
Where n = number of hours online/month.
r = hourly rate for standard plan.
R = hourly rate for alternative plan.
m = monthly fee for standard plan.
M = monthly fee for alternative plan.
Solving for n we get: n > (m-M)/(R-r)
This tells us that the standard pricing plan is more cost effective
when the hours on-line (n) exceeds . . .
n Hrs/Month or n Min/Week
————————————————–
300 baud: 4.3 Hrs/M or 65 Min/Wk
1200,2400 baud: 0.80625 Hrs/M or 13 Min/Wk
9600,14400 baud: 0.48864 Hrs/M or 8 Min/Wk
————————————————–
This study is only valid for time spent in "Extended Services", such
as the ASOFT forum, under Standard Plan. Also, keep in mind that any
session has a minimum of 1 min charge in either plan.
BTW: M. G., make sure you are under the Standard pricing plan. The
$23/hr. rate sounds suspiciously like the Alternative rate for 14.4
Kbps. If you are not sure, try GO BILLING. Also, there is an $8.70
/ Hour surcharge for an 800 connection — your phone company probably
will not charge you that much for long distance. See GO RATES under
Communications Surcharges.
Hi James,
Thanks a lot for the extremely detailed reply. What actually happened is
explained in Mssg #85402 & 85511. I'm very upset.
Regards,
Bill