ISPs who suck, ISP Hall of Shame, NetZero, Juno, United Online
ISPs who suck, ISP Hall of Shame, NetZero, Juno, United Online
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NetZero, the company with the big Super Bowl commercials and heavy TV ad presence in the first half of 2000, is just a wisp of its former self. I started using them and occasionally the Kmart-branded BlueLight.com (using the Spinway.com service) as my 1stUp connection became flakier. NetZero's banner-ad serving Java client, ZeroPort is one of the crappiest pieces of software I have ever used (unresponsive, often hangs forcing a reboot, often crashes and leaves the COM port open forcing a reboot, often doesn't connect at all).
They have some really awful videos running while you wait for the dialup process. The cheesiest one is the Mark Goldston fireside chat where he's trying to explain why the "Defenders of the Free World" aren't free after a dozen hours per month.
171 FC points. Here's what Pud wrote: "Free ISP NetZero wasn't making any money. The execs sat around in their board room one day scratching thier [sic] heads trying to figure out just why they weren't making any money. The result of that meeting? They now charge actual *money* to their customers. Woohoo!"
How does the market react? NetZero (NASDAQ: NZRO) closes at $0 23/32 on December, 22, 2000, a 52-week low.
Well, it looks like the "Defenders of the Free World" will only defend you free of charge (if you call annoying banner ads in the ZeroPort window "free") for 40 hours a month and then they'll start charging. Now I have a question: is this 40 hours of usable service or does that include the hung network connections, the interminable moments while the crummy ads flood the modem, the countless busy signals, the wedged PPP servers, the service outages, the time downloading new "user preferences", etc.?
I've used NetZero a couple of times when I recently booted Windoze; it still sucks. It usually doesn't successfully connect. These guys apparently have enough cash for another twelve months, but I don't expect them to last much longer than that unless they can generate some profit - a highly doubtful scenario.
Now that my Telocity DSL line is dead, I can "enjoy" NetZero's crappy service once again.
Oh yes, NetZero (NASDAQ: NZRO) closes at $0.469, a new 52-week low.
Shareholder lawsuits start rolling in against NetZero. What a surprise.
NetZero and Juno announce a merger to form a new company, United Online. Is that like a double negative? I guess they're trying to steal a page from a successful book and name their company like America Online.
Subject: NetZero Announcement Date: Thu Jun 07 16:05:00 PDT 2001 From: Mark Goldston <announcement@netzero.net> To: allnetzero@netzero.net Dear NetZero Users, Earlier today, it was announced that NetZero and Juno Online Services have agreed to a strategic merger. Together we will form a new company, United Online, Inc. This exciting merger will bring together the two clear leaders in the free and value priced Internet access markets to form the second largest Internet access provider in the United States. While the merger will take a few months to close, be assured that you will continue to receive top quality Internet access from NetZero and your email address will not change. In the future, United Online will unveil new products and services that will further enhance your online experience. It is important to note that both services, NetZero and Juno, will continue going forward and we will strive to create the best possible Internet access experience for each and every one of you. As a bigger, stronger company with significant resources in capital, technology and people, the new United Online, Inc. will be one of the premier ISP organizations in the world. We thank you for your continued support and look forward to a very exciting future under the United Online umbrella! Sincerely, Mark R. Goldston Chairman and CEO of NetZero, Inc.
"...be assured that you will continue to receive top quality Internet access from NetZero..." Hahahahahahaha!!!!! That's very funny, Mark.
Four NetZero founders fly the coop = more FC points. These damn popup ads are a real pain in the ass, too.
After the market close today, NetZero announced that it was clobbered 26% of its employees and reducing the free version of the online service from 40 hours to a measly 10 hours per month. Considering how crappy their network performance is (unresponsive dialup servers, local router problems, ISP egress issues, DNS lookup snafus, et cetera ad nauseam), that's about two hours of usable bandwidth around 33.6Kb. You'll spend most of it downloading crappy banner ads and cheesy Mark Goldston videos.
The service changes are supposed to go into effect October 1; I assume the Reduction In Force will go into effect a lot sooner than that. You can get 150 hours per month with AT&T WorldNet for $4.95 per month.
Also, NetZero indicates that it is bailing out of outlying areas where the costs of running (or paying for) a dial-up network are prohibitive. Hmmm, as I wrote previously WorldCom was billing defunct free ISP Freewwweb $1.2 million per week for the use of its network. Maybe I can see how network costs might be saved this way...
Oops, I almost forgot: 115 FC points. Thanks, Mark!
Is it my imagination or had the NetZero network been working marginally better? My guess is that fewer people are actually using NetZero since it's announcement to cut services. The best performance from a free ISP was from Freewwweb a few days before it closed shop.
I've been burning up the hours on my free ISP accounts since BlueLight.com is going to a pay-to-surf model and NetZero is cutting back free access to ten hours per month at the end of August. The NetZero service still serves up plenty of pop-up ad windows, but you know, I've been on the 'Net for so long, it's not a really big issue anymore. My eyes are pretty much accustomed to ignore anything flashing or moving on the screen. It's like watching television; as soon as the volume gets really loud, it's time to take a little walk.
The only really annoying thing on Windozes is that pop-up ads grab keyboard/mouse focus (something that's easily dealt with a decent X Windows window manager like Sawfish).
Today, NetZero alerts me that I've used up forty hours this month. See you in September for my last month of forty, wonderful, ad-filled free hours!
"Dear Sir or Madam: While we detected that you clicked through the banner ads, we were shocked (really!) to learn that you didn't buy anything and that you were just blindly clicking on the ads to prevent the dialup session from getting cancelled. Some people even think you closed the new window before it had completely downloaded, but I know you at least let the every byte trickle across and that you read the fabulous ad copy. But now we're begging for a handout."
To: netloser@netzero.net
Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2001 17:29:38 PDT
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
From: Mark Goldston - NetZero Chairman & CEO <announcement@netzero.net>
Subject: Important Changes to the NetZero Service
Please take a moment to read this important note from the CEO
of NetZero.
Dear Netloser:
Thank you for being such an important part of the growth of
NetZero. We take our commitment of providing you with the
highest quality services and products very seriously.
In order to keep that commitment, we find it necessary to make
a change to our NetZero Free Internet service. Beginning
October 1, 2001, NetZero will reduce the number of free hours
per household to no less than 10 hours of free access per
calendar month. NetZero users who require more access will
have the option to either sign up for NetZero Platinum at
http://my.netzero.net/nzplat/ptpage.html and receive Internet
access with no banner ads for only $9.95 per month or pay $9.95
for an Extended Access Pass for unlimited access for the remainder
of that calendar month only. Compare that price with AOL at $23.90
per month, Earthlink at $21.95 per month or MSN at $21.95 per
month and you're saving over 50% with NetZero Platinum!
Additionally, during every weekend in September, all free users
will have the opportunity to experience Platinum during Platinum
Free Weekends. And as an added bonus, all registered NetZero
Platinum members will automatically be entered to win one of 30 trips
for two to Hawaii, so there is no better time to try the NetZero
Platinum Service. Let NetZero Platinum Take You to Paradise!
To read more details, please refer to
our Terms of Service http://www.netzero.net/legal.html,
our FAQs http://www.netzero.net/support/info/nzpro.html or our Website.
A change like this is never easy, but I am proud to have the
responsibility of ensuring that NetZero continues to honor the
commitment of offering the free and value-priced Internet choices
that you deserve.
Sincerely,
Mark R. Goldston
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
NetZero, Inc.
Your Individual NetZero Usage Record for July 2001:
-----------------------------------------------------
Your NetZero Member ID netloser
Date of Membership 13-AUG-00
Your Usage in July 2001 44.7 hour(s)
The hourly limit per month is per household, assuming only one
computer and one phone line per household. If you are sharing a
computer or a phone line with other NetZero users, your hourly
usage will be aggregated with those users - even if you have
separate Member IDs. If you use more than one computer or more
than one phone line to access NetZero and you purchase an
Extended Access Pass, you will be asked to pay more than once if
you choose to exceed the allotted amount of connect time on more
than one computer or more than one phone line.
Please do not reply to this email to unsubscribe.
Blah, blah, blah.
NetZero's Q4 loss increases to $42 million, 36 cents per share. One hundred LuckedCompany.com points for yours truly. Some helpful soul posts the URL to a freeware utility called Zero Popup, that defeats NetZero popups.
Goodness gracious, NetZero's network is so incredibly hosed today: DNS errors, busy signals, slow modem connections, user authentication errors, etc. I'm finally logged on at 31.2 Kbps. Wow, feels like 1997.
For over five days, NetZero's network continues to hemorrhage. DNS lookup performance has been as bad as an abymsal 0.97 kilobit per second; that was two days ago. Today, dropped modem connections are the order of the day, although DNS also continues to be atrociously bad. That's before NetZero tells me that I've used up my forty hours for this month.
NetZero (NASDAQ: NZRO) closes today's session at an all-time low of $0.38 per share, the second day it has reached a new bottom.
NetZero Inc. has completed its merger with Juno Online Services Inc. forming the very generically named United Online Inc. which will commence trading on the Nasdaq tomorrow, Wednesday, 26 September 2001, under the ticker symbol UNTD.
I will post updates on Juno (and NetZero) service in the new United Online section.
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| Last modified on
Wed Jan 1 18:35:49 GMT 2003
by tarahertz@yahoo.com |
Copyright © 1999-2003 Tara Hertz. All rights reserved. |
ISPs who suck, ISP Hall of Shame, NetZero, Juno, United Online