Dear Bell,
Ok. You have made your point. You hate us. We don't subscribe to your TV service because you charge way too much for it. We use VOIP phones because, again, you charge way to much for your phone lines, and we use alternate ISPs because your internet it too expensive. I get it. We aren't lining your pockets with cash and providing you with all those nice cars you need to have and you hate us for it. Fine. I can live with that. But are you sure that being as obnoxious as you possibly can to people, and forcing down monopolistic, anti-competive, irresponsible, and irrational rules on us is going to make us suddenly want to give you more money? Perhaps you like giving money to people that are doing their best to prevent you from doing what you want to, but I don't. I want to use my internet connection to watch movies. I want to use it to view stuff on youtube, maybe even on more than one computer at the same time (*gasp*). I want to stream music. I want to play games. I want to work from home. I want to watch sports. I want to download and upload pictures. I want to use Facebook. I want to use Skype (with video even!). I want to have more than one computer hooked up to my connection. And what do you want to do? You want to force me to use only 25 gigs of data a month. You want to force me to fit into your pretty little 'cash cow' picture and make sure that I am always a cash cow. You want to make sure that I keep your mattress stuffed with money so that you can sleep at night knowing that you have accomplished a good days work and prevented millions of us from doing what we want.
Do you really think this is a good business strategy? I grew up on a farm, and we would plant less profitable crops sometimes. Why? Because we wanted to make less money? No, of course not. We did it because it was a good long term strategy. It kept the land good and kept the money coming in in the future. The same principle applies here. Maybe you will make more money in the short term, but do you really think that kicking your cash cow repeatedly to make it give more milk is a good long term strategy? You better be careful where you step, because these cash cows may just give you a good hard kick in the tail and send you for a ride that could take you a long time to heal from.
I know it can be hard to adjust to a new business climate (and I'm not being sarcastic there), but you really need to figure out a way to do. Let the TV model go. It can't last forever, even if you have the government in bed with you. Look to the future. Meet the needs and desires of your customers and you can continue to be a successful and profitable industry. I have no problem with you making a buck, just do it the right way. Do it by giving consumers what they want and need, and not by stabbing them in the back to protect some outdated idea of where your profits should come from. I know it must hurt to see people using the internet for their phone and TV and reducing that income source for you, but look at the other side! The internet opens up all kinds of opportunities. Leverage those. Use you business skills and marketing sense to find new markets. A company that is stuck in the past will be left in the past and unless you make some radical changes in direction I look forward to the day when your company will be a blip in the history books.
Signed,
a bruised cash cow
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