In October of 1999 our parent company, RoadTel Communications, Inc., began looking for a new internet provider.  At the time, our then current ISP had terrible service.  We ran into busies on too many occasions and technical support left a lot to be desired.  We felt that a better and more economical service could be provided.  We researched the market and spoke to many experts in the ISP business and found that our experience was not uncommon.  We were told that too many people continue to complain about high monthly fees, busy signals and poor service.  We then decided that we would only become an ISP if we could offer an exceptional service.  We did not want to be just another ‘run of the mill’ ISP. 

After making hundreds of calls to ISPs large and small, we found one that could provide everything we needed: excellent support; great rates; industry leading modem to user ratios, which would virtually eliminate busy signals; and, over 2000 local access numbers with more being added continuously.  We visited their offices and became convinced that  they could handle the volume of business that we would send them.  We saw their technical support departments in action.  Their people are friendly and knowledgeable.  They truly have the attitude that ‘The CUSTOMER really does come first.’  We saw that these are not just words, but a law that they live by. 

Once we found the ISP to handle our backbone and technical support, we needed to come up with a name.  A number of us sat down and started throwing out (into the conversation) names.  After almost three hours we had nearly 200 names.  Some were easy to discard, but many had merit.  After paring the list down to our ten favorites, we surveyed almost 250 people to see what name they preferred.  We asked them to keep all aspects in mind, value, excellent service, what our product does and the like.  The overwhelming favorite, as you can guess, was ‘SurfBest.net’.  The name itself does not speak value, although it is an excellent value, but it does tell you exactly what we do and that we do it well.  We ‘Surf’ (the Net) and we are the ‘Best’. 

After coming up with the name, we had to develop a logo.  Without going into all the details, we settled on a surfing mouse.  And yes, we did name the mouse.  His name is Click.  Corny, but what the heck.  Next was a more serious task.  We had to develop a state of the art, user friendly web site. 

After searching the ‘Net, seemingly forever, we took the best of what we found and combined it in an easy to use, information packed format.  Using www.surfbest.net as your start up page, means you will always be only a couple of clicks away from anything on the ‘Net.  For instance, our ‘Search Engine’ page does not list just 3 or 4 search engines, but more than 20 search engines!  Try a couple, you may find one you prefer more than the one or two you now use most often.  Our ‘Business’ page has almost 70 links!  Even with all of these links our pages are easy to navigate. 

The last thing we had to do was decide on price.  We wanted to be far below the average price for unlimited dial-up service and still make a fair profit.  We decided to have the best value on the ‘Net.  We want new customers to come to us because of our price and we want to keep those customers because of our superior product and service.  We settled on $12.50.  This gives the customer unlimited dialup service, 2 free e-mails (many services only give you one e-mail), 10 mg of web space (many services only give you 5 mg if any), 56k modems and superior technical and customer support via e-mail, comprehensive FAQs or live operators.  And the law, that ‘The CUSTOMER always comes first’. 

The final key is the $12.50 is only available on a month to month basis.  We do not believe that customers should be tied to an ISP for 12 months at a time. If we cannot perform beyond your expectations, month after month, then we do not deserve your business.  Insist that we or any ISP you use, perform exceptionally month after month.  Many other services may give you a good monthly rate, but only if you make an annual or semi-annual payment.  We do not want to lock you into our service. and you should not lock yourself into a sub-standard ISP by making a 6 or 12-month commitment. 

Thank you for taking the time to read about us.  I hope we can earn your business.   Please let us know what you think of our service.