Cruzio Newsletter - Number 83, March 8, 2005 1. Grand Opening of Cruzio's Watsonville Store: You're Invited 2. Have You Accelerated? 3. Yes, You Can Get a Sale Rate Even If You Already Have DSL 4. Cruzio Has the Fastest Broadband 5. Where to Find Giant Robots 6. This Thursday: Cruzio Consultants Network Meeting 7. Free Wireless Brownbag Workshop March 24th 8. How to Accelerate 9. Buddy Bucks 10. Cans Instead of Late Fees 11. About This Newsletter 12. How to Reach Cruzio (dial-in or tech support) 1. Grand Opening of Cruzio's Watsonville Store: You're Invited We are pulling out all the stops for Cruzio's: * G r a n d O p e n i n g C e l e b r a t i o n * Free! This Saturday, March 12, 12 Noon-4:00 p.m. Plaza Vigil, 23 E. Beach Street, Watsonville Across the street from City Plaza Park. You and your family are invited to attend the Grand Opening of Cruzio's new Watsonville store. The celebration kicks off with an official ribbon-cutting, followed by FREE lunch, cake, music by 100.7 FM La Preciosa, raffle, face painting, balloon artist, free computer rentals, and the chance to win $200 worth of Cruzio Internet services. We'll be joined by El Pajaro Community Development Corporation, which assists local bilingual/bicultural small businesses, and by the Santa Cruz Community Credit Union, which has recently opened a branch a few doors down. It's going to be quite a party. Come help us celebrate! 2. Have You Accelerated? If you are considering a switch to broadband, do yourself a favor and first try Cruzio's Dialup Accelerator. It's free for all Cruzio Dialup customers. The Accelerator solves a pernicious problem: Web designers are now loading their pages with images too big to reasonably view over a dialup connection. Cruzio's Accelerator compresses and caches those images so that it isn't necessary to have broadband just to browse the Web. The net effect is that Web browsing is up to 5 times faster. The accelerator saves money -- it's not only free in itself, but also saves the cost of a broadband connection. To learn how to accelerate, see: http://www.cruzio.com/support/dialup_isdn/accelerator.html Then, if you decide you've got to have broadband, we recommend Cruzio DSL. It's fast, reasonably priced, and comes with Cruzio's great customer service. 3. Yes, You Can Get the Sale Rate Even If You Already Have DSL Even if you already have Cruzio DSL, no matter what price you are now paying, you can sign up for a one-year term at the current sale rate -- just as if you were a new customer. While the current special lasts, you can renew your contract at any time in your term. Just go to //signup.cruzio.com/dsl_sale.html and tell us you'd like a year at our low, sale rate. Remember that you can save money on DSL, or any Cruzio service, by recommending a friend. See item 10 for how much you can save! 4. Cruzio Has the Fastest Broadband Sometimes people think small companies can't do what big companies can. But in general, we don't find that's so. For example, you can't get broadband any faster than Cruzio's DSL 6.0. It's up to 4 times the speed of a cable Internet connection. DSL 6.0 is not available everywhere, but if your number qualifies you'll be delighted with the speed. Find out the highest speed you can get by filling out our online form at: http://www.cruzio.com/services/highspeed_access/qualify.html 5. Where to Find Giant Robots From time to time we change the "Staff Picks" section of our home page, so that Cruzio staff members can share their (sometimes unusual) Internet choices. This month, urbane Technical Support Staffer Edgar is posting his favorite sites. Some great anime and game resources. And giant robots. Have a look at the lower left corner of our home page: http://www.cruzio.com 6. This Thursday: Cruzio Consultants Network Meeting Thursday, March 10, 12:30-1:30 p.m. Cruzio, 903 Pacific Ave. If you're a Web designer, computer tutor, ecommerce or networking consultant, you're invited to attend Cruzio's Consultants Network Workshop. At the workshop you'll have an opportunity to talk to our Technical Support staff face to face to learn about Cruzio's latest services, troubleshooting tools, and how to get cash credit on your account for every referral. Learn how to take advantage of Cruzio's resources to boost your business. And, let us know what tools and services you're looking for: we are always updating. The workshop and lunch are free! Register at: http://www.cruzio.com/brownbags 7. Free Wireless Brownbag Workshop March 24th Thursday, March 24, 12:30-1:30 p.m. Cruzio, 903 Pacific Ave. Tired of messy cables? Want to access the Internet from your kitchen table or backyard? Find out how to make your home or office wireless at this free one hour Brown Bag workshop, hosted by friendly Cruzio staff. Wireless setup, security, and what equipment you will need to get started will be covered. This workshop is perfect for households with multiple computers, home offices, and small businesses. Space is limited, so sign up soon at: http://www.cruzio.com/brownbags Lunch at this brownbag is $7 extra, if you order through Cruzio. 8. How to Accelerate Our constantly vigilant Technical Support Manager, Stephen, would like to remind people using the Cruzio Dialup Accelerator that you need to use your Network Dialup Login as the login (not your email login). Your Network Dialup Login can be found on the information sheet Cruzio gave you when you first signed up. If you can't find it or remember it, please drop a note to support@cruzio.com. We'll be happy to look it up. Remember, the accelerator is free and it's easy to use. Many questions about the Cruzio Dialup Accelerator are answered on Cruzio's Support Site: http://cruzio.com/support/dialup_isdn/accelerator.html 9. Buddy Bucks Recommend us to friends, family, colleagues: if a new customer gives us your email address, registration number, or full name when they sign up you'll get $10 credit to your account. If two friends sign up, $20. Three friends, $30. It just goes on and on. To celebrate the opening of Cruzio's new Watsonville store, until July 1, 2005 we are *doubling* our Buddy Bucks offer if you refer a new customer from Watsonville, Freedom, Aromas, Pajaro or Corralitos. That's $20 credit per referral! 10. Cans Instead of Late Fees If you're late on a payment to Cruzio, turn it into a donation to hungry folks in our community. We will waive your late fee if you bring 3 cans into our office for our Second Harvest Food Bank barrel. Learn more about this charity at http://www.thefoodbank.org 11. About This Newsletter Cruzio doesn't like to waste bandwidth with extra email, but we sometimes have events and announcements that users need to know about. This seems like the most efficient way to let people know what's happening. Hope it's helpful. Please email support@cruzio.com with any comments or questions. By the way, we would love to have a regular, predictable schedule for this newsletter...but we simply do not send it unless there is real news enclosed. Thus the haphazard datelines. 12. How to Reach Cruzio (dial-in or tech support) To reach the Cruzio Information Center, for online technical and sales information: http://www.cruzio.com/support To dial in to Cruzio, set your software to dial one of the numbers below (note: we've expanded and joined modem pools, so you may be using another number. If so, don't worry, it still works just fine). Dialup: 459-9408 Nationwide Dialup: Look up local number on our Web page: http://www.cruzio.com/support/dialup_isdn/nationwide_numbers.html or call Cruzio toll free, 1.800.303.3302 To call Cruzio: 459-6301............Use this number to check Cruzio's system status, pay your Cruzio bill, find out more about our hours and location, or to reach someone in customer service and technical support. 722-6200 .......... Cruzio's number in Watsonville. To send email to Cruzio, use one of these addresses: support@cruzio.com ......for technical support office@cruzio.com .......for billing and ordering information Cruzio's locations: Santa Cruz: 903 Pacific Avenue, Suite 101, Santa Cruz, CA 95060 Watsonville: Plaza Vigil, 23 E. Beach Street, Watsonville, CA 95076 Cruzio's hours: Sales hours: 10am-6pm, Monday through Friday; 10 am - 2 pm Saturday Technical support: 10-6 pm, Monday through Friday, 10am - 2pm Saturday System monitoring, including customer-alerted emergencies, 24 hours per day, 365 days per year (leap years, 366 days) Thanks very much from Cruzio: Chris, Peggy, Julianne, Kathy, Mark, Tapati, Alec, Stephen, Paul, Gershom, Jessi, Michael, another Chris, Maria, James, Juana, Krissie, Nikkie, Mike, Don, Bruce, Edgar, Brian, Jhonee', Derrick and Westi; Tiffany and Asli (our helpful interns); Jake, Annika, and Carly (the kids) Mom: "Annika, don't come up behind me like that! You scared me half to death." Annika, age 10: "You said I scared you half to death yesterday, too. Does that mean today you are completely dead?"