“AFN Internet is great. It’s very fun. Everything happens so quickly. I do a lot of e-mail overseas and I do e-commerce. It used to be a problem when I had a telephone dial-up connection because that line was also my fax line. People couldn’t fax me when I was on the internet. Now I don’t have a problem. People can fax me anytime even when I’m on the internet all the time.”

“Documents load so fast. With my telephone dial-up connection, it took forever to upload product information to a catalog I work with. And then in the middle of the transmission, I would lose the telephone connection. It was frustrating. AFN Internet solves that problem.”

(One of the latest trends in retailing is EDI, electronic data interchange. It’s a system by which the entire retail supply chain is linked online. It works like this: When a pair of Levis sells in a Walmart store anywhere in America, that transaction is beamed by satellite real time to Walmart headquarters in Arkansas which then automatically transmits the information to Levi headquarters in San Francisco. Levi compiles that information with product demand information from the other retailers it services. Levis then transmits this information to its cotton suppliers with a request to provide more cotton so it can make more Levis.)

“I plan to do an EDI link to the retail outlets I supply. Other vendors that I work with are already on EDI.”

“The great thing about e-commerce is that you can do business around the world from right here in Ashland. I just received a file from the New York representatives of a German company. They want me to drop ship my product from my Hong Kong distributor (who got the product from my mainland China manufacturer) to their retail outlet in Germany. All the order information went through my home office in Ashland. But I never had to handle the product. It was shipped directly from Hong Kong to Germany.”

“I use the internet for transferring other information too. I can send press releases directly to the specialty publications that write about Dream Sacks. I can send photos and other graphics to catalogs and outdoor equipment magazines that are reviewing our products. We’ve even been reviewed on publications that are available only on the internet.”

“Everything is faster and easier. It (AFN Internet) is making life quicker and easier. No more waiting for things to happen. AFN is incredible.”

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Dee Selby and Terry Adams - Owners, Reinholdt and O'Harra Insurance

Dee: “AFN has been good to work with. They’re really responsive.

We have a number of companies we work with online. The internet is the latest, greatest paper reducer. E-mail also cuts down on the telephone.

Our business cable modem service allows us to host our own e-mail. Our domain name is reinholdtins.com. Our web site is under construction.

AFN has picked up the speed a lot over the dial up connection we had before. We’ve also gained the ability to put nine work stations on the internet simultaneously. It’s really improved productivity. There’s no more waiting. Everything is faster.”

Terry: “The access and speed are great. It’s so exciting. And it’s easy. It’s so easy I’m even on it – which is a shock to people in this office.”

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Tony Romeo - Retired United Airlines Captain

 

"AFN Internet has really speeded up my time on the web. I’ve got an old 166 mghz PC and it used to take me minutes to log on through my dial-up connection. Now it’s just ten seconds from the time I push the button until I’m on the Internet. I’m buzzin’ through this stuff like you can’t believe.”

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Skip Andrew - AH&A, Inc.

"Thanks so much for your prompt response and work at (my home/office). Taylor and Dave were great,  how quickly they did the job, and how incredibly responsive and courteous they were in responding to our needs. Congrats to you, too, for hiring and supervising such workers. I find that happy, competent workers are always a reflection of their boss' attitude towards, and treatment of, them. (My ISP) says they can install 1 day after you finish; just let me know when you're done .... I'm anxious as ever to get this done so I can serve my clients better -- and really happy I can do it through a community-owned enterprise!"

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