 WiFiIt's In The Air
join:2002-06-06
NiagaraFalls
 ·ikTel Networks
 ·Vonage
 ·Cogeco Cable
| reply to otty
Re: why pay monthly? said by otty:I just quit Vonage. I dont see why people would use pay-monthly VOIP when you can get it neary free through Skype or even cheaper-voipbuster. Here's why: My parents are almost 80. You must agree that the older you become, you want to be left in your existing comfort zone, that is, "less change" is better.
My parents had been with Bell Canada since the early 50's. Two years ago, when I was in the process of researching VOIP and, more specifically, Vonage my father happened to mention one day that he was becoming more frustrated with Bell Canada. By now he also had cancelled their cable TV and replaced it with Bell's satellite service as well as ordering two of their cell phones. Bell kept increasing rates on phone and satellite, they were under contract on the cells and the company kept harrassing them to switch to a new contract for free! (read into that, no cancellation fee but the replacement contract was longer and not nearly as good...as if this is a huge surprise). Bell was then given permission by the government to change their billing system so that all services were billed together. IT was a nightmare for my parents and most other Bell subscribers. Every month my parents' bill had errors and my father would waste a minimum of 90 minutes per month dealing with customer (non)service in India to fix it.
A few months later I signed on to Vonage. I spent time explaining to my parents about the service and after about 6 months, they let me assist them with subscribing to cable Internet and Vonage. They had two mandatory criteria before they would switch: 1. They did not want to lose their telephone number, 2. They wanted no changes to their telephone wiring and sets and still wanted to use them. (Using VOIP where you had to be at a computer was NOT an option. Only my mother uses the PC, my father would not know what to do and has no interest in it.)
AS of now, my parents like Vonage. There are many features they do not use however my father, being the one who pays the bills, likes the fact that he is spending a lot less each month and has more features than they will ever need. In some respects they are NOT paying less because they did not have broadband before this so that monthly cost had to be added. They write that off to amazinging faster Internet service that they had never before experienced.
They were also amazed when I explained and turned on the anonymous caller blocking that most telcos here in Canada do not offer. They have noticed fewer telemarking calls. They also like obtaining their monthly invoice on the Internet.
They are with me in arguing that Canadians should not be paying more for the same service. We both have the basic 500 minute/mo plan at $19.99/mo that is $5 less in the US.
So, why pay monthly? For those that have been around a while, it's all about migrating as transparently as possible. And Vonage lets you do that.
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