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rileyjam514There You Go Again...
join:2005-06-26
Kearny, NJ | reply to hilsonmota
Re: [BroadVoice] BroadVoice Fake "unlimited" No, you aren't being ripped off. Business plans are given high rate limits for a reason - because business does not stop at the end of the business day, and during the business day there is a high demand for usage.
As a residential customer, if you were using a regular landline phone in this manner, your provider would see it and do the same thing that Broadvoice is doing - switch you up to a higher rate plan because you are violating the TOS.
Residential customers are called residential customers because it is assumed that you will not use more than a certain amount of calls for any given calling period. Contrary to popular belief, every phone company has a limit on what its systems can handle without an outage. The bar is higher for some than for others, but there is always a limit.
Business customers are assumed to continuously use the phone at "peak" hours (typically workdays between 9-5) but also allocated system usage at other points during the week. Residential customers are assumed to use the phone sporadically during the 9-5 period and more often during the evenings and weekends.
Phone companies, landline and VoIP alike, set up their usage plans in advance with these criteria in mind. If they see that you're using more than they had anticipated, that means you're draining that portion of their system's resources and making it harder for other customers to use their service. In order to keep you as a customer, instead of simply disconnecting your service, they move you onto a Business plan so that you are not taking up resources they had previously allocated elsewhere.
These plans, as I mentioned before, are based on usage patterns, and also what kind of traffic particular servers can handle. Most providers (again, this cuts across the board, landline and VoIP) have two systems set up to handle the different calls from their customers - one for business customers which is built to handle commercial-grade phone traffic, and one for residential customers, which is solidly built but can only handle a limited amount of traffic. Essentially, when they move you over to a Business plan, they are switching the path your voice traffic takes over to a system designed to handle the pressure you're putting on the system.
They aren't trying to gyp you. They're trying to help you. | |
| said by rileyjam514:No, you aren't being ripped off. Business plans are given high rate limits for a reason - because business does not stop at the end of the business day, and during the business day there is a high demand for usage. That may be the THEORY that a company bases their rates upon. BUT that theory doesn't match every true "residential user". For example, some families have "chatty teenagers".
And if enough true "residential users" don't fit that theory, the company needs to be upfront in changing their rates to something that matches reality. But its not OK to SLAM "residential" users into "business rates", simply because the user believed the advertising that they were buying UNLIMITED residential calling for one monthly fee!!!
said by rileyjam514:As a residential customer, if you were using a regular landline phone in this manner, your provider would see it and do the same thing that Broadvoice is doing - switch you up to a higher rate plan because you are violating the TOS. What TOS violation?!?
If you are using the phone for a home business, yes you are violating the TOS of a "residential" account. But if/when you just have a "chatty family", you are NOT violating the TOS of an "unlimited" residential account. Instead, you are just a heavy user of the service.
Now I know that any company you do that with, will likely SEE (in their call logs) that you are a "heavy user". And they might even start an "investigation" to see if you are really using your account (fraudulently) to run a business on. But as long as their investigation shows that you are NOT violating their TOS (i.e. your calls are RESIDENTIAL in nature), a reputable business will "suck it up" and eat the costs of you as a "heavy customer"!
In fact, to do anything else is likely "false advertising"...
said by rileyjam514:Residential customers are called residential customers because it is assumed that you will not use more than a certain amount of calls for any given calling period. It doesn't matter how "chatty" a telco ASSUMES that a "residential customer" will be! If they are using the line for actual "residential use" (i.e. talking to friends, family, etc), they are using the line for "residential use".
And if that means a "residential user" uses enough minutes on their "unlimited phone line" to cause the telco to lose money (on that specific user), than that is just "tuff s@#t". If too many of their customers are "chatty", the business always has the option to raise their rates, or stop advertising "unlimited" (and instead put a specific monthly limit on their service).
BUT, it is NOT OK for a business to advertise "unlimited" service, and then refuse to deliver on that promise!
NOTE: I agree that it is fraudulent of a customer to sign up for a "residential" account, and use it for "business purposes" (such as running a home based business). But it is perfectly proper for a "residential user" to sign up with an "unlimited residential account" and then talk for several hours with family every day! If that means that the telco (or in this case a VoIP company) providing the service loses money on that customer, than that company needs to change their marketing plan (or change their rates). But until/unless they do, that company needs to deliver what the customer bought (i.e. "unlimited residential service").
NOTE: I'm not a lawyer. However, it is my understanding that SLAMMING genuine (albeit "chatty") residential users to expensive "business rates" can be considered FRAUD. And I have heard of state AGs suing companies for "false advertising", when they fail to deliver what they advertised to the customer...
said by rileyjam514:They aren't trying to gyp you. They're trying to help you. No! They are NOT trying to help the customer!
It sounds to me like they are trying to help their "bottom line", by using practices that are dubious at best, and outright illegal (false advertising) at worst!
I'm just glad I never signed up with this particular VoIP company.... | |
iSEPIC
join:2001-04-17
Las Vegas, NV | reply to rileyjam514
BS - If there is a limit, then don't advertise "unlimited", nuff said. | | |
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