Punished for having Vonage

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 03, 2006 Posts: 4

Verizon is indirectly punishing Voip users by charging their customers who call us...

It seems any Verizon land-line customer in our area is getting charged long distance for calling us. My in-laws who live 3 miles away figured it out the hard way, after getting their phone bill, and calls to our home cost them almost $10 dollars... we live 3 miles away, same town, same area code... Our church, a mile away, even our next door neighbors, all pay long distance to call us. According to Verizon, all because they considers our prefix, not our area code, long distance.

We live in a small town... You have to drive over 30 miles to go "long distance" even by Verizon standards. Why is Voip different?

Has anyone else encountered this problem? Is anyone else being told it's a long distance call to reach you using local telephone service?

Posts: 80 · Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 3:19 pm Post subject:

I'm not sure I see what physical distance has to do with being charged long distance? That is an anachronistic concept that has gone the way of the dinosaur. My next door neighbor relocated to France and we are in the same area code but since he is in Europe should I then expect to be bill long distance when I call him?

What is happening is either a billing error between Verizon and Vonage or you actually have a number from Vonage that is actually long distance.

I would call Verizon customer service or Vonage and ask them if those numbers are indeed local to one another.

What is a LATA?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_access_and_transport_area

Posts: 4777 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4777

I agree. Frogroast, you need to get in touch with Vonage and see if they have a number you can get that's local to your town. This is a Vonage/phone number issue, not a Verizon issue.

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 03, 2006 Posts: 4

Thanks Folks,

I e-mailed Vonage right after my posting and received the following response:

Quote:

We understand that you would like to have local phone number in your area. You also would like to know how can your in-laws call you in a local rate.

We are glad to inform you that you can change your existing phone number and have a Medina, New York phone number. Once you will have a Medina phone number your caller within your area will not pay an long distance call every time they will call you. I am glad to inform you that if you will change your existing phone number to a Medina, New York phone number, your in-laws will not be charge of a long distance rate, every time they will call you.

We do offer the option to change your Vonage phone number. Please login to your web account and visit the Billing Section. From there simply select "Change Your Phone Number" and follow the steps to change your number. Please do note that there is a $9.99 fee (plus applicable tax) for this feature. You will have access to your old Vonage number for 7 days to give you time to hand out your new number and to access your voicemail messages.

Of course I immediately responded to this lovely, well written note asking if he was implying that although I signed up for service with Vonage, billed to my home address, in my home town, that I was in fact assigned a non-local number and he was expecting me to pay extra to correct Vonage's mistake.

I didn't want to call, particularly over the weekend, but I will certainly make the call tomorrow during regular business hours to see if someone can correct the situation.

Thanks for pointing out that this is a Vonage problem. Stupid me for thinking that Vonage would assign me a local number without me asking Rolling Eyes

Posts: 476 · Posted: Mon Dec 04, 2006 12:07 am Post subject:

Frogroast wrote:

Thanks for pointing out that this is a Vonage problem. Stupid me for thinking that Vonage would assign me a local number without me asking Rolling Eyes

I thought you had to choose your area code when you signed up (presuming you chose not to keep your current phone number)? Or did you sign up by calling Vonage and the process works differently than when you sign up online?

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 03, 2006 Posts: 4

I signed up online, specified my area code, my home address, and other pertinent info.

As far as I remember, I had no option to choose my prefix.

Since we didn't have phone service (all cell phone for over 2 years), we had no number to transfer.

Once I completed the form, Vonage assigned me our current number, a (585) 331-XXXX. I would have loved to have the same prefix as our town, but didn't give it a second thought, since again, I had no number to transfer and this is what Vonage gave us.

I did a little searching around and it seems the 331 prefix is for the town 10 miles East of us. Funny... Verizon shouldn't be charging long distance for calls to that town either.

I hope to call Vonage on my way home today... see if I don't end up asking for an L2 support person.

Posts: 476 · Posted: Tue Dec 05, 2006 11:37 am Post subject:

Oh, I gotcha. That is pretty crappy that they give you a prefix that is long distance to those who are calling you. Vonage should let you choose not only your area code, but also your prefix within that area code.

Personally, I don't understand why long distance charges even still exist. It seems like another antiquated idea that's still around simply because it's making the phone companies some extra money. With today's telephone system does it really cost a telephone company that much more if you call outside your local area? Maybe there's internetwork connection fees or something, but even those should just be built into the regular phone service costs which are more than high enough to cover them.

Posts: 253 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: May 23, 2006 Posts: 253

mwmcclure wrote:

I'm not sure I see what physical distance has to do with being charged long distance? That is an anachronistic concept that has gone the way of the dinosaur. My next door neighbor relocated to France and we are in the same area code but since he is in Europe should I then expect to be bill long distance when I call him?

What is happening is either a billing error between Verizon and Vonage or you actually have a number from Vonage that is actually long distance.

I would call Verizon customer service or Vonage and ask them if those numbers are indeed local to one another.

What is a LATA?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_access_and_transport_area

that is correct..!

might the rate center are not the same.. Eek

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: May 16, 2006 Posts: 5

When I signed up for Vonage online, I had to select the state and area code that I wanted the number for and then I had a list of several neighborhoods to select from as well.

Our area code covers a large area and with traditional phone service it is considered a zone call to call from one part of the area to another and it is charged extra even though they are in the same area code.

When selecting my number I had to be careful to select a neighborhood that is close to the people who call my the most.

By the way, the charge for having your traditional POTS phone number transferred to your Vonage line is also $9.95, so if you have been considering doing that you may want to do it instead of getting a new phone phone number for the same price.

Posts: 241 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Mar 17, 2006 Posts: 241

blakadher wrote:

I thought you had to choose your area code when you signed up (presuming you chose not to keep your current phone number)? Or did you sign up by calling Vonage and the process works differently than when you sign up online?

Why is it that everyone seems to be assuming that calls within an area code are local, non-toll calls? Take a look at the area code map in the front pages of a phone book. Except for some large cities (perhaps), those aren't local calling areas.