Why the increase in 500 minute plan only?

Posts: 83

Why would they increase the 500 minute plan from 14.99 to 17.99....(the ones that use the least service) and not increase the unlimited plan?

Maybe to push more users to the unlimited package since the price difference is smaller...?....probably

Bad timing on this one vonage...as far as im concerned...

and also the "unlimited" package isnt really unlimited after all if i understand correctly...from what i understand over 5000 minutes and they can put you on the business plan at their discretion....

UNLIMITED:
Having no restrictions or controls
Having or seeming to have no boundaries

To advertise truely...they should advertise it as up to 5000 minutes per month for 24.99...

As for me....when the 3.00 increase shows up on my bill...I will need 7 volunteers to make up the lost revenue from my cancellation...

Posts: 627 · Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2009 7:12 am Post subject:

Did you write a letter to your Congressman, Governor, Senator, and the President of Exxon when the price of gas shot up to 4 dollars a gallon? Do you write letters to the corporations that own the food stores you shop in about the rise in food costs? Do you write letters to your cable company when they raise the price or slip in some new tax? If not, why are these acceptable practices that someone who speaks out such as yourself did not take action on?

If your truly not an advocate of Vonage, take your business elsewhere. I just do not see why everyone has to jump on everything that Vonage says, does, or does not do. Every company will have it's limitations, perks, problems, and will market the product as they see fit. That is just the way it is. If you don't like it, get some backing and start your own company to run as you like

Below is AT&T Wireless TOS for their section of what they consider or actually do not consider UNLIMITED. And it does not meet your definition of what Unlimited is. I will also bet that if you exceed a certain amount of minutes a month over nights and weekends period on direct calls, you would be hearing from them even though a limit is not posted just as Vonage did not have previously. I will also bet, any other company with any sort of Unlimited plans will also have a limit that is just not advertised. So research it as you seem to have time on your hands. There is what is considered Unlimited and what is considered abuse. Figure it out genius.

Unlimited Voice Services: Unlimited voice services are provided primarily for live dialog between two individuals. If your use of unlimited voice services for conference calling or call forwarding exceeds 750 minutes per month, AT&T may, at its option, terminate your service or change your plan to one with no unlimited usage components. Unlimited voice services may not be used for monitoring services, data transmissions, transmission of broadcasts, transmission of recorded material, or other connections which do not consist of uninterrupted live dialog between two individuals. If AT&T finds that you are using an unlimited voice service offering for other than live dialog, AT&T may, at its option, terminate your service or change your plan to one with no unlimited usage components. AT&T will provide notice that it intends to take any of the above actions, and you may terminate the agreement. Off-net Usage: If your minutes of use, data usage or messaging usage (including unlimited services) on other carrier networks ("off-net usage") during any two consecutive months exceed your off-net usage allowance, AT&T may, at its option, terminate your service, deny your continued use of other carriers' coverage, or change your plan to one imposing usage charges for off-net usage. Your off-net usage allowance is equal to the lesser of 750 minutes or 40% of the Anytime Minutes, the lesser of 6 MB or 20% of the MB included with your plan, or the lesser of 3000 messages or 50% of the messages included with your plan. AT&T will provide notice that it intends to take any of the above actions, and you may terminate the agreement.

Posts: 810 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Jun 08, 2007 Posts: 810

riddler wrote:

Why would they increase the 500 minute plan from 14.99 to 17.99....(the ones that use the least service) and not increase the unlimited plan?

I would guess the reason is the majority of the costs for Vonage revolves around marketing expense per line, fixed costs per line, and customer service costs rather than how many minutes you use.

True, if "everybody" abused their vonage service by using over 5,000 minutes, variable costs would also impact the bottom line, hence the 5,000 maximum.

BTW, unlimited to me means unlimited. Should be at least a footnote somewhere.

Also, Verizon marketed their air card as unlimited, and now they show different data transfer plans - no unlimited anymore. I bought the "unlimited" plan from them and seem to be grandfathered in on a "promo unlimited plan" and seems to be just that, unlimited.

Posts: 627 · Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2009 9:16 am Post subject:

A true definition of a word can longer longer be defined by it's original meaning. If you don't believe or understand what I mean, just look up the words Freedom and Democracy and tell me that the US government actually follows they're meanings to the fullest extent.

As for anyone who is not happy with Vonage, the door is open with a big exit sign hanging over it. If you think the grass is greener, think again. You can't even get a stripped down local only phone line from your local telco for $17.99 plus taxes. A basic line in any metropolitan area from the local telco will run mid 20's and up. And even at that price, you have absolutely nothing. Not even call waiting or caller ID.

How about that great double or triple play that your ISP tells you is $99 a month? Yet when the bill comes it is more like $130 with the taxes and fees and after 12 months that $99 becomes $129 plus taxes and fees. Or how about trying one of the other VoIP service providers? For that excellent advertised low price you might get a dial tone but when you have a problem, have fun trying to get any support. They do it all via e-mail since they do not have a phone support staff.

Posts: 27 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Dec 16, 2008 Posts: 27

riddler wrote:

Why would they increase the 500 minute plan from 14.99 to 17.99....(the ones that use the least service) and not increase the unlimited plan?

Maybe to push more users to the unlimited package since the price difference is smaller...?....probably

Bad timing on this one vonage...as far as im concerned...

and also the "unlimited" package isnt really unlimited after all if i understand correctly...from what i understand over 5000 minutes and they can put you on the business plan at their discretion....

UNLIMITED:
Having no restrictions or controls
Having or seeming to have no boundaries

To advertise truely...they should advertise it as up to 5000 minutes per month for 24.99...

As for me....when the 3.00 increase shows up on my bill...I will need 7 volunteers to make up the lost revenue from my cancellation...

I had to vote for the 5000 in this case. When you look at plans on the website the Residential unlimited plan falls between the 500 minute plan and the 5000 minute small business plan. That would tell me that volume above 5000 would be construed as business use. If you didn't have a policy like this anyone could take an adapter they ordered for their "residence" hook it up at a place of business with heavy call volume.

I don't see how anyone could realistically need to use more than 5000 outgoing minutes for normal residential use. That's an average of 167 minutes a day of outgoing calls. That's almost 3 hours a day. I can see where occasionally you might have that many minutes in a day, but not everyday. That doesn't include the incoming calls that truly are unlimited.

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 09, 2009 Posts: 2

I don't know about how it works now, but in the past Vonage also looked at calling patters and such to determine if you were really abusing the service or just using it a lot.

For example, if most of your calls were outgoing to all over the place during normal business hours, it raised a flag about biz use.

Back then, if they determined that you were indeed just using it for home use, you were pretty much OK.

I don't know this for a fact, but I'd like to believe that if you occasionally went over the 5000 minute mark every once in a while you'd be OK.

Posts: 810 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Jun 08, 2007 Posts: 810

RadioDoc wrote:

I don't know this for a fact, but I'd like to believe that if you occasionally went over the 5000 minute mark every once in a while you'd be OK.

I would hope so, consider a family with a couple of teenage daughters at home who talk to their boyfreinds and other freinds, each, an hour or so a day. 5000 minutes is 83.3hours per month. 2 hours per day just by the "girls" (don't mean to be sexist here Very Happy

, ) is 60 hours or 3600 minutes per month leaving 1400 minutes for all other outgoing use. I could see in this senario, periodically, one would go over.

Posts: 1320 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Nov 08, 2006 Posts: 1320

I would have your girls have their friends call then you don't care since incoming calls are free.

Posts: 810 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Jun 08, 2007 Posts: 810

roscopco wrote:

I would have your girls have their friends call then you don't care since incoming calls are free.

Just a for instance, my daughter is in her own apartment at school and my son is just returning from some research in Antarctica, back to school.

Empty nester here!

Posts: 27 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Dec 16, 2008 Posts: 27

ed56 wrote:

consider a family with a couple of teenage daughters at home who talk to their boyfreinds and other freinds, each, an hour or so a day. 5000 minutes is 83.3hours per month. 2 hours per day just by the "girls" (don't mean to be sexist here Very Happy

, ) is 60 hours or 3600 minutes per month leaving 1400 minutes for all other outgoing use. I could see in this senario, periodically, one would go over.

As another poster said, about half of those minutes shouldn't count, since at least some of the girls conversations should be incoming calls. Secondly, I have a teenage daugther, and she doesn't talk on the phone nearly as much as teenage girls did when I was a kid. Between facebook, Instant Messaging, and text messaging, she really uses our landline very little. This may not be everyone's experience, but I still think 2 hours a day 7 days a week of OUTGOING calls is a huge amount, even with two teenagegirls.

But then as you pointed out, even if they are using that much, that still leaves 1400 minutes for Mom and Dad. Again, Mom and Dad have unlimited incoming minutes. So they can each make 700 minutes worth of outgoing calls during the course of a month. I'm sure I have some days where I talk 30 minutes or an hour, but it's the exception not the rule. I'd venture to say most of my calls at home are incoming. No way I could see using 700 minutes of outgoing in a month.

As a matter of fact, our whole family, with two adults and two teens (one male one female) doesn't use all of our 500 minutes. Admittedly we all have cell phones, but our mobile plan is 550 minutes and we don't use all of those either. So between the mobile plan and the Vonage plan we have 1050 minutes with two teenagers. I think 5000 minutes is a reasonable guideline for unlimited residential.