I recently moved into a new apartment with my wife (we just got married a few months ago). We each have a different cell phone carrier and we are both still under contract. I do not use the phone very often and neither does she, so we figured we’d live on our cell phones until we buy a house in a year or so, then we would install Vonage.
Well, let me take a minute to tell you what a terrible idea that was. I received a phone call from my evil cell phone carrier the other day. I’ll leave them nameless because they truly are evil, and in an already suffering economy, I don’t want my very important opinion to bankrupt this company. The lady on the phone told me that I was about to reach my monthly limit which was astonishing to me! She informed me that there was a $.45 per minute charge which I already knew.
Then she said, “Let me pull up your account.” She pulled it up and stated that I was actually already 100 minutes over my monthly limit. As if that weren’t bad enough, she then persisted to try to get me to upgrade my phone plan so it wouldn’t happen again. This isn’t the first time they’ve done this either.
So the phone bill rolls in. What usually costs me $55 a months was $121! What a rip off. I was actually in such disbelief that I downloaded a spreadsheet of all my calls and did some analysis on it. I found that a lot of my longer calls were actually from home. If I had Vonage Unlimited, I would have paid significantly less this month in overall phone bills.
After doing some spreadsheet analysis I learned that a large amount of my phone calls we 2 minute phone calls. Usually when I make a call I go right over a minute. Doing this a few times a day adds up quick since 1 minute and 1 second is a 2 minute call. As a systems major I know that it would be extremely easy to track each call in minutes and seconds then add everything up for the monthly bill, but the truth is, cell phone companies hate you. I can’t wait to get VoIP.
Ironically enough, my cell phone company sued Vonage a few years ago. Conspiracy?
