News:

On Tuesday September 6th the forum will be down for maintenance from 9:30 PM to 11:59 PM PDT

Main Menu

Vestalink Raising My So-called Locked-in Rate

Started by ceg3, November 09, 2014, 05:51:33 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

ceg3

So, in the early days of the GV panic last winter I signed up for unlimited Vestalink for 39.99 per year and the rate was locked in.  Over the months, I have been troubled with issues and eventually moved Vestalink from my SP1 when GV became supported.  I have stopped giving out my Vestalink number, preparing for the eventuality of not renewing the service in 2015.  I happened to check my portal billing section yesterday and found that my next invoice will be for 89.99.  A check by email confirms that they can no longer offer my rate.  I really seldom use the service and am likely one of their best customers in terms of use.  So how likely is it now that I will add 911 back to my GV number from Anveo and drop VL?  About 100% likely.  It might be different if the service had worked perfectly for me.  At 89.99 my expectations would be too high for them to meet.  The only thing I regret is losing the number that I had from GV for many years that I ported to VL.  Too bad you can't just port numbers to GV.

Taoman

Unfortunate but not unexpected. Obivoice/Vestalink's entire business plan was predicated on the assumption that thousands of people would be leaving Google Voice and migrating to ITSPs and Vestalink would pick up a certain percentage of those subs. Didn't work out that way with Google now "supporting" OBi devices.
Ryan was posting on DSLreports the other day and got beat up pretty bad. Glad I got out from Vestalink after 1 month.

Can't you just port your Vestalink DID number to a GoPhone (or other cheap prepaid cell carrier) and then port it back into Google Voice?

ceg3

Quote from: Taoman on November 09, 2014, 06:36:50 AM
Can't you just port your Vestalink DID number to a GoPhone (or other cheap prepaid cell carrier) and then port it back into Google Voice?

I have definitely thought about that costly, complicated, and potentially hit or miss option.  I've had the number so long I have a pack of business cards Google sent to me for signing up in the early days.  Nice little cards, never used the first one. :D

aopisa

Exact same situation here. I jumped ship thinking that moving away from GV early would avoid some hassle around the cut-off date communicated by Obi. I am not going to go into that mess.

I ported my GV number since I found that the GV forwarding was causing a lot of connection and missed call issues.

I just checked and see that my $24.99/year plan is going up to $69.99. Good-bye Vestalink. I don't use the phone that much and really only have it to get E911. In the very outside chance of an emergency, I need anyone to pick up the phone and dial 911 without having to know anything about SIP, Obi, etc. Hello Anveo again.

I am not sure if I will go the mobile porting route or just use a new GV number.

Thanks for the heads up.

TonyTib

Did you see this https://www.vestalink.com/pricing/?plan=inbo?

I couldn't find out what the "enhanced software features" are at a glance.


ceg3

Quote from: aopisa on November 14, 2014, 08:34:26 AM
Exact same situation here. I jumped ship thinking that moving away from GV early would avoid some hassle around the cut-off date communicated by Obi. I am not going to go into that mess.

I ported my GV number since I found that the GV forwarding was causing a lot of connection and missed call issues.

I just checked and see that my $24.99/year plan is going up to $69.99. Good-bye Vestalink. I don't use the phone that much and really only have it to get E911. In the very outside chance of an emergency, I need anyone to pick up the phone and dial 911 without having to know anything about SIP, Obi, etc. Hello Anveo again.

I am not sure if I will go the mobile porting route or just use a new GV number.


Thanks for the heads up.

Your story sounds just like mine.  I have permanently forwarded my Vestalink number to my GV and am only using the account for the included E911.  I've taken the step of cancelling my renewal, so it will expire at the first of the year.  I'm trying to see if I can hang onto the GV number by porting it to Anveo to use exclusively as an E911 number.  That way I'll keep the number I've had so long close and available for future use if I want.  I have an open support ticket with Anveo, but it's a day or two between replies, so I don't know if that will work.  The number failed their portability test, but they going to check it themselves.

ceg3

Turns out I am not going to be able to port my Vestalink number to Anveo, due to some limitation of their carrier.  I will have to decide to add money to Anveo, tying up a minimum of 20.00 or just add E911 through OBiTALK, which is just a little more expensive, but only ties up 15.00.  It's a bit of twisted logic, but in the short run 15.00 seems cheaper than 20.00 and who knows what service I might be using in a year. ;D

lhm.

If you use gv911.com for $12 a year, it does not matter what service you use. Works for me.

ceg3

Quote from: lhm. on November 16, 2014, 09:27:38 AM
If you use gv911.com for $12 a year, it does not matter what service you use. Works for me.
Their sign up looks very lean and straight forward.  How long have you been using them and do they support the OBi200.  The website http://www.gv911.com/ doesn't specifically mention the 200, but I'm betting the website doesn't get updated very often.

Thanks for the heads up.

lhm.

A little over 2 years. It will work on all Obi ATAs

ceg3

Decided to go with auto-provisioning of Anveo with OBiTALK.  I used their E911 service in the past with GV.   I wound up with alerts I have no use for, but I felt I would be happier if my E911 was directly part of my OBi setup.