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Vestalink Lowered Rates

Started by ceg3, January 31, 2015, 07:19:25 AM

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ceg3

My one year with Vestalink ends on 2/3 and I just took a look at their site and was surprised to find they have dropped their rates by 30.00 for unlimited.  I had immediately decided not to renew when a couple of months ago I received a notice that my locked-in rate of 39.99 for unlimited would be jumping to 89.99.  I see they now offer 500 minutes a month for 39.99, which I have to admit got my attention, since I am a lite user.  3.33 a month is a good rate and most of my issues with Vestalink have been features not working and not actual phone quality, which was consistently good.  I might think seriously about keeping the service now.

After Google Voice issues were settled I set the service up on my SP1 and deleted Vestalink after setting that number to always forward to my GV number.  I haven't actually dialed out on the Vestalink number in months.  I wonder what sort experience current users of Vestalink are having.  Any feedback would be appreciated.

Angelc19

My rate went from @25.00  for 500 min. to 80.00 for 2000 min, which I don't need. I then noticed new price 50.00 for 2000 min
I contacted them, they offered to extend for 2 years for 60.00 more dollars.
Good deal?????????
Are they on obi approved list any more?
My main concern what happens to my phone number if they go under??
I have home office phone number also that renews soon. Its very important to keep that number. ADVICE please.

TonyTib

It's hard to say what to do.

VL is still set as our main service, my wife hasn't been complaining, and I can't remember any recent outages.

I wouldn't port a number I care about to VL.  Given that GV is back on Obi's, life has to be tough for a consumer-oriented ITSP.  If most users are not very heavy users, then survival is more likely.

BTW, VL has had lower rates for a while, they were just hidden (you had to find the "basic" plans).  If they keep those rates, I'll renew, because it's worth it just for the DID with CNAM and E911.

QBZappy

This post over at DSL Reports speculates about VL motives for having a sudden interest in the relationship between Google Voice and OBi. This sudden interest and the aggressive pricing of VL services seems to show his concern that some customers may not be interested in renewing.

WhyADuck
Re: Is OBi really 'officially' supported by google?
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r29833808-
Owner of the 1st OBi110/100 units in service in Canada & South America. 1st OBi202 on my street. 1st OBi1032 in Montreal.

SteveInWA

Quote from: QBZappy on February 02, 2015, 07:06:52 PM
This post over at DSL Reports speculates about VL motives for having a sudden interest in the relationship between Google Voice and OBi. This sudden interest and the aggressive pricing of VL services seems to show his concern that some customers may not be interested in renewing.

WhyADuck
Re: Is OBi really 'officially' supported by google?
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r29833808-

That forum is chock full of gossip, uninformed speculation, and bad attitudes.  There is absolutely, positively, nothing authoritative or worthwhile there, with regard to any business plans or motives by Google or Obihai.

You can get into another useless debate over the meaning of "supported" if you wish, but it's going nowhere.

Josephf

Quote from: SteveInWA on February 02, 2015, 08:29:24 PM

That forum is chock full of gossip, uninformed speculation, and bad attitudes.  There is absolutely, positively, nothing authoritative or worthwhile there, with regard to any business plans or motives by Google or Obihai.

You can get into another useless debate over the meaning of "supported" if you wish, but it's going nowhere.
In fairness, there's a lot of that on this forum as well. And that discussion thread of the meaning of "supported" on that other forum was started by the proprietor of VL.

ceg3

For what it's worth, I just let the account expire as of today.  I've owned that number since Google Voice's inception, but I have had a new GV number since last February and I'm going to depend on GV evolving to an even better service as time rolls on.  I even have a small bundle of business cards Google sent to me with my GV number on it when I signed up all those years ago.  I never handed out a single card. ;D  Vestalink has a video on its blog that interestingly suggests that when Google mobile begins they will be forced to charge taxes for services, such as Google Voice.

bamaboy

I have used Vestalink for nearly a year now.   Only at the very beginning were there very, very few problems.  It has worked reliably and I'm totally satisfied.  Other household members never notice that they are really using VOIP.  When Google "changed their policy" I decided to break away from Google and not depend on them for consistency.  It seems like everything they do is "half-baked" or they change this or that frequently so that you wind up spending more time keeping up with small changes that leave you hanging unexpectedly, so it just wasn't worth it.  The voice quality on Vestlink is just fantastic and their service is used in my house daily.   I just disconnected GV by going into the online OBI110 module and erasing there, reset the device.   Then, went into GV online, removed chat (unchecked).  Rebooted computer the ran the Vestalink autosetup.  It works fine.   I like the fact that I can only receive calls from those in my "phonebook, if desired" and can mark spam there too.  I've actually only contacted support about once and they responded very quickly.   My 911 doesn't function properly, but I could with a little persistence fix that, just don't care about that function.  Hope this helps someone. 

SteveInWA

Quote from: ceg3 on February 03, 2015, 11:30:02 AM
Vestalink has a video on its blog that interestingly suggests that when Google mobile begins they will be forced to charge taxes for services, such as Google Voice.

Now, that's pretty amusing.  This company is in trouble.  The owner started the service, using an unauthorized name (if I recall, it was "OBiVoice"), when the initial announcement was made about Google restricting authorization to use GV.  Their business model was built purely on capturing GV "refugees".  Now that GV is no longer an issue, they've run into the classic problem:  the initial appeal of their marketing model is gone.  There is a fixed cost floor to offering VoIP service; it's ok to offer "loss leader" pricing initially, hoping to attract new customers, but you need to make a profit to continue operations over the long term, so, sooner or later, the prices need to rise.

Since SIP VoIP is a price-sensitive commodity, a price hike will drive away the customers who only care about price.  If VL can't offer sufficiently reliable service with consistent call quality and up-time, they'll lose those customers, but any investment in service improvements will kill their slim profit margin.

So, what to do?  Resort to FUD.  Speculate on top of speculation, about a "Google mobile" service, official details of which are completely non-existent.

This should give pause to anyone considering paying in advance for service from Vestalink.

ceg3

#9
I have to say I was really surprised Vestalink made no attempt to retain my account as part of a retention policy and I barely used the service, making me a cheap customer.  First, I was never notified that the increase from my original, "fixed" rate of 39.99 for unlimited that had gone up to 89.99 had gone back down to 39.99 in my billing portal.  Secondly, when I received my email notification of my subscription ending there was no attempt to entice me to renew.  Seems to me, if you are desperate for subscribers you would try a little harder.

Angelc19

The only problems I have had with VL faxing was free but now is added as a separate cost per page, I use it only a couple times a month. it's not a big deal. Plus the rate increase and decrease. I haven't been able to change my out bound caller id name, said it could take weeks, months. VL Chat always works, questions are answered etc.

My question is what happens to your phone number if any of these providers goes under? Is it gone or does it go to another provider? Can you port it back to a cell phone?

Thanks

SteveInWA

Quote from: Angelc19 on February 08, 2015, 07:04:02 AM
The only problems I have had with VL faxing was free but now is added as a separate cost per page, I use it only a couple times a month. it's not a big deal. Plus the rate increase and decrease. I haven't been able to change my out bound caller id name, said it could take weeks, months. VL Chat always works, questions are answered etc.

My question is what happens to your phone number if any of these providers goes under? Is it gone or does it go to another provider? Can you port it back to a cell phone?

Thanks

Here's some background:  all phone numbers (in the USA) are originally issued to various Local Exchange Carriers, or LECs, in blocks, according to the North American Numbering Plan Administration.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Numbering_Plan

When a customer ports a number into some other carrier, no matter how many times that number is moved, the number still belongs to the original LEC -- that LEC is simply "lending" the number to the subsequent carrier(s), at your request.  At no point do you, the customer "own" the number; the LEC owns it.  If you cancel service on that number, (or, if the current provider goes out of business), the number would be returned to the owning LEC.

I'm not aware of a regulation to handle the scenario if/when a carrier goes out of business, but, if the carrier had sufficient time and money to work with their customers, they would notify their customers, and allow the customers to port the number out to whatever other carrier they wish.

The only (small) risk, is if a carrier suddenly went completely bankrupt, "closing their doors".  In that scenario, it might be tricky to port the number, since the new carrier might refuse, if you, the customer can't prove you had active service on that number.  Carriers have to follow porting rules, which, among other things, attempt to prevent fraudulent porting of numbers without permission of the current customer (a practice known as "number slamming").


simpleAnswers

I have to say that the summary that Vestalink would struggle to surge like before is correct. But I think it also applies to practically all the other Voip services phonepower, anveo etc.

Just like most users, I too was scrambling to find an alternative and was relieved to learn that there would be no shut off.

I don't see myself renewing my services with callcentric, phonepower, vestalink or anveo. Yes I was desperately looking for an alternative for a looooonngg time. I paid 2yrs for each of those guys so come 2016 unless GV is dead, I won't be paying up. Primarily because, all of the above did not offer me what I got from GV.

Yes Vestalink will try to pan "Official GV Support", but truth is Obihai is counting the dough ever since they got GV to not go away. And lets be honest, most of the users flocking to Vestalink were originally looking for a GV alternative and on the surface they looked like a good alternative. But to me they were just an alternative and due to the change of heart, I don't need an alternative to GV so that kinda says it all