Thursday, October 19, 2006
Vonage Gets Sneaky With Subscription Revenue
Back in 2000 the internet bubble was nearing the end of it's ascent into the euphoric entrepreneurial atmosphere. As such, most dot com CEO's were either on their way out or scrambling to replace advertising revenue with some other form of revenue. One of the best online revenue models to come from this period was the subscription model. Instead of charging $500 a year for a license to use a web site a user pays $49.95 a month for the same service and can cancel at any time. This allowed some dot coms to make a buck and stay afloat while charging a higher premium for their services. It also transferred some perceived control to the customer. Now the customer has the ability to stop paying for a service as soon as they are tired of it (or no longer need it) and thus they can save a good bit of money if they end their subscription before the 12 month period they previously had to commit to.
Long story short, this model has thrived for the reasons mentioned above and many more. However, with anything in life and business, there are those that will use this for good and others that will use it for evil.
Class, if you'll direct your attention to the whiteboard you'll see case study of the day...
Vonage.
This morning I received an email from Vonage, here are the main contents of the email.
"Dear Jason Dowdell,
As a convenience to you and to reduce unnecessary emails, starting next month we will no longer send you monthly billing notification emails. As always, you will continue to have access to all of your monthly billing information through your Vonage web account. You can login 24/7 from any computer with an Internet connection, worldwide, to check your billing and payment information as well as make any changes to your account. You can also continue to review payment information from your credit card provider."
Let me translate this email from Vonage-ese into English.
Hey man,
Listen, we know that every time you get a bill from us you're reminded of how crappy our service is and you think that this month will be the month that you decide to cancel or transfer your line to one of our competitors.
We completely understand that but we're not going to make it that easy for you. So starting next month we're not going to tell you that you've been socked with another overpriced charge for voip service.
Put yourself in our shoes, if you had a crappy voip service that doesn't even allow calls from your local area from landline phones to reach your phone number, you'd be figuring out ways to retain customers too. I mean, come on, it's only like $150 a month that you pay us, that's mice nuts, right?!
Well, I'm going to take care of Vonage cause I'm fed up with marketing ploys on crappy service.
Posted By Jason Dowdell at 10:01 AM
Permanent Link: Vonage Gets Sneaky With Subscription Revenue
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(14) Comments on Vonage Gets Sneaky With Subscription Revenue
Wow, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed today!!!
Seriously, what happened to make you so bitter!!! I have had vonage for almost a year now and have had no problems. As for your lie about being over priced, they are one of the cheapest of the main stream VoIP providers. I had Optimum Voice before Vonage (cablevision's VoIP) and the charged $10 MORE per month and I had frequent issues with one way audio.
And come one, $150 a month!!!! How many lines do you have?!?!? There unlimited plan only costs like $29 after tax.
Next time you have some lies to spew try prefacing it with a great big title of FICTION!! DO NOT TAKE LITERALLY!!!!
As for the issue of no more monthly email, well that's up to personal taste, you don;t need an email to remind you that your paying for something every month, I get a credit card statement every month that tells me that, and I don't know about you but I tent to read my Credit Card statements more than emails.
Try a big cup of sugar to get rid of all that bitterness you have in your mouth.
Comments by Michael : Thursday, October 19, 2006 at 11:37 AM
Ouch my feelings hurt. Michael, you should probably spell check your email next time you enter it in a comment form. Hope that generic templated layout works out great for you and all of your potential clients.
Comments by Jason : Thursday, October 19, 2006 at 02:29 PM
Well Jason, since you have no legitimate response you have to try and bash my website. It seems you still have a problem with your facts, see, I designed my website, I'm not saying it's a grand master piece or anything but it is mine, I have the PSD files and all. If you have seen another one that looks just like it I would be very interested to see it my self, pass along the URL please!!!
Unless you’re talking about my blog, in which case, yup, you caught me, it's a template, I've been too busy with my clients to have time to finish my own design for it. But it does not take creativity or originality to speak the truth. So please, pass along that URL of the other sites out there that look just like mine, it's been up with this design for about 4 or 5 years so if someone copied me I'm very interested. Otherwise, please stop posting lies and useless info for the public to read, you really should take more responsibility when you writing a public piece.
Comments by Michael : Thursday, October 19, 2006 at 06:47 PM
Okay Michael, you want the facts, here are the facts.
1.) I said Vonage is overpriced at $150/mo.
Truth: I have 3 business lines with Vonage, each using the "Premium Unlimited Business Plan" which is 49.99 a month, add $4.99 for a toll free number on one of those plans, taxes of $8.08 and you get a total of $63.08 per month for my first line. The second two don't have the 800 number so each of those are $58.07. Adding up those three lines is $179.20 per month. So when I said $150 was overpriced, I was actually understating my charges.
2.) You say that it only costs $29 a month after tax.
Truth: If you have a business line you start off at either $39.99 a month or $49.99 a month and can only go down to the $39.99 / month fee and it is not possible to switch a number that started off as a business account to a personal account after the account has been created.
3.) Why am I so bitter?
Answer: When you depend on a voip service to work 90% of the time and you find out that the Vonage voip service only works 50% of the time and you are on important calls quite frequently, it tends to become bothersome. So bothersome in fact that I had to create an account with another voip provider and I simply forward my Vonage number to that provider. Now I have much better performance and call quality issues are no longer an issue.
However, I don't like paying 2x for one phone so the task of transferring my Vonage line is not something I'm looking forward to.
Additionally, when Vonage says they allow you to have a fax line, one would assume you'd actually be able to send faxes with that line. However, I've found (using 3 separate ISPs with upload speeds of 3mbps - so there has always been plenty of bandwidth) that I can only get a fax to go through Vonage 1 out of every 50 attempts.
How much time would you spend after that 50th attempt if you only had one success? This forced me to create an account with another asp just for faxes since I don't want to purchase a land line for faxes.
I think it's fairly clear why I'm frustrated with Vonage. Vonage simply doesn't deliver on the promises it makes with regards to functionality and performance.
4.) I speak lies.
Answer: I think not. If you're interested in discussing this issue further you can email me directly, I'd be more than happy to give you answers to any of your questions. But in the future, please refrain from accusations like calling me a liar and I'll lay off the mocking of your web design capabilities.
Comments by Jason : Friday, October 20, 2006 at 09:34 AM
Hey Jason,
Sorry but if you post your response for everyone to read, then so do I.
Perhaps you should have stated most of this in your Article. You simple say that it cost $150 per month and give no explanation as to where that number comes from, the average person reading your article your would be lead to believe that Vonage cost that much every month when in fact if only costs you that much. You never mentioned that you had multiple lines let alone that they were business. If you have I would have never said anything about the price, tying giving ALL the facts when you write, even in a court of law it is considered lying when you do not give the whole truth.
And as far as the quality of service goes, I am not arguing your experience with Vonage has been disappointing, but that is you, and many others I am sure. However that is not the majority, as I said I have had Vonage for about a year now, and after trying two other VoIP services they have been the most reliable.
You also do not say anything about the fax line, again try giving your readers all of the supporting information.
I responded to the information you gave out; with out any of the supporting info, what I said is perfectly correct.
I have apparently hit a sour note with you, sorry for that, my purpose was not to start a posting war or any type of argument. I am just getting very tired of seeing all kinds of Blog writers spewing out there opinions as facts with no supporting information. You want me to stop calling you a liar, try writing with you brain and not your emotions, it will make for much better reading.
Now, as for my Design capabilities (which I am still not sure how that came into play when we were discussing Vonage). What site are you talking about, I have several? And I still don’t see any support of your accusation that it is a template.
You may have some truth in what you write, but it is clouded by injections of opinions, personal feeling and no supporting information. I know everything I have said will probably go in one ear and out the other, but I'm finished with this conversation. I have work to be done (for those clients of mine that for some odd reason hire me to design and program for them, huh imagine that even with a "generic template" website.....)
Take care Jason.
Comments by Michael : Friday, October 20, 2006 at 10:13 AM
Jason's comments are vitriolic and non-sensical. Does he have an undisclosed agenda? Probably not. Someone who continues to pay for services that are down 50% of the time just can't be very bright. After all, we are not talking AOL, here. Service termination is a simple phone call away. Personally, I have had a great experience with Vonage and I love not having to pay the huge long distance carrier bills every month.
Comments by Mike : Friday, October 20, 2006 at 02:07 PM
I'm not very bright to keep a number my business operates on, right, ok, that makes sense. Yet you continue to read and are compelled to comment.
Comments by Jason : Friday, October 20, 2006 at 02:15 PM
I'm not a big fan of Vonage either, of course my cable connection sucks but vonage doesnt do anything to help that, if i get a call, and decide to surf one web page, i get a phone full of static.
i feel his pain... skype for the win!
Comments by Kevan : Friday, October 20, 2006 at 03:56 PM
Using Vonage for 6 months at a summer house I own and I've
had virtually no problems. Thinking about bringing my Vonage gear to my regular house over the winter for a test run. If it works...GOODBYE Verizon !!!
Peter
Comments by Peter : Monday, October 23, 2006 at 11:57 AM
Jason,
Your description of vonage is true and accurate.
The worst part is you don't know that you are missing phone calls.
KEEP TELLING PEOPLE TO WATCH OUT!
Comments by alfred : Tuesday, October 24, 2006 at 03:01 PM
What was that? Did I just get a supporter?! Schweet! Thanks Alfred, I have yet to share the real details of the voip vs land line issue the masses are unaware of.
Comments by Jason : Tuesday, October 24, 2006 at 04:14 PM
Your monthly vonage bill is more like 50% less than the 150 per month you are claiming your paying. VG.
Comments by VONAGE : Wednesday, October 25, 2006 at 01:54 AM
I think you better do the math again. How many accounts are tied to my name? ;)
Comments by Jason : Wednesday, October 25, 2006 at 10:06 AM
Hello,
I have worked at vonage for over a year as a senior technician. I can tell you right now the is you are having service outages, choppy audio or dropped calls there is a 90% chance it is your internet connection. Vonage itself does not have choppy audio or dropped calls, but if your internet connection has bad bandwidth or latency issues your audio will degrade. Vonage does have tech support open 24/7, calling in and talking to a tech will only result in finding what is causing your issue. And as for the vonage Unlimited Business Plan costing $50 a month, you are not mentioning how much an Unlimited Business Plan would cost with another carrier..
Comments by Vonage Tech Support : Sunday, November 12, 2006 at 03:40 AM
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