untaggedLooking to switch our phone service from Verizon to Vonage. Vonage is pushing business hard.
Our office is on home Verizon service b/c they charge extra for business but provide no additional features.
On one call they refused to let me talk to the Home dept once I mentioned that ONE of the two lines.
I certainly can’t disallow someone from buying the Home version of our software (or at least I would not).
No. But they can prevent you from signing up for a plan if you do not meet their target criteria.
First, why do you want to use Vonage? There are so many VOIP providers and you can use any one you want. Here are a few.
Vonage (like many other unscrupulous VOIP providers) uses the "unlimited" marketing trick to make you think you can use as much service as you'd like. This is not true. You are only allowed to use a certain number of minutes based on their expectations of normal use plus a buffer. Once you exceed the limit and buffer, they can and will limit your service. You can view Section 5D of the Vonage terms to get a flavor of these restrictions. Of course, they don't define the exact limits because then the plans wouldn't be "unlimited." They are "unlimited" as long as you don't exceed what they (secretly) consider normal use.
Of course, not everyone will use the same number of minutes. There are certain types of users (specifically residential vs business users) that will have different use characteristics. Business users will, on average, use more minutes than residential users. By segregating the two, Vonage is able to have two different sets of expectations for the "unlimited" gimmick. They can be more strict on the cheap Home plans and be more leinant on the expensive Business plans. This will minimize the number of people they have to limit which helps to minimize churn. It will also give them the ability to offer cheaper plans for low-use residential users which helps with customer acquisition. By segregating, they are ultimately able to maximize profit. And that is perhaps why they are so strict.
I suggest you look around at other VOIP providers and compare their offers to Vonage. There are many that offer pay-per-minute or defined-limit plans that may come out cheaper than unlimited plans (sometimes even if you assume 24/7 use). VOIP is an extremely competitive market and unlike phone service, you can literally use any provider you'd like. There is no reason to use the expensive provider that spends tons on advertising when there are so many others offering a better value.
Personally, I use CallCentric which is competitively priced and transparent about its plans. However, there are many great VOIP providers.
All content is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.