The Speculist

Vonage works reasonably well. $24.95 (or so) a month, unlimited calls anywhere in the U.S., Canada, and an expanding list of other places.

-Jim

The Skype policy is clearly stated in black and white for those who will read it and heed it. No secret, no mystery. Sad to suggest though, that many in the US will lose their credits purchased months ago before the Free SkypeOut period for the USA and Canada was launched. All SkypeOut calls since the launch have been free and credits unused sit and will rot except spent in some other way: by a SkypeOut to a land far away or by purchasing a Ringtone or by trying out the new SMS. Ringtones $1.20, SMS $0.112, fools who disregard terms of service/policy "priceless"

Wow, Huffnhustle, you really showed me. Indeed, what I fool I am...any policy that is printed in black and white is clearly a good and moral thing, and anyone failing to take heed is clearly a fool. How nice for Skype that they're able to make a handy profit raking money off fools like me, with the added benefit that stalwarts such as yourself have their back.

Well Phil, you may have chosen option 3... however, they will probably end up losing more than that just in lost business. It only takes a few people reading this blog post and deciding to go with Vonage instead. Of course you yourself will likely go with a competitor as well. Service companies disregard customer service at their peril.

And this six-month rule is just stupid, regardless of what huffnhustle said. What kind of company doesn't keep records for seven years? It's a few bytes, the cost of keeping a customer is effectively zero. The cost of losing a customer and other potential customers through word of mouth is orders of magnitude greater.

Phones are so twentieth century.

I still have trouble processing the fact that Vonage costs $25 a month....for crying out loud, one can get decent cell service for not much more!

Does that decent cell service give you unlimited free long distance calling throughout North America?

Very, very close, actually. Communication services are one of the few heavily regulated industries where there's actually been real progress in both services and prices in the past decade. For $40/mo, you can get a heck of a cell phone plan (I have 1000 anytime and unlimited night/weekend, and have never come close to running over), and of course the mobility of a cell phone is an added fillip that a landline can't match.

It will be interesting to see how the market reacts to this. If this is something Skype only recently started doing, then it wouldn't be too surprising to see a bit of an act of contrition from them in the coming weeks. If this is something that has actually been going on for a while now, however, and Phil just now found out about, then it's likely the smart money in the market has already factored in the effects of that business practice. (Doesn't change the fact that it's pretty darn annoying, of course.)