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| Sunday, November 19, 2006 |
| Vonage Bill Creeping Up |
 It looks like my Vonage invoice has a new line item - the Federal Universal Service Surcharge - which has added $1.43 to my monthly bill. That means I am now paying $29.75 for my monthly VOIP service. Here are my charge details:
Premium Unlimited Plan .... $24.99
Regulatory Recovery Fee .... $0.99
Emergency 911 Cost Recovery .... $0.99
Federal Universal Service Surcharge .... $1.43
Sales Tax .... $1.35
Total Amount .... $29.75
Last month my bill was $28.32. Back in May I was paying $27.78 (which included the short-lived Federal Excise Tax of $0.81, but did not include the sales tax nor the federal universal service surcharge).
According to the FCC Understanding Your Telephone Bill webpage, Vonage is not required to pass along the Federal Universal Service Surcharge - but they have obviously chosen to do so. According to this post only ten states (AK, AL, CA, DE, GA, LA, MD, MT, NH, and OR) don't require Vonage to collect sales tax.
While I am not pleased to see my monthly bill increase, I am still planning on sticking with Vonage. After all, for a bit less than $30.00 a month I have unlimited local and long distance calls, voicemail, 3-way calling, call waiting, call forwarding, caller ID, etc. Much more service for a lower price than I used to receive with my landline phone company.
However, I will continue to watch the upward creep in charges. If this trend continues I may have to start exploring other options.
- Just another reason I love Vonage
- Why I love VOIP
- reduce, reduce, reduce! |
| posted by Boston Gal @ 10:05 AM *
* Subscribe to Boston Gal's Open Wallet |
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| 5 Comments: |
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I also wonder why fees and taxes for the telecomm industry are so high as a percentage of the bill...I have the Verizon $39.99 plan and can't remember paying less than $47. It's like buying something online and paying for fast shipping. I owe it to myself to shop around and atleast try to find a better deal for my minutes when my contract expires in April...I do like their service though.
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Stay with Vonage... In August, I decided to try to cut my expenses and switched to Sunrocket. It was $199 for 12 months (plus 3 months free). I thought it was a pretty good deal. However, the voice quality was absolutely awful. I'm pretty technically inclined, but I just don't have the time to get into gory details of VOIP to try to get Sunrocket to work as well as Vonage. Finally last month, I switched back to Vonage and am in the process of moving my phone number back over. Sunrocket at $17/month is a great value, but due to voice quality, I'm going back to Vonage and paying $30/month.
Moral of the story: Saving money is nice, but if I can't carry on a conversation due to poor voice quality, I'm not saving $13/month, but rather wasting $17/month.
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I think it's hit or miss with Sunrocket...I have it and love it but I know people who don't like as much. I say seeing as they have a 31 day free trial you have nothing to lose if you try it and $ to save if your like me and love it!
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I'm a Vonage customer but not a completely happy one. For one thing, voice quality is uneven. There have been several times when I've had to call people back on my cell phone because they couldn't hear me well enough over Vonage. The other thing I don't like is the 'bait and switch' quality of the federal universal service surcharge. It wasn't until I was on the plan a couple of months that they added this to the bill. However in my experience, no other phone company is any better about s*%t like this, so switching isn't much of an option.
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I have been using Lingo for about a year and a half now. I'm pretty happy with it. I have had to call people back a few times, but it really doesn't happen a lot. For $21.95 (plus all those little add-ons that you mention for Vonage), which amounts to $25.10 every months I can call local, long distance and all of Western Europe (I have family there).
I noticed they also came up with a yearly fee plan: $195/year for US, Canada and Puerto Rico. That's $16.25, or roughly $19 after taxes per month. Not bad.
Anyway... if anyone is interested, I can refer you (that's $25 back both for me and the referee)
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I also wonder why fees and taxes for the telecomm industry are so high as a percentage of the bill...I have the Verizon $39.99 plan and can't remember paying less than $47. It's like buying something online and paying for fast shipping. I owe it to myself to shop around and atleast try to find a better deal for my minutes when my contract expires in April...I do like their service though.