Got rid of Verizon and ported our number over to Packet8. Took less than a week for the switch to occur. Funny thing is that verizon sent me a UPS overnight “letter” asking me to call them so they could try to keep my business. Nice of them considering the letter inside was a canned letter with nothing about me or my services in the letter. Oh well. Good by verizon.
Well I got a notice in the mail the other day (actually about a couple of weeks ago) that the AT&T calling plan I was on ( 29 ¢ a minute with no monthly charge) was going to change to having a $5.00 minumum usage requirement. Well I have had Packet8 VOIP service for 2 years now and have never ever used the AT&T in the past year. So I called them tonight to cancel the service. Was directed to some over seas call center, and the conversation sort of went like this:
ME: I would like to cancel my service with AT&T
AT&T: Um, ok, I can do that for you, but why do you want to cancel your service?
ME: Because you all are charging me for service that I do not use.
AT&T: Um, ok, would you like to switch to our $3.95 a month play with 7 ¢ a minute plan?
ME: No, I want the service canceled, I don’t use Long distance any more.
AT&T: Ok, I can cancel your service, it will just take a couple of minutes
(So after about 5 minutes)
AT&T: Ok, I have canceled your service, if you would like to use a different long distance service you will have to call your local service provider and ask them. Also would you like to switch to AT&T local and long distance plan?
ME: (Thinks to my self, how many times have I said I want to cancel my service with AT&T) NO, I just want to cancel my AT&T long distance.
AT&T: Ok, Is there anything else I can do for you
ME: No
AT&T: Have I been able to answer all your questions?
ME: Yes
AT&T: Have a good evening.
Basicly this whole deal took about 15 minutes, and he kept apologizing for wasting my time. Pretty funny.
So for any one else out there that is being raked by the Big Bell’s, and you have a decent High speed connection, I highly recommend going to VOIP if you make a lot of long distance calls. I would highly recommend Packet8 www.packet8.net for your VOIP needs. It is about the cheapest I have found, and in the 2 years I have had it only had about 3 hours of down time. They have nearly all the features of the major “Vonage” VOIP provider has but at a cheaper rate.