Why is it that companies want their customers to be duped into making a decision? Why can’t they just tell it like it is?

As you know, I have been researching VoIP providers. I have been trying to compare service quality as well as price. I want to make sure that I get the best service for the price.

It is not easy.

Receiving information from Packet8 that conveniently obscures that: "The service plan includes 200 minutes incoming and outgoing calls within U.S. and Canada. Additional minutes will be billed at 3.5 cents per minute, with outgoing international minutes billed at the current Packet8 international rates."

Finally noticing at Vonage the hidden pricing (that was also conveniently left out of several emails asking for the information) that: "You get 500 minutes of US nationwide long distance and calls to Canada every month. Only 3.9¢ per minute after the first 500 monthly minutes."

As a consumer, how do you feel when you really try to do your due diligence only to find that there was something obscured, hidden or simply obfuscated? How can you be expected to know what you are buying if you aren’t given all the information? How can you be expected to be a long-time customer that is willing to tell everyone how great the service and pricing is, if you are duped into buying something that you didn’t understand because you didn’t ask the exact, right question?

If you don’t like this as a consumer, don’t make your customers go through this either.

Corey Smith is the Chief Web Architect for Dealer Marketing Systems.

Get ready, this is a long one, but I think it will be worth the read.

I mentioned before that I am not interested in recommending Packet8.net. I have been a customer of theirs for three years have had some not-so-pleasant experiences. I also have mentioned that I was giving them a second chance. I thought I would share the experience of the second chance.

During my initial conversation, I was told that to get the price to the $25 that I wanted, they couldn’t help me given the structure of their system. However, a few hours after my post, I received a quote that indicated the pricing could be had.

Here is the quote as I received it. (You may need to save rather than open… it is a .xls file)

My first thought, “Okay, I thought we could come to an agreement!”

But, as you can imagine, I still had a couple of questions. Here are the questions that I had.

1. Can you give me a very brief description of the difference between virtual attendant and auto-attendant? Depending on the differences, I may choose to add that feature for only $5.
2. To verify, this includes unlimited in-bound and out-bound minutes in the United States and Canada? Does that include Hawaii?
3. I have another account, can I get referral credit on that account?
4. Do I need to include the e911 service? I have other phones in my home, so I will never use 911 with this system.
5. You have a promo start up cost that is more expensive than the total start up costs.
6. If I pay a year in advance, is there a discount? I know that on the residential side there is. In addition, I would prefer to do this so that I can be invoiced instead of having funds automatically withdrawn from my account.
7. When you send quotes like this, you should make sure to protect this sheet so that items aren’t changed on you.

I tend to think that for a quote to be complete, this information should be included. But, I was surprised at the response I received via email… because you know that I want to communicate via email with people that want to sell me internet-based technologies:

You have your informational quote. Any further discussion on the topic, I prefer to be by voice.

“Hmmm…” I thought. Not exactly the response I expected. I commented that it wasn’t informational if I didn’t have all the information I need to make my decision. The response again surprised me.

I will gladly discuss it with you, but I do not have time for email. I can talk quicker than I type.

I can respect that he can talk more quickly than he can type, but I can read faster than he can talk… plus, I don’t want to talk to a salesman who is going to try to convince me of something I don’t want. I want terms and conditions written so that I can have something to fall back on.

I can’t imagine that written terms and conditions should be too much to ask for.

When I emailed back that I would be available to talk in a couple of weeks, the response I received was:

So be it, please call me at your convenience to schedule some time. I work with over 50 different businesses a day. I will do my best to be available when you are.

I thought that was odd, but that is what ended up causing me to start shopping for other services. That is when I decided to look at VoIP.com, Vonage, RingCentral (not blog worthy, I have used them in the past. They have a good service, but are just a little high in price) and a few others.

As you can imagine from the last response I received, I figured the salesman simply wrote me off… didn’t want my business. He wasn’t willing to communicate the way I wanted to communicate. He didn’t want to answer my simple questions that should have been included in the original quote.

To my surprise, a couple of days later, I received an answer to my 7 questions. I was amazed. I figured they were done with me.

For items 1, 3, 4, 6 and 7 I received very technical answers… no point in posting them here… they aren’t of much interest. Here are the answers that were of a surprise to me (with my thought as I read them in parenthesis and in bold next to them).

2) The service plan includes 200 minutes incoming and outgoing calls within U.S. and Canada. Additional minutes will be billed at 3.5 cents per minute, with outgoing international minutes billed at the current Packet8 international rates. (Isn’t this kind of important? Shouldn’t I know that the price I received via quote was incomplete because it didn’t contain this information?)

5) The difference in prices you see are to reflect the additional charge of California taxes. No offense to you, but when I get a customer that is uncooperative and wants things done their way, and I am unable to ascertain the necessary information to provide them with the necessary quote, I have to protect the company I work for, undoubtedly. I have, however attached a quote that reflects the proper information for your locality in Idaho. At the time I had not been afforded the time to perform a reverse look up of your phone number and the practice is better safe than sorry. (No offense? He called me uncooperative because I wanted to communicate via email? I sent an initial request for information via email… shouldn’t that have been a clue? The only reason he didn’t have time to do the reverse lookup was because he didn’t take the time. I never stopped him from doing that.)

At the end of the email, I read the following:

I think you were a little premature in your Blog, and I would appreciate a retraction. If we offered a Residential SoftTalk that we could compare to the original reference to Vonage, I would gladly price match, but we do not offer a product like that at those prices because we simply want to stay in business.

There are other products that should be included to ensure you have the experience you desire with Packet8 using our SoftTalk Office product, call me if you care to discuss them. (remember, I didn’t want to talk on the phone… I thought I made that clear. If there are products that should have been included, shouldn’t they have been so that I could have had a complete quote?)

Well, I was a bit surprised… as you can imagine. I don’t think that asking for the terms and conditions of a contract should be construed as uncooperative. Especially when it would appear that my first quote would not have addressed what I needed.

I sent my final email back with the following response:

Seems to me that there are additional costs associated here that weren’t included in the original quote (i.e. the incoming and outgoing minutes cost of $.035 and the items from your last paragraph). Sounds like I was sent an incorrect quote.

In addition, I don’t know that I am being uncooperative. I think that I have given Packet8 fair opportunity to earn extra business. I have been told false information from a person at Packet8 via chat regarding the soft phone basic. I spent far too much time trying to set it up based on that person. When I spoke with you on the phone, you insisted that Vonage shouldn’t be a viable comparison because of patent infringement (and that wasn’t even an infringement on Packet8 technologies… it was Verizon’s technologies so your comments should have never been made). Even with that frustration, I agreed to give you another chance.

When I indicated that I don’t want to communicate via phone, your response was, “So be it.” That sounds to me like a sales rep being a little uncooperative. I don’t adhere to the opinion that the customer is always right. I believe that communication has to be a two-way street. However, I do believe that the customer should dictate the medium of communication.

As far as my blog is concerned. I was not premature. I had already spent far too much time on this. You must not fully appreciate the challenges that I have had with Packet8 or the time that I have put into trying to give Packet8 more of my business. It is a problem I have had off and on with Packet8 for three years. You never told me anything incorrect when it comes to the Residential SoftTalk Premium service. Someone from your chat line did that. I made the mistake of trusting that person. I will post a follow-up on my blog, but it won’t be a retraction. You are welcome to comment there any dissenting opinions. I believe in transparency in business, so as long as your comments are professional, I will not block them. Had you resolved my concerns regarding Packet8 in our email communications, I would have gladly posted a very positive follow-up.

Because it would now appear that not only will it cost more than the quote indicated because of the extra per minute charge, but “There are other products that should be included to ensure you have the experience you desire with Packet8 using our SoftTalk Office product” that were not included on the quote, I don’t think I am interested in this at all.

You may be interested to know that not only is your service not exactly what it seems to be, nor is Vonage’s service. Comparison is far too complicated with hidden costs such as only having 200 minutes included in the service with an extra per minute charge.

So, the answer for Packet8 is still a resounding NO!

Corey Smith is the Chief Web Architect for Dealer Marketing and maintains news for the copier, printer and document management industries.

Well, who’d thought getting a simple softphone for my computer would be such an adventure? I sure didn’t. I was sure that it would be an easy process.

After my experience with Packet8.net (they still want a second chance… I’ll let you know how that goes) and my experience with VoIP.com, I was getting a little frustrated. It was time to try Vonage. I figured that they must be good… after all, they sure tell me that on the TV all the time, and a message like that has got to be true? Right?

Learning about the service.

I sent a few emails back and forth through the day that had the normal questions… Can you do this, can you do that? How do I know it will work? Yada yada yada.

At first, I couldn’t find anything, anywhere on their site about the softphone service, but I was sent to this link.Through all the emails, I received enough confidence that I should try them out on their trial program.

Trying to sign up.

So, I go to their site. I was assured in an email that in order to get the softphone, all I had to do was sign up for the service and then after the service was going, I would just need to add the softphone. I spent a few minutes trying to get signed up, but the only options required that I either buy some device or use a device I purchased from the store.

I didn’t want a device they provided because then I would be locked into a 1 year contract. I didn’t want to get a device from the store because I didn’t need a device. I didn’t want their VPhone because I didn’t want to pay the $40 for the little USB phone since I just wanted software. Plus, I can’t use my USB Gaming Headphones which provide superior call quality with that stupid little thing.

I tried for a few minutes online and finally broke down and called them… and you know how much I love that.

The Call.

So, I called them. When I told the girl that answered what I wanted to do… namely sign up for service but not use a device… just use a softphone, she didn’t know how to do that, so I had to wait while she found out the procedure. I only waited about three minutes, so it wasn’t too bad.

When she got back on the phone, she said, "No problem, let’s get you signed up!"

I was ready to go. She got my area code, address, name, and other vital stats (not the credit card info, yet). She then said, "It will be $24.99 for the main, unlimited phone line and then another $9.99 for the softphone."

"Huh?" was my response.

She repeated.

I couldn’t figure it out. Why would I have to pay extra for a softphone? It uses the same, exact technology that a regular phone uses. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Then, I went back to the "link" and looked to see what I had missed. Sure enough, hidden under a link was the following:

Get a $9.99/month Soft Phone Plan. You get 500 minutes of US nationwide long distance and calls to Canada every month. Only 3.9¢ per minute after the first 500 monthly minutes.

Aside from the fact that the information shouldn’t have been hidden on the page, I said, "I don’t get it. You are telling me that the only phone I am going to have is this softphone, which uses the same technology as the devices you sell, and I have to pay an additional $9.99 per month… on top of that, when I go over 500 minutes, I have to pay your more on a service I am already paying on?"

She said, "Yes. Or you can get the VPhone."

I wasn’t so pleased.

Conclusion.

Hidden pricing. Stupid business model. Misapplication of technology.

Makes for an unhappy customer.

Man, there has got to be an easier way.

So, Vonage… Nope.

Corey Smith
Co-founder of Resumango where you can build a better resume for free

I have a lot of conversations with clients and prospective clients about pictures. They want great looking pictures on their website and in their marketing materials.

I can understand that.

What I find that can be a little annoying is the over use of stock photography. Stock photos are great. You can get some pretty amazing photos that can capture your intent quite well… it is often that the same photography that you choose is also the photography that someone else will put on their website or in their marketing materials.

I am a firm believer in transparency. I believe in letting everyone know the real you. I believe that from a process perspective to a problem perspective and what you are doing to fix those problems.

One thing that really fosters trust from your clients is when you can show them the real you. Or even better, the real client / customer referral.

I have recommended to many clients that in order for the customer reference to be as effective as possible, we really need to see actual pictures of that reference. we need to be able to see who the person is… not a fake face double.

The most common response I get is, "Well, our customers (or sales people or staff) are great people and we love them, but they really aren’t the most photogenic people around."

In my opinion, that is why you don’t want to use stock photography… they aren’t real people. I think Jerry Seinfeld said it best when he was asked what percentage of the population was good looking. He said, "5% - 10% tops… have you been to the DMV?"

The fact is, nobody fits the ideal and your customers understand that. They understand that far better than you trying to fool them into thinking that your staff or current customer list is full of beautiful people.

So, get off your high-horse, pay a few dollars for a professional photographer and get some pics of your people on your site.

Corey Smith
Co-founder of Resumango where you can build a better resume for free

So, I mentioned last week that I am not happy with Packet8.net. They have asked for a second chance. I’ll let you know how that works out.

But, I know that I shouldn’t put all my eggs in one basket so I decided to look around for other services.

Voip.com has a softphone service that I signed up for. Here is my experience:

What Impressed Me.

Unlimited calling for $14.95 per month. With no set up cost.

I was also very pleased that the first month was free. Not a, “Pay for your first month, and if you don’t like it, we’ll give you a refund.” It was a no payment up-front option.

Where it started to go downhill.

After I started the account, I clicked on the download button in my account and it was a broken link. I had to go out of my account page to find the download. Finally I got the softphone installed, received my phone number and got everything to work… or so I thought.

I found that I could call out with no problem. My friend indicated that the quality was good and that he thought it would do.

I had him call me and the call didn’t come through. It went to my voice mail.

I fiddled with it and tried again. No luck.

User Forums.

So, my next step was to contact support. They have user forums, so I looked there first. I read through countless posts about people who had problems, but there didn’t seem to be a resolution. I was a little concerned when by noon there were already 50 problem requests in the user form.

There was something in a few of the forums about firewall blocking, but there was no indication as to what ports to open up or how to make it work.

I tried to post my own question in the forum to get an answer, but I had to login to post. When I used my username and password, it wouldn’t let me in. Maybe it required a different account for the forums… it wasn’t easy to understand.

Calling them.

I finally decided to give them a call… which I absolutely hate having to do. You shouldn’t have to call for support on an internet based service.

When I went to the contact form of the page, I had to answer a few question first. I am sure that the goal was to limit the number of callers that get through, but it was a pain. I knew that I couldn’t get it to work. I knew that I needed support.

When I finally got the number and called, I was number 2 in the queue. I was number 2 in the queue for about 10 minutes then I was number 1 in the queue for another 10 minutes.

The gentleman that answered the phone was nice enough, but didn’t understand the product and had no point answering for technical support. As we started to talk about the issue I was having, he decided that he wanted to recreate it… good idea. He called my number and experience the same problem. His response was that it seemed as though the service was being blocked.

I knew that.

I asked him how to fix the blocking problem on my router. He wasn’t exactly sure. I told him the forums were less than helpful on this subject. Then he said, “The person in the forum… I can’t remember his name… he is the one that is responsible for the product. He is the one you should ask.”

hmmmmm.

I told him that it really shouldn’t be this hard. It should be an easy process. I told him that if I couldn’t figured it out relatively soon, then I would have to cancel the service.

To my surprise, he said, “I don’t blame you.”

At least there was honesty in his answer. He recognized that if it was hard, I shouldn’t be responsible to pay or even have the service.

So, since he couldn’t help, forums couldn’t help and my knowledge wasn’t enough, I canceled the account.

In the end.

This service seemed to have good sound quality for what I needed… but only worked on outbound calls for me. Seven digit calling doesn’t seem to exist. I couldn’t figure out how to call into my voicemail. I couldn’t get any semblance of technical support.

It may sound a little arrogant to say, but I consider myself a reasonably smart person when it comes to internet technologies. I figure if I can’t figure it out, then there must be a decent number of other people that can’t.

So, no to VoIP.com.

Corey Smith
Co-founder of Resumango where you can build a better resume for free

I flew into Honolulu last night on a much needed vacation… but the mind of a blogger never rests.

My wife and I were waiting at carousel D6 for our bags. After we had been waiting for about 15 minutes… marveling that so many bags go unclaimed while so many people stand and wait for their bags to appear, we heard an interesting announcement.

“For your convenience, passengers on flight 1865 can pick up their bags on either carousel D6 or D7.”

Did I get that right? Now, I am responsible to check two different carousels? How do I know which to check? How is that convenient for me?

So, I walked over to D6 and my wife stayed at D7.

Was it really for my convenience? I don’t think so. I think it was for the convenience of the baggage handlers. However, it doesn’t seem too customer friendly to say, “Sorry, we messed up. Now you’ll have to look in two places for your baggage.”

Corey Smith is the Chief Web Architect for Dealer Marketing Systems.

When I shop, I really don’t like to talk to anyone from sales until I understand what it is I want. Then, I only want to talk with them to fulfill the order. That is why when I go to the store, I get frustrated when the commissioned sales person asks if there is anything they can help me find. (But, admittedly, I am a hypocrite, because I also get a little upset when they don’t flock to me the instant I need them).

So, because of this attitude of mine… this complicated dichotomy of how I view people should interact with me, I prefer to do much of my research and shopping online. I get to be all by myself until I need someone and then I get to engage the sales staff when I am ready.

The real problem I have with so much online shopping places is the lack of proper communication options for me. I personally don’t want to talk with a sales person on the phone. I don’t want to call. I don’t want to get a call back. I am on the internet because I want privacy. I want to be a part of my own little world until which point I am willing to purchase and give you my personal information.

When I shop, I want an instant chat button… you know, you can get them for cheap… in some cases, free. I want to be able to contact the reseller for a couple of questions online. If that is not available, I’ll settle for an email, but I don’t want a response that says, "We received your email, give us a call and we’ll discuss." There was a reason I sent the email in the first place… I didn’t want to talk to you.

With the internet comes 24 hour shopping. What that means is that when people are working in the middle of the day, they want to have 24 hour access to the companies they buy from. People understand that this is not always possible, so they are willing to send an email and wait until the next night after work to get a response.

Here’s the deal. Let me talk to you the way I want to. If I don’t want to call, don’t make me. If you do, you may just lose my business.

For my clients, however, if you want a call, you have my number. Call anytime. If it is too late in the night, you’ll know because I just won’t answer the phone. But, you may be surprised to get a "hello" at 1am and again at 8am the next morning. If you want to text me, let me know and I’ll set you up with my Skype account. If you want to use a social networking tool, fine, no problem. Your are my client, you get to choose how we communicate. I will never be too busy to talk to you the way you want to communicate.

You’re the boss so you get to choose the communication method.

Corey Smith
Co-founder of Resumango where you can build a better resume for free

Matt points us to a great business card.

Now, I don’t know what this guy really did, but I would guess that he is a jack of all trades.

If you do tend to dabble in many things and don’t focus, it may not be a bad idea to go overboard to get noticed.

 
Corey Smith
Co-founder of Resumango where you can build a better resume for free

I was looking at Weather.com for some forecasts and I noticed this link next to the temperature.

It was forecasted to be rainy just three days previous. Why would they think you would be interested in tips for driving in the rain on a day that is scheduled to be sunny?

Maybe they know that forecasts aren’t ever right.

Corey Smith is the Chief Web Architect for Dealer Marketing Systems.

This is an interesting welcome to a local restaurant.

Why not just say, “Don’t come in, we really don’t want your money.”

Corey Smith
Co-founder of Resumango where you can build a better resume for free