Packet8 Follow-up

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 In addition, I would prefer to do this so that I can be invoiced instead of having funds automatically withdrawn from my account.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!