On my door step today is the "current" edition of the Qwest phone book. I find it interesting that this is even printed anymore.

Oh, I know that people use it. I know that some people actually don’t have the internet. Not those in the circle I roll with, mind you, but I know they exist.

But still, I question the relevance of a phone book. I especially question the relevance of a phone book from one company.

You see, I have been so unhappy with Qwest, that I haven’t been a customer of theirs in three years. I know many people who have phones that aren’t Qwest customers. With wireless providers offering unlimited minutes, Cable getting in to VoIP (at a ridiculously high price, mind you) and all of the real VoIP providers like Packet8, Vonage, Phone.com and VoIP.com the percentage of customers that companies, like Qwest, have to put in the phone book is dwindling.

Because I haven’t been all that happy with VoIP providers, I have opted to use my cell phone with unlimited minutes for my communication. (I have to admit that my home phone is still a VoIP provider… no plugs because they aren’t great).

Here is what I am getting at. More and more customers are leaving traditional phone companies for other forms of communication. Not only that, phone numbers change. As fast the book gets printed, there are already changes.

I thought, maybe, the online form of the "phone book" at http://www.dexknows.com would have more data than just for Qwest. I am not listed because I am not their customer. So, I thought that I would check at http://www.yellowpages.com/ but, the same Corey Smiths show up on their list for Idaho. I thought that I would try out http://www.yellowbook.com/… they have two more listings for Corey Smith, but I am still not on the list. I wonder if, for the most part, they are just using the same database… could be.

At least I am on the first page at Google.

So, the phone book becomes obsolete the moment it is printed and even their online services don’t contain the phone number for people that aren’t their customer (not to mention people that opt out).

So, what is the purpose? Why does it exist? Why do people still use it?

At least I have some free fire kindling now.

I received an email from another VoIP provider that found my post on Why Not Packet8. The message was from someone from the management team at Phone.com (how about that for a great url?)

What impressed me was the even though they found my email from my blog and could have launched into a sales pitch, it was more of, "Hey, I noticed you have a problem here… let me know what we can do to help." I liked that approach.

So, I commented that I didn’t really understand why a softphone was such an issue. It doesn’t make sense to me. I mean, I have used it on a locally hosted VoIP system, so why in the world would it be hard on an internet hosted system. Alon Cohen, one of the partners was kind enough to respond. It has some great information that I asked if he wouldn’t mind letting me post. So, I have posted it at the end of my comments here… unedited.

I haven’t tried their service yet because they don’t have a soft phone, so for what I want, it probably won’t work. Their willingness to communicate with me was so compelling I think that I will try it out with a land line and let you know how it works. They did offer me to write something about a new product they are going live with in a few weeks (risky since I wasn’t so nice to their competitors). I think I will take them up on that when it comes out.

Any way, here is the content from Anon’s email. I think it contains valuable information about how softphones work and probably points out why I have some of the frustrations that I have.

I want to start by saying the so far Skype outdone all the others in terms of quality, even though I believe they have outsourced that from a German company at least in the early days of Skype. The above means that in spite of what I am going to write, the task of making a good Softphone is not easy but also not impossible.

The problem with a Softphone is that the environment in which it operates if very unstable with many variables. Unknown CPU power, unknown Mic and speaker gain parameters, unknown audio device, unknown audio device drivers, unknown load on the computer at any given moment, unknown amount of memory on the system, unknown internet connection quality, and so on. Sometimes people don’t even have a microphone but let’s leave those aside.

To really get a Softphone right you need to start with a good audio handling. For that you need a good audio system on your computer i.e. good microphone that does not pick up noises from the disk, good speakers and low delay audio drivers and hardware. Add to that a decent CPU power and you can start with the most basic requirement which is Echo cancellation. Without Echo cancellation you will be annoying the other callers or suffer constant feedback. I don’t accept a headset as solution for echo, it is just not convenient.

Echo cancellation or AEC takes significant CPU power and is delicate process, the CPU power is usually needed for a Wideband Codec (like the one used by Skype) low CPU power narrow band Codecs will be sufficient to make a call to standard telephony systems PSTN, but will not have any benefits when working with another Softphone on the other end.

The next step is dealing with internet connectivity, which instantly tests the Softphone jitter buffer capabilities which determines the latency of the call. I use at my house wifi N router with a 802.11 B Bridge for my VoIP hard phone and I am getting very good results, but wifi or hotel LAN are seldom reliable. Jitter Buffer handling technologies exist on any VoIP hard phone, and eventually deal with all the other problems like packet loss. Those technologies on a hard phone handle the network problems, on a PC however they need to also deal with many issue that the OS creates. Windows is not a real-time operating system and the last thing you want is for the OS to add artificial jitter to the pacts arrival times when the OS decides to access the disk or open outlook. Mishandling of the Jitter or large jitter translates to unacceptable latency and voice breakups.

All the above, translate to patents and royalties and cost for each copy of a Softphone. You probably see the same news we all see where each month another VoIP company is settling yet another patent infringement. The other cost aspect which is associated with Softphone is the usually the unlimited plans and high hacking probability which means additional cost associated with handling fraud.

As you can see all this is not trivial, and hence there are few good soft phones available – I am still looking. I hope that PC manufacturers will create some standard for the audio system that they can call VoIP ready and hence some of those problems will go a way and will make the task of developing a good Softphone much easier in the future.

Personally I often use skype and skype-out with my skype friends and when I travel.

As I joined Phone.com and got my own VoIP hard phone, I used that as my main communication tool from home, every time I dial, the speed and the sound quality are so significantly better that I simply don’t use PSTN anymore.

Since I always travel with my Cellular PDA Smart Phone, I use the Phone.com service to direct my office calls to my cell in case I don’t pick up at my desk phone. I also directed my home numbers (which I transferred to Phone.com using LNP) to my cell phone. I also use Phone.com to collect all my voicemails (which ever they come from e.g. office, home or cell) from my e-mail on my PDA Smart Phone, so all in all, the need for a Softphone is really reduced. It is possible that VoIP companies realize that and simply decide to invest fewer efforts on the Softphone business.

 

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

In my search for VoIP, I decided to check out Skype as an option for VoIP. I figured that I am always on Skype… it only made sense to use it as a soft phone.

I looked at their services and pricing and noticed that they have Skype Pro, Skype Credit and you can get a local number. What I couldn’t tell was how all the pricing and services worked together. You can get a "personal online number" (which took a little to understand that it was likely a phone number) for $6 per month. But, I couldn’t tell if I also needed to get Skype Pro for an additional $3 per month. Then, If I got those two services, would I then need to also buy Skype to add minutes?

Well, on their website, there is no way to really understand that as far as I could figure out. I think that I have a reasonable understanding, but not 100% clear.

I thought that if I could just sign up, the answer would be more clear. At the point of entering my PayPal information, I realized that I still didn’t really understand, so I went to their contact page and found a phone number.

I called the online store… I figured since I was buying product, that made sense.

I was told that the online store couldn’t help but if I would call the Skype voice team they could help me. When I asked if he could transfer me or give me the number, he said, they can’t receive phone calls.

So, I guess I can’t call. I was ready to buy that moment if I could get an immediate answer.

I asked what the Skype address was so that I could just use instant messaging. They don’t have a way to use instant messaging in their pre-sales efforts.

What? A company based on instant communication doesn’t have a way to communicate instantly with people who are ready to give them money?

You can call toll free numbers for free, so I thought I would at least try the service to see if it merited further investigation. I guess my 8Mb connection isn’t enough for them because I dropped my first call.

So, Skype I’ll continue to use for instant messaging and video, but I won’t pay for their voice service.

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

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

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

So, I have been searching for the right VoIP connection for my home-based business. I am not interested in Qwest… not in the least. My Cable provider has an expensive service that doesn’t really fit my needs.

My needs are simple. I want a softphone that can ring at the same time another phone rings. I don’t need a fancy business system because everyone else I work with pays for their own phones… I don’t have to transfer and I don’t have to worry about business phone needs. I have been with Packet8.net for three years now, so I thought that I should start looking there.

The experience started about a week ago.

I spent some time on a chat session with someone at Packet8. This person told me that if I wanted to have a softphone to work, I would simply need to download and associate a calling plan with it.

I didn’t feel very confident about the conviction to his answers, so I wasn’t sure exactly what to think. I figured the truth had to be somewhere in what he was saying, but I just didn’t have time then to figure it out.

Last Night.

First, I went to the Packet8 site and downloaded their softphone software. Every time I tried to input my account information because I was an existing customer, it told me my account didn’t exist. I thought maybe I had forgotten my password, so I asked for a reminder. After four times asking for a reminder, I finally figured out that the account I had wouldn’t work.

I had to set up a new account.

Finally, after about 45 minutes of trying, I could download the free software. I couldn’t tie it into my existing number and I couldn’t dial out or receive calls from PSTN lines, so I clicked the little “Upgrade” button at the top of the software. It takes me to the Packet8 website and I get the following message:

Thank you for your interest in the Packet8 Softalk Premium Service. Packet8 has announced that it is immediately suspending its residential Packet8 Softalk Premium service.

Oh, that’s annoying. And just plain stupid. I just need a softphone. In fact, if I can’t get it to ring in two places at once, I’d settle for just a softphone that works.

Because I am a far more patient man than any customer should be, I decided to give Packet8 another chance. I left them an email message to contact me.

This morning

I get a call from a Senior Sales Rep who was very helpful at the beginning. At this point, I knew that Vonage had a service that would work for me for only $25 per month. I talked with the sales rep (I’ll leave his name out of it) for about 15 minutes. I explained what I wanted and he explained how the service worked. There were a lot of acronyms thrown around, so it was a good thing I understand the VoIP business, or I might have been lost. After all, I implemented VoIP at my last office.

In the end, he told me that he could get me what I wanted for $35 per month. Not bad… only $10 more per month than their competitor. I figured that I could negotiate a little because at the bottom of every plan description on their site, is the cute little statement, “We will match any competitor quote.” Unfortunately, I assumed that meant they would match competitor pricing.

So, I mentioned that Vonage had the softphone service for only $25 per month and he acted as though that was simply not possible. He started to talk about an auto-attendant that he offered until I pointed out that I didn’t care about an auto-attendant… I just need a phone.

When he indicated that he didn’t keep up on his competitors, I directed him to their website. As he was looking at their website, he started to comment on a patent infringement lawsuit that Vonage was going through right now. (I thought he didn’t keep up on his competitors.) He then pointed out that he couldn’t compare a residential service to business service.

In the end, it felt like I was spending my energy arguing because I wanted to know what he could do and not what he thought of his competitor. After spending far more time than I should have to get a stupid little phone, I finally told him that I think I may just be done with Packet8. For three years, I have had similar experiences to this. It reminds me of my countless hours arguing with Qwest.

Bottom Line.

No customer should have to guess as to what the service is. No customer should have to wonder how it works. No customer should have to explain needs, get the wrong answer, explain needs again then get an argument that the competitor is infringing on a patent. This after already spending way too much time trying to figure it out.

So, my vote for Packet8 right now… a resounding NO.

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