BellSouth, 8x8 launch VoIP service

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BellSouth has terrible service and a bad history

While, this seems like a good thing. I feel the reason many people are choosing services like Vonage is more than all the services and low costs. I think many people flat out hate BellSouth and their horrible service. In dealing with their DSL services, I have found they take forever to get back to you; always treat you like you are in the wrong; they are prone to billing errors; and they took two years to return my money on a DSL order when their service did not work and this took a complaint to the Better Business Bureau. Another issue is more subtle, because of the recent bad economy and general low incomes of many people in the South Florida area many people have become delinquent on Bellsouth accounts. They are really vicious about this, if they so much as think the name on account looks like one they have in delinquency they will freeze the account or worse still charge the account and mail a letter after the fact. Once this almost happened to me. I was placing an order for new phone service, when the sales woman politely asked me if I would be transferring my old account to this one. Now I like most people would have said ?yes? to this except at the time this was the first account I had had in years in my own name and so I thought it was probably a mistake and I told them I did not have an account to transfer. Lucky me, because she then said, ?So you are not so and so who used to live at so and so address?? That was when I realized what she was trying to do and I got worried that someone may have used my information as I had never lived anywhere near where she said. I asked her if someone had used my information. She then said that someone with my same name in Hialeah opened an account and it was delinquent. Now, while my name is rare, I have at least one cousin with the exact same name so I thought it was odd they would just do it like that but they do. From others I have found out that when they do this they just throw the entire tab on the bill and cut off the phone so I was lucky. Now even if it was me, I feel services should not be linked in this way but I know that they link phone and DSL so I am sure VOIP will be linked too. Think about what would have happened had they owned the water main. People get in debt sure that is why we have a credit rating, but that is as far as it should go. Linking is like public shunning. Services like Vonage has given many people in Florida a fresh start. I am quite sure that Bellsouth will not do the same. Something else that just galls me is the fact that they are charging so little for the full gambit of services on a VOIP phone compared to their Complete Choice plan which runs in the upper 40s depending on the deals you get. Now for those of us in the know, it is quite obvious that in-house most data is sent over IP anyways and the software for these services is nearly identical at the exchange level. It is basically how the end points are dealt with that truly differ for them. So why is it they can virtually dissolve these costs? The truth is that while they were a monopoly in the area they sucked the average consumer dry with dime and nickel charges. Did you know they used to charge rent on those old rotary dial phones for $5 a month and did so for decades after they knew most such phones could not (as in rust and age) be being used any more? Many older people had no idea they were still being be charged this fee it just kept staying on their bill from home to home from year to year and often ran into the thousands of dollars. Does anyone think they will no fall back to these types of behaviors should they gain enough power in the market again. What makes it particularly irritating is the fact they can bundle DSL and VOIP cheaply as they own both while others have to sub lease there lines from them. That means they get to undercut the market. This was made worse because the FCC in its infinite wisdom is starting to let them charge for priority over their lines and thus implicitly letting them enhance the quality of their own VOIP services over that of their competitors. Basically this stinks to high heaven. I think that phone companies should once again be treated like they do banks, stock brokers, and energy. With strong regulations either keeping the markets separate or mandating equal service and pricing. Otherwise, they will use their power to monopolize the industry and over charge everyone again.

Posted by: alricsca   Posted on: 01/09/06 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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