VoicePulse Doubles Prices Without Notice

[cliff]

From VoicePulse web site ...

SIP Origination & Termination for your PBX

• US48 as low as 1.5¢

http://www.voicepulse.com/connect/default.aspx

Most of my calls are now $.019/minute and Canadian calls almost $.05/minute. This more than doubles the cost of my VoicePulse calls or leaves me with a pre=paid deposit I can't spend.

I did not get any notice of this dramatic price increase.

Is this correct? Any comment from VoicePulse?

 

[MyKroFt]

Are you using their Sip PBX service, or their prepaid sip trunking with your own asterisk.

the Sip PBX service is the 1.5/min

sip trunking is .019/min outbound, free unlimited inbound

their current and upcoming rate files shows all of the US as .019

Myk

 

[SpaethCo]

VoicePulse previously had variable pricing per prefix ranging from 0.5c- 1.9c per minute, and you could do lookups for least-cost-routing purposes using their FlexRate API.

Now their website says pricing starts at 1.5c/min for US48 termination, however, if you download a rate sheet there isn't a single US prefix at that rate -- they are all 1.9c/min.

It's not that I feel strongly about them making this change, but they made it with absolutely no notice whatsoever.

Oh well, they've just been moved to the bottom of my US48 dialplan and I'll probably have a balance stranded there forever.

 

[MyKroFt]

if you download their rate sheet dated as of tomorrow - all US/48 locations are .019

here is some of the top of the .zip file

"PREFIX","COUNTRY","RATE"
"1201200","United States","0.0190"
"1201202","United States","0.0190"
"1201203","United States","0.0190"
"1201204","United States","0.0190"
"1201206","United States","0.0190"
"1201207","United States","0.0190"
"1201208","United States","0.0190"
"1201209","United States","0.0190"
"1201210","United States","0.0190"
"1201212","United States","0.0190"
"1201213","United States","0.0190"
"1201214","United States","0.0190"
"1201215","United States","0.0190"
"1201216","United States","0.0190"
"1201217","United States","0.0190"
"1201218","United States","0.0190"
"1201219","United States","0.0190"
"1201220","United States","0.0190"
"1201221","United States","0.0190"
"1201222","United States","0.0190"
"1201223","United States","0.0190"
"1201224","United States","0.0190"
"1201225","United States","0.0190"
"1201226","United States","0.0190"

and this is what I am being charged, verified today

Myk


and the 1.5/min pricing is for their sip pbx "service"

again go download their rate sheet

 

[cliff]

...
It's not that I feel strongly about them making this change, but they made it with absolutely no notice whatsoever.
...

It doesn't take much to notify hi tech customers today. To me, this is a little like a restaurant raising prices after taking my order.

I use least cost routing so it simply means no calls now go VoicePulse. A quick look at my call log from VoicePulse shows a few numbers I frequently call jumped from $.009/min to $.019/min after 3-21-2009. The only way these calls could have used VoicePulse is if their flex rate lookup still showed those calls cost less than $.01/min. Not worth the time to ask for a refund but telling as to how VoicePulse operates.

Anyone want to purchase some $.019/min outbound?

 

[cliff]

if you download their rate sheet dated as of tomorrow - all US/48 locations are .019

...

and the 1.5/min pricing is for their sip pbx "service"

again go download their rate sheet

I did download that file and understand it. At the same time, I downloaded my call logs and noticed VoicePulse started this increase on 03/22/2009, before they updated their own flexrate lookup.

VoicePulse gave good notice when they discontinued IAX2 and when they changed servers. They know how to give advance notice. I read about this substantial price increase on BroadBand Reports today. That's almost 3 months after they raised the price on some frequently called numbers over 110% and used their flexrate to miss-route my calls from lower cost options.

I would feel much better about VoicePulse if I got this news from them first. I still look forward to their official comment ... or correction.

 

[MyKroFt]

Well, I am going to mainly use them for inbound, they are the only provider that would bring in local DIDs for us - so far they are the only ones serving north Idaho.

I will have to find something else cheaper for outbound only - hopefully I will get my magicjack working again in asterisk - it was 19.95 a year unlimited in/out but no local - hence outbound only it was used for

Myk

 

[wardmundy]

One nice thing about SIP VoIP:

There are lots of fish in the sea...

 

[SpaethCo]

Where did you find that picture?

It's a perfect visual representation of all of the stranded account balances I have with the various pre-paid VoIP providers I've tried!

 

[dghundt]

For any accounts I have closed, I have received refunds of the balance.

 

[troycarpenter]

Interesting. I just did a report on my calls from VoicePulse. I don't see the rate change to 0.019 consistantly until 6/7/09 (and that was around 10:00 at night...the previous call at 8:30 still was at the lower rate). Before that a majority of my calls were all 0.006.

Looks like I might need to switch...for me that 3x more than before!

 

[cliff]

I haven't seen VoicePulse address this issue here or anywhere else so I just called. A very smooth rep effectively delivered a whole lot of words to say some of our rates may have increased. Never would acknowledge that 100% of US was now $.019/minute. He then went into a wordy spin as to why. He had a nice way so I let him finish then asked if there were any possibility some of your rates will ever go back to $.01/min or below. Eventually I got a no. No answer as to why some calls were billed @ $.019 as early as March and he insisted the FlexRate should have been updated at the same time as billing. No comment on the lack of notice.

They will be sending me a check in about 10 days.

PS: My login is dead so download anything you need before terminating.

 

[MyKroFt]

Put in a ticket about the flexreate and current rate issue testerday......

06/15/2009 05:27 PM

Tony,

I tried calling your contact number, xxx-xxx-xxxx, but you were unavailable and I left a voicemail. Is there another number where you can be reached?

Our termination rates are subject to change; you can always log into your account at www.voicepulse.com to review the current rates, and any changes will be posted 7 days before the new rates take effect.

If you have any detailed questions on the rates, you can reach our Customer Service department at 732-339-5100 between 9am-5pm M-F Eastern time, or reply directly to this email.

Hm...... did not even address the flexrate gone awol; time to start doing some looking

 

[MyKroFt]

One nice thing about SIP VoIP:

There are lots of fish in the sea...

ya, maybe - but none local to me or willing to get local DID like voicepule did for me - we are out of the CdA Idaho rate center which is local to us, so i dunno why they cant offer all the prefix codes in the valley. I have been looking since this started, and nobdy is willing but them to service DIDs in North Idaho.....

 

[SpaethCo]

ya, maybe - but none local to me or willing to get local DID like voicepule did for me

Sure, but just because you use VoicePulse for origination (your DID) doesn't mean that you have to use them for termination.

The ability to mix inbound and outbound services is one of the best features of running your own PBX.

 

[MyKroFt]

true, who do you suggest for termination?

 

[MyKroFt]

for my work - since main line is a ptsn, i think I am gonna use Didforsale, and get a CdA Idaho number, and then just setup forward on busy for the ptsn number, and use a max of 4 of the 20 channels avail from didforsale. Since most of the traffic is inbound because its a movie cinema house with show listings etc.

 

[SpaethCo]

true, who do you suggest for termination?

There are lots of options out there. For me personally, my current US48 dialplan looks like this:

grnVoIP - $0.0100/min flat rate, 6 sec billing
FlowRoute - $0.0107 (after USF) flat rate, 6 sec billing
Voip.ms - $0.0125 flat rate premium route, 6 sec billing
Vitelity - $0.0144 flat rate, 30 second billing

grnVoIP gets 99.999% of my US48 termination
FlowRoute is my primary International provider, secondary for US48
Voip.ms and Vitelity are mainly DID providers for me, but they are my 3rd and 4th backup US48 termination providers.

Keep in mind this is what works for me -- a different Internet connection and different calling patterns might produce different results as providers like grnVoIP and FlowRoute use different upstream termination carriers for different NPA-NPX prefixes.

 

[dad311]

Spaethco, any issues with grnVOIP and NAT? The grnVOIP web site states it may not work with NAT addresses.

 

[SpaethCo]

Unfortunately I couldn't tell you -- my Asterisk install has public IP addressing with no NAT involved.