VoicePulse HACKED ME OFF!!!!

[FitnessPlus]

So last year our business signed up for the sip pbx termination service through VoicePulse, which is supposed to have 4 channels and unlimited inbound calls. We have an inbound call center, so admitedly we use a lot of those free inbound minutes, but we do use outbound minutes as well that we pay for.

So yesterday evening I get this email:

Hello Jeremy,

Stephen here from VoicePulse. I am reaching out to you as your account has been forwarded to me by a supervisor from our TOS Department. They have found that your current inbound usage on your DID 636-634-2202 is in violation of our TOS for "acceptable usage". Your usage has been in excess of 10,000 minutes for multiple months and this account consistently experiences channel overage on a daily basis.

To address this issue and ensure no potential interruption in service you will be required to provision at least two additional channels to this account to address the above mentioned overage by 3 PM Thursday, otherwise the account will be subject to immediate review and possible suspension.

I will be glad to work with you to address this matter, and provide as much assistance as necessary. Furthermore if you are currently using this number to receive incoming calls forwarded from a third-party toll-free provider we are currently running specials that could provide you significant savings from your current telecom expenditures. Please let me know how I can best be of assistance moving forward, I will look out for your update.

Stephen Irwin
Account Executive
732-561-5206
www.VoicePulse.com

So the first thing I did was head on over to thier website and read through their Terms of Service. As of the time of this posting it's located here:
http://voicepulse.com/policies/TermsOfService.aspx
Searching for the term that Stephen quotes "acceptable usage" yeilds nothing on the document, neither does "acceptable" by itself, and "usage" only returns two results, neither of which have anything to do with the topic he emailed me about.

After reading through the whole document, I find nothing in this legal document that says that they can do this to me!

Today I talked to Stephen on the phone, he couldn't give me answers, so he transfered me to his supervisor (Ryan Gibbs) and he couldn't give me any answers either, nor could he point out to me any agreement that we had made that says they can do this to me.

Basically, as I understand it at this point, some "engineer" had a bad day and decided they didn't like our usage, so now they are threatening to cut off our service. They wanted me to add an additional channel to be able to continue service, with no guarantee that they won't come back next week and ask that we add another channel.

Because this phone number is vital to our business, I had to do it, but THIS IS EXTORTION!

Are there any other providers that would like to have our company on thier books and won't attempt extortion techniques? The irony here is that we expect to debut at around 200 on the Inc. 500 list of Fastest growing companies next year and I was planning on doing some nice write-ups about our PBXiaF experience in the spring when we officially make the list. I guess I won't be shinning VoicePulse in a positive light when I do that.

 

[patrick_elx]

Is the provider not receiving a share of the call cost for an inbound call?

 

[drmurdoch]

Yea. I love your site. If my Precor Treadmill ever needs parts I am going to check your site.

I found finding my treadmill on your site very easy.

When I googled: Precor Treadmill parts
I didn't see your site, hopefully you move up the search ranks !

great site.

 

[Bart]

so how much were you paying for to have 4 channels and 10,000 minutes? What will adding two additional channels cost you? Have you check to see if you'll still have a cap with the 6 channels?

Bart

 

[vcallaway]

This may sound lame but set a complaint to the BBB. You might be surprised at the response you get.

 

[dobbs]

So, after the fourth channel is in use, they continue to connect more calls? I use VoicePulse too, but rarely use more than 2 or three channels at a time. I wasn't aware that any more than 4 channels could ever be used unless more were provisioned on the account.

It's nice that they keep sending the calls through, but it seems to me they could solve this issue themselves by simply capping the channels.

 

[cjkeeme]

200 on the Inc. 500 list of Fastest growing companies

If you're making this much cash a couple channels is nothing to worry about... Do you do business with people that lose you money? I don't.

 

[phonebuff]

http://voicepulse.com/policies/TermsOfService.aspx

I read through the referenced agreement and I think they told you up front they might ask you to step up a level and are following the agreement you signed up to.. Section 4.8 included the paragraph

VoicePulse reserves the right to measure for appropriate use and at its sole discretion may determine that the Service has been subject to inappropriate use. In the event inappropriate use is determined, VoicePulse may request the customer change or modify the Service use and/or Service plan.

Your usage has been in excess of 10,000 minutes for multiple months and this account consistently experiences channel overage on a daily basis.

If you are using this many minutes and are constantly bursting to additional channels then they are being reasonable as the need to constantly burst to additional channels to me seems as a documented capacity issue on the service level you selected.

Just my .$.02

 

[FitnessPlus]

So, after the fourth channel is in use, they continue to connect more calls? I use VoicePulse too, but rarely use more than 2 or three channels at a time. I wasn't aware that any more than 4 channels could ever be used unless more were provisioned on the account.

It's nice that they keep sending the calls through, but it seems to me they could solve this issue themselves by simply capping the channels.

As far as I know they are not sending more than 4 channels at at a time and are capping it. I was told that it was costing them extra server resources to send a busy signal to callers, and this was the reason they wanted me to add extra channels....a really lame excuse if you ask me.

We don't actually hit the cap very often, the time this happens most often is around lunch time. We are still a very small company, and only have 2 people in our call center. We typically hit the 4 channel cap during lunch time when there is only one person answering the phone. I have the queues set up to go to voicemail after 10 minutes...which I've just turned down to 8 minutes to try to alleviate some of this problem.

If you're making this much cash a couple channels is nothing to worry about... Do you do business with people that lose you money? I don't.

I wasn't aware that inbound calls cost the provider anything beyond some small small amounts of bandwidth and some taxing on a server. BTW, fastest growing doesn't mean bloated with deep pockets. It means we've been able to achieve this by keeping everything slimmed down and efficient while re-investing lots of money back into the future of the company and adding new employees. We're a small company that has grown the number of employees by 20% in the last 6 months (from 10 to 12 employees). The idea is that we'll be able to keep everything as efficient as possible and keep adding new employees as we continue to grow.

I'm more incensed that their request is open ended and I believe un-reasonable. We only have 2 people in our call center, and adding more channels really only means that more people wait on hold for longer. After 4 channels of usage, I would prefer that our customers hear a busy signal and try to call back later after the lunch hour is finished....rather than waiting on hold for 8 minutes and then being upset that they get voicemail after waiting for 8 minutes. On top of that they would not guarantee me on the phone that after I added more channels, that they wouldn't come back after 2 weeks and ask for more channels or other things. Basically what I see is that they have determined on their own that they want to extort us for more, with no clear reasoning behind it. Their complains on the phone centered more around our channel limit rather than our minute usage...but I want our channel limit in place for better customer service, until we have the budget to add another call center employee sometime early-middle next year.

 

[vcallaway]

My suggestion is change providers.

An all you can eat business model does not work if you are a small provider. It is a numbers game based on the average consumption. It sounds like they did not work the numbers correctly. They have two options. Change the rules or go out of business. Changing the rules selectively is a sign of desperation. Get out while you can.

Shop around for a provider that is up front about channels and costs. I personally use Callcentric for my trucking company clients. The offer 3 channels for $8.95 a month and it is expandable. They do however state right up front that lines for call centers are $19.95 a month PER CHANNEL. If you are keeping 4 channels in use constantly then you are going to have to go this route. No provider is going to be able to provision you those lines cheaply. It is still more cost effective than landlines.

 

[tabbertmj]

I would suggest looking at other carriers too. I use the per-minute plan with didforsale, but they offer 20 channels on their $9.00 plan. Tthey state that there are no limits. I scanned over some of the legalese, and didn't see anything listed either, but you will want to sift through it yourself. I generally only speak geekanese.