Hello Vonage! Goodbye Verizon!
February 2nd, 2005As some of you know, I’ve been using Vonage for a few weeks, and so far, I’ve been happy with it. Originally, I was spending $75 ($54 BEFORE all the taxes) per month for the Freedom package. Then, I changed the package to another plan with long distance charged at 5 cents per min. It cost around $35 per month, but it was over $50 with all of the taxes.
So, I decided to make the Vonage primary phone. But, I decided that I would keep one phone connected with Verizon as part of a ‘transitional period’. This would make it easier for people who have my Verizon number to call me while I slowly notify people of the change. And, it would give me an easy way to ‘go back’ to Verizon if the whole Vonage thing didn’t work out.
So, this morning, I call Verizon to change my service to the most basic of basic plans. With this plan, they charge you for all calls, but since I was going to keep it for incoming calls only, that was fine with me. Then I found out the cost… $15.23 per month PLUS tax. SO, it will cost me about $23 per month for the most basic plan!
After hanging up, I got aggrevated. I called my wife, and she said that keeping the Verizon was a waste of money. So, I called Verizon back and canceled all service with them.
And I don’t care if I change VOIP providers in the future. Most providers allow for number portability. Even if I switch and I can’t bring my number, I don’t care. People change cell phone numbers all of the time, and unless they want to pay my bill, they’ll have to deal with it. You can’t beat $15 per month (around $16.50 with tax).
So, I’ve saved about $60 per month total off of my original Verizon package.