Hello Stephan, Was there ever an announcement from Unlimitel about shifting to Business-only customers ? The service was clearly marketed for Resindential and Business back in 2006 when I signed up, See a copy of the web site from back then: http://web.archive.org/web/20060101013903/www.unlimitel.ca/voip.html
Thanks, Liviu http://web.archive.org/web/20060101013903/www.unlimitel.ca/voip.html On Wed, Aug 4, 2010 at 6:06 AM, Stephan Monette <[email protected]> wrote: > Reza, > > You were generating $3.00/month in VoIP minutes. We couldn't keep your > account active with such low usage. > > For some reasons, we got a lot of customers with very low usage accounts > (almost 25% of our customer base as of last year) and we needed to do > something about it. The same customer base was still calling and requesting > support and we were loosing a lot of money serving low usage customers. We > couldn't refuse to support customers with low usage call volume. > > Keep in mind our service is not a residential service, it's a business > service. The network was designed for business use, not residential use. This > is why we use Bell as our PRI-T1 carrier, we get top quality and also a full > redundant PRI-T1 network, but at a much higher cost than anyone else. > > We have now change our procedure last February and we ask our customers to > spend a minimum of $50.00/year in VoIP minutes plus the DID cost in order to > keep the account active. That change fixed our issues with very low usage > accounts and residential customers. By doing so we are now generating more > revenues per DIDs and we can now proceed with expanding our network and > purchase more equipment to do so. > > At the end, it cost the customer a minimum of about $7.50/month for his DIDs, > which is still a steal for a business phone line. > > The reason you were asked to move your DIDs out of our network was because > you only spent $3.00/month for all your DID (I can't remember how many DIDs > you had in total) in VoIP minutes. As a business, we need to make sure we > generate enough revenue per DIDs to be able to serve you right. > > At $3.00/month we cannot keep your account active for sure. Would you? Like > every businesses on TAUG, we have rent, datacenter, internet links and much > more to pay and needs a decent revenue per DID to cover so. > > You ported out your DIDs to your own PRI to save some money to reduce your > cost and this is fine. But Unlimitel couldn't afford to keep your other DIDs > and loose money on your account. > > The issue here is the cost to provide DID services from other rate centre > than Toronto is a lot higher than you think. VoIP providers have to pay extra > $$$ for back hauling the DIDs on the PRI-T1 from other cities. But we sell > the DIDs at a blended rate. But if a customer gets his own PRI-T1 in Toronto > and buys DIDs from us for all other cities, we're loosing way too much money. > That fact was also explained to you then. > > We were professional about asking you to port out your DIDs and we gave you > enough time to do so without loosing service on your DIDs. > > The reason why Unlimitel is still in business today is because we do make > sure that we get enough revenue from each customer. The cost to support our > customers is our biggest cost in our company. It cost us more money in > salaries every month for our support staff than our PRI-T1 cost!!! By making > sure we get enough revenues for our DIDs, we keep the business going and the > service up and running for our business customers. > > Stephan Monette > Unlimitel Inc. > > Tel.: 1-877-464-6638 > Fax: (613) 482-1077 > > > > > > On 2010-08-04, at 12:42 AM, Reza - Asterisk Consultant wrote: > >> *Dear Mark (and readers):** >> >> *As a TAUG promoter, TAUG evangelist, and someone who has contributed for >> the benefit of TAUG and bringing/inviting over 100+ of my clients and >> students to TAUG from different avenues of expertise, including but not >> limited to promoting TAUG in major career fairs and providing Asterisk >> training (while representing TAUG) at international venues world wide over >> the past several years -- *without prejudice,* I have to interject here and >> say that this **is** also the place to bring forth concerns against carriers >> or service providers (not just recommendations) - for the benefit of >> everyone else, no matter how bitter it may sound. >> >> Yes, the thread is ugly and though it may sound like a pissing contest (as >> per your words) - it needs to be heard by those who are considering VoIP >> services or have voip services from Unlimitel. >> >> I'm not going to speak for Keith, Alex, Bruce or Chuck -- though they are my >> friends, business associates and also competitors for the past several >> years. I am going to speak for myself about my experience with Unlimitel >> and readers may interpret this as they see fit. No doubt, Alex isn't >> happy, Keith, Bruce and Chuck are being diplomatic, but I'm going to be very >> blunt. >> >> *On October 1st, 2009, 10:51 AM - I wrote to Stephan; *" *I got my own >> PRI's and have my own capacity now, and marketing to Toronto based SMB & >> SOHO. I need to port out 2 of my numbers. One is my home number and the >> other is my business number. *416-xxx-xxxx and 416-xxx-xxxx. *Nothing >> personal - just that I need more control over these numbers. The 3rd number >> I have, I want to keep with you. Please advise which company holds the PRI >> for my number and the main BTN - in order to ensure my port out request goes >> smoothly.* " >> >> *Same day at 11:11 AM, I got a reply from him,* " *You will need to port >> out all your number as we will now close your account. In your port request >> just specify Bell as the carrier and Unlimitel as the reseller. Use your >> billing information you have with Unlimitel in your request. Bell will check >> your account status with our database to accept or reject the LNP >> request. This >> is your 30 days notice that we will be closing your account on November 1st >> 2009 and we will refund any balance from your prepaid account on that date. >> I checked your usage for the last 2 months and you used less than $6 in >> minutes. So we can't keep your account with us with such low revenues. *" >> >> I have referred customers to Unlimitel over the past several years and had >> them purchase their own accounts with their own credit card for termination >> and origination. For each of these referrals, I had been offering Asterisk >> hosting solutions. Each of them are light users with an average of 200-300 >> minutes per month. So I knew Unlimitel's excuse to terminate me as a >> client was... well... (fill in the blanks). I would caution you twice >> before you do business with Unlimitel. Was I upset and am I upset at >> Unlimitel? Absolutely! Anyone would be. >> >> I assure you, and I promise you - I am **not** the only person Unlimitel has >> fired as a client. This entire SNAFU could have easily been avoided by >> Unlimitel if they exercised a little more customer friendly professional >> approach with elegant courtesy, reasonable time line, and/or parting away >> under good terms. >> >> As per your quote, " *besides if you have nothing good to say, why say it, >> this is supposed to be a community helping each other* " -- You say it, so >> your fellow community members are cautioned about the true nature of certain >> business owners and you say it, because you believe that is the right thing >> to do. >> >> I commend Alex and Keith for taking the stand in addressing their concerns >> openly and boldly. >> >> *With no regrets, >> Reza.* >> >> >> >> On Tue, Aug 3, 2010 at 4:36 PM, Mark Palser <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> Take this off board, really isn't the proper venue, besides if you have >>> nothing good to say, why say it, this is supposed to be a community helping >>> each other, not a place to have a pissing match. >>> >>> > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] > For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected] > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
