Ever since I first discovered Evernote I knew that it was an amazing tool. I previously talked about trying to use Evernote to go paperless but was concerned about security. There was also an issue of trying to upload images of documents to Evernote without having to turn on my computer each time.  I was able to get around this by using an HP All-in-one and an Eye-fi card. The only problem with this is that all my digital documents had to be jpegs. I would prefer they be saved as PDFs.

It appears that Lexmark has developed a solution to my problem.

I see a new Lexmark All-in-one in my future.

I have always held the belief that a low price will bring a customer in and excellent customer service will keep them. People simply do not make an effort to look elsewhere for services they use everyday if they believe there is value in the service they receive. This was certainly true of the VOIP phone service I had from 8x8 for nearly five years.

I first established service with 8x8 in March of 2005 and had virtually no trouble with the service the entire time. However, within the based few months they cancelled the 500 minute Freedom Choice residential plan that I had and automatically upgraded me to their unlimited plan. Of course this also meant an increase in the monthly fee. At the time this occurred I looked at the company's own residential forums and discovered that many people felt that 8x8 was simply trying to focus on their business VOIP services.

The new monthly fee was too much for me to see the value in the service 8x8 was providing. After a little research I stumbled upon Call Centric and tried the service to make sure it would meet my needs.

When I called 8x8 to cancel my service I could not belief the response I got. The rep informed me that I could go to a 500 minute plan and they would give me a free month of service. I asked why they bothered to cancel the 500 minute residential plan only to offer for those ready to cancel. The rep informed me that the email sent out when they dropped the 500 minute suggest that people call in with concerns.

Here is the text from the email I recieved:

Dear Valued Customer,

8x8 will be discontinuing the Freedom Choice plan, and effective June 1, 2009, your plan will be changed to:

8x8 Freedom Unlimited Plan - $24.99/month

Freedom Unlimited offers unlimited local and long distance calling in the US and Canada, plus unlimited in-network calling to other 8x8 subscribers worldwide, low International calling rates and powerful calling features.

Remember, when you subscribe to 8x8, you not only enjoy huge savings on local and long distance phone calls, you also receive an abundance of calling features including in your calling plan at no extra charge:

Voicemail to Email Notification
Caller ID with Name
Caller ID Blocking
Anonymous Call Blocking
Call Waiting
Call Waiting Disable
Call Waiting ID
Follow Me, Find Me
Simultaneous Ringing
7-Digit Local Dialing
Network Unavailable Forwarding
Call Return
Call Forwarding
Three-Way Calling
Online Account Management And Billing
Do Not Disturb
Phone-Based Call Management

We appreciate your continued business and thank you for being an 8x8 customer. If you have any questions, please call Customer Service at 1-888-898-8733.

Sincerely,
The 8x8 Billing Department

There is nothing in this email that made me belief that calling in to complain about price would get me back to the old price I was paying.

Since I had already ported my number to Call Centric it was pointless to try to port it back to 8x8 to revert to my old calling plan. It is also important to note that this 500 minute Freedom Choice plan is NOT posted on 8x8s website.

People often chose VOIP communication for two main reasons cost and features. In my case the features met me needs but the cost was unbearable. 8x8 probably would have a customer for at least another five years if they had simple not gotten greedy with their pricing structure.

Full Disclousure: When signing up for service with Call Centric I also signed up as an agent. Therefore, I do receive commission for those I refer.

After seeing an article on Consumerist about how much some people are actually paying for there cell phone minutes I thought I would run some numbers on my current cell phone plan. My wife and I share a cell phone plan and are on the lowest possible family plan AT&T provides. We never use all of our anytime minutes. I calculated our anytime minutes that our anytime minutes cost us about $0.25 per minute. Now that does not include the mobile-to-mobile or the night and weekend minutes. Therefore, based on the consumerist article I think I'm doing pretty good.

However, more than anything I would like to see an unlimited data plan that allows me to pay about $0.10 per minute for voice minutes.  It is time for cell phone companies to rethink the way they sell there services. I believe they would actually sell more smart phones if they pricing followed this type of format. So here is a message to all the cell phone service providers:

SHOW ME THE DATA! 

Now that my current cell phone contract is about to expire data pricing will be a top priority in my future mobile communication needs. I would consider a reasonable priced plan provides me unlimited data and texting and charges for voice by the minute.