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 nearly a year of hearing nothing from Grand Central, Google has announced that the latest generation of this service will be known as Google Voice.

Grand Central is a phone service that touted 'one phone number for life'. However, Grand Central provided more than just a phone number it gave users the ability to control who called them and where that call was routed to be answered.

I first came across Grand Central when I was in the process of changing mobile phone numbers. After providing all my contacts with my new Grand Central number I quickly learned of its limitations. The biggest problem I came across was the inability to receive text messages to my Grand Central number. While only a select few of my contacts actually text me I quickly realized this would not be a number I gave to most of my regular contacts.

I regularly followed the Grand Central blog as well as the the Grand Central help forum but after seeing little feedback from anyone at Grand Central I decided this would not become my one number for life. Instead I now use this number where I want to make sure I can screen the calls I receive.

I logged into my Grand Central account tonight and other than a message on the home page indicating the switch to Google Voice is coming nothing has changed. Google Voice appears to be a step in the right direction for this phone service. However, I am cautiously optimistic as the service is only as good as the support behind it.

Superior customer service has been a trait I look for in companies I do business with. This is especially true for companies that regularly upgrade to the latest in digital technology.

Recently,  AT&T has launched their U-verse service in my area. Having heard the news, I was excited about the possibility of trying a new means to receive television programming and possible saving some money. I spoke with a couple of different sales people from AT&T and I was impressed with the service. However, I expressed my recent poor customer service experience with the installation of AT&T's dry-loop DSL service (also known as naked DSL). Each one of the representatives I spoke with acknowledged that there was a significant problem with the dry-loop DSL service. They also said that the Uverse was a totally separate division.

Having worked for a major corporation I understand that different divisions can operate in significantly different manners. However, I find it difficult to do business with an organization that does not understand the value of outstanding customer service. Combined billing makes disputing charges a little more difficult.

I am a firm believer that a low price will bring a customer into an organization and good customer service will keep them.  AT&T got me in the door with a good price on a service but their extremely poor customer service kept me from spending more money with a company that does not value my time spent waiting on hold. In this case poor customer service will keep me searching for another service provider.