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

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

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.

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.  

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.

I've been using Packet8 for my home phone for the last 4 years. While, I am not one that talks on the phone a lot I can say that I have never noticed any loss of call quality. The only issue that I had with Packet8 was getting the phone adapter shipped in a timely manner. Since I started using Packet8 I have referred friends and family to the service and shipping of the adapter has not been an issue.

Today I can't imagine having home phone service without many of the features that Packet8 provides at a reasonable rate. Most important for me is selective and anonymous call blocking. I had the unfortunate situation of being an issued a phone number that was previous used by someone that owed several people money (this number was issued to me by a landline provider and not by Packet8). I have told numerous debt collectors that the number they dialed is no longer valid for the person they are trying to contact but it usually does little to stop repeated calls. Packet8 allows me to send certain number as well as anonymous calls strait to voicemail.

Voip allows a person to control their phone as opposed to their phone controling them. Now only if cell phone companies will provide these same features......

I first saw this technology a couple of years ago in a specially designed shopping cart in my local supermarket. The tv-kart uses inductive charging after each use to replenish power in the cart's battery after each use. Recently, I came across this technology again when checking out the latest gadgets from CES 2009.

Ecoupled technology by Fulton Innovations has tremendous potential to change the way we recharge our cordless devices.

Fulton Innovations has partnered with some big names such as Energizer, Motorola, Texas Instrument, and Legget & Platt. These partnerships can provide a strong foundation and great marketing potenial to a technology just waiting to explode.

As a consumer, I can't way to use this technolgy in my home, office, and car so I can quite fumbling around to find the right cord for my 'cordless' devices.

I see this as one step closer to a creating one device that has many uses. Can you imagine your 'cell phone' being able to change the channel on your TV or unlock your car doors. I am sure someone has and is working on it now. Of course there must be a balance between functionality and security for any device to become widely accepted.

(via MobileCrunch)

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.