VT_UNLIMITED is LIMITED! False Advertising!

[tennesseebill]

My kids are on summer vacation, so they are using the phone more. I was shocked when I saw a charge for over SIXTY DOLLARS from ViaTalk. When i submitted a support ticket, this is what they said...

Per our Terms of Service Agreement our Unlimited plan has a minute cap of 5100 outgoing minutes in a 30 day period. Every minute there after is 1.9 cents per minute. The invoice for $65.14 was for domestic usage.

I hope this information was helpful to you and if you have any questions please feel free to contact us.

Thank you,
ViaTalk Support

They don't provide a refund when I use less minutes!
TIME TO FIND A NEW VIOP PROVIDER!

[johnatnro]

Per our Terms of Service Agreement our Unlimited plan has a minute cap of 5100 outgoing minutes in a 30 day period. Every minute there after is 1.9 cents per minute. The invoice for $65.14 was for domestic usage.


You can thank the good old government for the limited unlimited deal. All voip providers do the same thing, and most allow fewer than 5,100 minutes.

Have you ever seen a TV commercial showing a sandwich 3 inches thick, but when you buy one, it is about 3/4"? Kind of the same thing, the government says close enough.

5,100 minutes plus 3,428 (65.14/.019 per minute) equals 8,528 minutes! WOW! That's almost 5 hours per day! Somebody needs to get a life.

[tennesseebill]

5,100 minutes plus 3,428 (65.14/.019 per minute) equals 8,528 minutes! WOW! That's almost 5 hours per day! Somebody needs to get a life.

2 teenagers, 3 way calling (doubles the minute consumption) on the phone all night this month... summer vacation. they play games online and talk to the people they are online with.

[johnatnro]

Bill - I don't think you will find "unlimited" calling anywhere. Cell phone plans, voip plans, everyone who advertises "unlimited" is likely to have the actual usage allowed buried deep in their fine print somewhere. Good luck!

[VTAllan]

All voip providers do the same thing, and most allow fewer than 5,100 minutes.

This is very accurate. Additionally, every Terms of Service agreement will outline this for you. When you sign an agreement, or click a little button that says you have read the agreement, you are expected to know what it says. ViaTalk, along with other companies in the industry do not let any clients sign up unless they confirm they have read and agreed to the service agreement.

they play games online and talk to the people they are online with

I would highly recommend Ventrilo or Teamspeak instead for your kids. This will lower your consumption of minutes considerably if they use the VT line a lot for this.

(http://www.ventrilo.com/)
(http://www.teamspeak.com/)

[tennesseebill]

you want to here something really funny? i did the math. i looked up my total outgoing minutes for the period viatalk charged me for, subtracted 5100 for the 'included' minutes, then multiplied by 0.019 for the overage charge. i came out with an amount due of $41.65, not the $65.14 i was charged and then disconnected for 3 days later on a sunday.

i made an excel spreadsheet, converted it to pdf and attached it to a trouble ticket. here's the response:
============ pasted from viatalk email -------------------------
Billing Overcharge

Bill,

Upon receiving your account, it does appear as though you were billed 2.9 cents for each overage minute instead of 1.9. I have applied a refund of $23.49 to compensate for the overage, and have sent your information to a network admin to correct this error for future billing.
If you have any questions regarding this, please write back. Thank you and have a great day!

_
Tiffany Clare
ViaTalk Support
============================
actually, when i did the math, i was charged 0.0297 cents a minute... almost 3 cents a minute.

anyone who get charged for an overage should check out the math.

bill

[Medic63]

Bill - I don't think you will find "unlimited" calling anywhere. Cell phone plans, voip plans, everyone who advertises "unlimited" is likely to have the actual usage allowed buried deep in their fine print somewhere. Good luck!
I don't know about that. My cell phone offers unlimited nights and weekend calling, and I have been unable to locate any limit mentioned anywhere in the TOS. Also, if there is an advantage to the old-fashioned landline, it is that there is apparently no limit on local calling with the traditional calling plans. You can pick up the phone and dial a local number and never hang up and it is covered by your monthly fee.
I have read through every boring and tedious word of both VoicePulse and Packet8 terms of service, and neither of them mention anything other than the words "unlimited calling" anywhere. There are references to "reasonable personal residential use" in Packet8's TOS, but no quantity of minutes is mentioned.

To anyone who cares at ViaTalk: It really does seem like false advertising to say you offer unlimited calling and then place a cap on the minutes. With the so-called "soft cap" of 5100 minutes, you are only giving the consumer 11.8% of the minutes in a 30 day month.

[johnatnro]

My cell phone offers unlimited nights and weekend calling.
You are very lucky if it is true.

I have read through every boring and tedious word of both VoicePulse and Packet8 terms of service, and neither of them mention anything other than the words "unlimited calling" anywhere. There are references to "reasonable personal residential use" in Packet8's TOS, but no quantity of minutes is mentioned.

The government has approved the "reasonable personal residential use" statement and it alone should raise a red flag for you. What do you think it means and why is it in the TOS? Does it mean unlimited use? Dream on.

To anyone who cares at ViaTalk: It really does seem like false advertising to say you offer unlimited calling and then place a cap on the minutes.

I don't think anyone at ViaTalk does care.

Sorry, Uncle Sam says it isn't false advertising. However, if ViaTalk was customer-focused, they could do a better job in this and numerous other areas, but they don't.