[asterisk-biz] SellVoip: Kicking a man while he's down......

[Peter Beckman]

I've hesitated weighing in here, but that time is over.

On Tue, 8 May 2007, Michael Trank wrote:

> I, for one, will not be jumping on the "sick the authorities on Jed" 
> bandwagon for the small amount of money unused in my account.
>
> It's been a disappointment, of course, but this is the "business-oriented" 
> list. Are there really those among us who can't sympathize with Jed's plight?

  I cannot sympathize.

  Why?  Several customers have complained here about sellvoip in the past
  few weeks.  Sure, they may be griping about silly amounts for a refund,
  but a few have said their lines went dead.  They tell stories about how
  they emailed support and never got an answer, about not ever getting an
  email about SIP hosts changing IPs/DNS.

  The 2-5 people who complained here should have gotten an instant refund
  via any means necessary -- paypal, check, etc -- and their issue about the
  DNS/lines down should have been resolved.

  It's been 2-3 weeks that Sellvoip has been a topic here, and about
  problems people have been having with them.  I would do ANYTHING as fast
  as I could to fix problems that customers felt needed to be aired on a
  public list that is archived for all to read.  I never would have posted
  "justification" about why a refund didn't happen.

  I have no sympathy for Jed's situation.  From what I've read, he seems to
  think the issues aired here are not his fault.  When I'm looking for a
  provider, I want the provider to figure out a solution to my problem, even
  if the problem is my fault.  "You didn't get the email?  I'm so sorry,
  here is exactly what you need to do, please contact me back immediately if
  this doesn't solve your issue."  Not "I sent the email months ago, too bad
  for you if you didn't get it.  Fix your SIP host."

> Who here doesn't know by personal experience the hard work and financial
> investment it takes to offer Internet and VOIP services?  Upstream
> providers want thousands of dollars monthly. Your customers pay $ 0.009
> per minute ( or $0.00001 per click ). Great big fat bills come in the
> mail, while a couple of $25 paypal payments trickle in per day.

  Every customer is equal IMO, and if you are going to take on the $5/month
  customer, you need to treat them as well as you do the $50,000/month
  customers.  If the small ones are too annoying, cut them lose (especially
  if you have a bunch of $50,000/month customers).

Beckman
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Peter Beckman                                                  Internet Guy
beckman at purplecow.com                             http://www.purplecow.com/
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