8x8 ,Packet 8 They canceled smaller plan and bumped me to $35 a month for two phone calls a month! Santa Clara California

8x8, formerly known as Packet 8, is a VoIP company similar to Vonage. They used to charge $19.99 a month and almost no surcharges. Over time, they've managed to do what all the traditional phone companies do, and add over 40% to the bill. They've also raised their rates and now charge $24.95 and just over 42% more in surcharges, totaling $35.58. A year ago, I changed my plan from Unlimited to "Freedom 500," which cost only $14.95 a month before fees. On average, I use this phone for less than five minutes a month outgoing, and another 10 a month incoming, so I could live with this. Recently, I discovered my bills had gone up dramatically.

I called the company to find out what on earth was going on. They informed me they had sent me an e-mail [are you kidding me????] to the effect that the Freedom 500 plan was discontinued, and I was bumped back up to the Unlimited plan. I never saw this e-mail in my thousands of e-mails I get every month. I never received a notice in the mail.

I told them as a result, I am moving my business elsewhere. They have lost my business, not to mention my goodwill and the referrals I was about to send them. I don't really need Vonage or a similar service, and I would have just canceled my service outright, but instead am moving my number (a NYC 212 number I've had since 1985) to "Number Garage," a company that does nothing more than "park" phone numbers for five bucks a month or $10 to forward them, and which I ironically heard of only two days ago.

Andrew p
New York, New York
U.S.A.