Prepayment/Cancellation Policy

We’ve had an influx of “save my number” porting requests in the last 2 weeks or so and as a result lots of people asking for clarification on pricing and policies after BETA. One of the biggest questions is regarding prepayment/cancellation penalties.

Here is the official policy on prepayment cancellation:

If you prepay for a specific term and cancel during that term, you will be billed for the number of months you used at the “best” rate you qualified for with that time period. This is done instead of a penalty/fee.

Example: You prepaid for 12 months at the yearly price. You cancel after 2 months. To calculate your refund, we would credit your full 12 month payment to your VOIPo balance, then debit your balance for 2 months of service at the monthly rate.

If the number of months you used goes into a plan unevenly, the extra months will just be prorated.

If the resulting refund is “negative”, the refund would just be $0. You would not be charged extra. This is only to calculate refunds.

Example: You prepaid for 12 months at the yearly price. You cancel after 8 months. To calculate your refund, we would credit your full 12 month payment to your VOIPo balance, then debit your balance for 8 months of service at the 6 month rate (broken down monthly). This is done because 6 months would be the best available plan you’d qualify for with 8 months.

I think this is a “common sense” approach to this and is fair for everyone.

That sounds more than fair.
And allows you to get a sensible formula for billing.

Are you going to muddy it with all the TAX numbers too?
(Or is all that in your price already?)

That's a good question, IMO. Any tax that's based on a percentage amount would change if the price paid per month changes, so a simple refund of "(# months unused) x rate" might not apply. Therefore, it's conceivable that tax owed could eat into a service refund, but if voipo will not do any kind of balance billing (as in the cancel after 8 months example above), there will never be a situation wherein the customer OR voipo will owe a tax balance at the end of the day.

I'm not a tax lawyer, but I would think voipo would HAVE to figure the taxes into the refund, if they want to remain compliant with tax laws...

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Originally Posted by fisamo

... but I would think voipo would HAVE to figure the taxes into the refund, if they want to remain compliant with tax laws...

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Pretty sure that taxes would have to be charged on the 'corrected' amount billed for service to date. It could very well eat into the amount refunded since they did not qualify for the reduced fare.

Agreed. That's what I meant to say, but didn't say quite so clearly. :)

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Originally Posted by VOIPoTim

We’ve had an influx of “save my number” porting requests in the last 2 weeks or so...

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Just as an update to this, ports have been going very smoothly. Welcome to those of you who have ported in this week. I know we had a whole batch that completed yesterday with no problems that I know of.

My port completed Tuesday and was problem-free :)

Can one ask where all these people are porting in from ???

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Originally Posted by quattrohead

Can one ask where all these people are porting in from

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Most of them are coming from ViaTalk.

I know the patent case and DSLR affiliate issues have been a big cause of concern for several. Others didn't really offer an explanation, just asked to port.

Yeah, that's what I figured.
The bad publicity is starting to take it's toll on VT.
Shame really, but you have to provide service to end users.

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Originally Posted by VOIPoTim

I know the patent case and DSLR affiliate issues have been a big cause of concern for several.

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The patent case is no longer an issue for VT.

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Originally Posted by sbradshaw

The patent case is no longer an issue for VT.

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Maybe according to Brendan, but not according to court documents. The actual court documents filed an hour asgo show that an extension of time for HostRocket to answer the complaint was granted until May 2. Litigation is still pending. Byeond this, there are still issues that concern people present. An example would be the new lien from Level3 from 3/25 (See NY UCC Filings for HostRocket.com Inc).

Regardless, that was only brought up in this thread to speculate why so many people are porting over. Let's not turn this into a ViaTalk forum.

Is a porting from VT thread OK ? :p

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Originally Posted by quattrohead

Is a porting from VT thread OK ? :p

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I don't think we need a thread for it, but a porting thread is fine :)

I should port my Packet8 number soon ....
Then I would have all my bets on VOIPo and my cell service.