iTalkBB official site iTalkBB official site

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Find out who uses iTalkBB

I found out some interesting statistics on QuantCast.com about the demographic of iTalkBB visitors: Mostly Asian, mostly with high education background, likely mid-age, likely male . It seems that if you take the biggest bin of each category, you get a profile of me. No wonder I use iTalkBB...

Sunday, February 17, 2008

iTalkBB Cancellation Policy - Round 2

There is a heated discussion recently on MITBBS, one of the biggest Chinese-in-America forums/BBSs, about iTalkBB. The origin post is from an upset user of iTalkBB who found out that no partial-month service fee was granted after he/she cancelled the service in the middle of the month...

Unfortunately, as I have talked openly in a previous post, iTalkBB does NOT have a really accommodating or flexible cancellation policy: one needs to beware of the early termination charge ($69.99 within the first 12 months), and needs to be sure to return within 7 days the phone adaptor (in original packing) after termination of service. Now we learned that you'd better terminate service at the end of a service month, as your payment to the unused partial month is not refunded according to iTalkBB's term and policy. I hope I can do my part as a promoting dealer to convince iTalkBB's management to change that, though I think it would be much easier said than done.

Meanwhile, here are some advices:
(1) read iTalkBB's term and policy before you subscribe or terminate iTalkBB's service. It is worth noting that iTalkBB's policy isn't any worse comparing to most voip competitors, such as packet8.
(2) Subscribe to the $299 annual plan if possible. Many fees (activation/early termination) are waived for annual plan users.
(3) Use iTalkBB promotion code 953110 when sign up with iTalkBB. Send email to iTalkBB.deal@gmail.com for additional help on billing dispute.

Update: In iTalkBB's recent promotions, you are not subject to the $69.99 early termination fee UNLESS you request additional rebate (details here).

Friday, February 1, 2008

Need a second line? check out iTalkBB's Economic plan

Many of us have cell phones for each one of the family members. More than 90 percent of the calls are made from cell phone rather than home phones. And thanks for the competition among all different carriers, we can get newer phones, better coverage or better rates by switching phone numbers at the end of service contract, which can typically save you hundreds of dollars.

On the other hand, you really need a minimum usage phone to be listed as contact number or home phone number at various places. I was using Verizon in the past for this purpose. But it is costy (~$20/month with tax and fees) and inconvenient, as I can't move my phone number with me when I move out of the area code. iTalkBB would come to the rescue--

I have talked about the great package of iTalkBB's "Global Unlimited Plan". Now I think it's time to say a bit more on its "Residential Economic Plan", which is great for the aforementioned situation. Here is why:

Cheap, Cheap, Cheap! $4.99 monthly charge, with tax included. Usage charge is 2 cents per minute for calls within US/Canada and to China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, etc. (complete list here). For two-hours' talk from the line each month, you would end up paying about $7.50 per month. Can't beat that.

Rich in features! For the low monthly cost, you still get great features such as caller id , call waiting, call forwarding, 3-way call, 911 support... You will also get a phone number in China the same way as in Global unlimited plan, except that you need to pay 2 cents per minute using that number.

Promotion Code 953110 save you an additional $10 at the sign up, which is two-months' service.

Now you decide...

Translate

How do you rate iTalkBB's call quality?

What do you rate the installation and setup process of iTalkBB?