Tag price hike

Here’s a fun email I received today!

Dear Christopher Kusek,
At Vonage, we’re committed to providing exceptional phone service at a great value you can rely on. On December 1, 2008, the price of our Residential Basic 500 Minute Plan increased from $14.99 to $17.99¹. The new price will be reflected in your February 2009 bill. We’re proud that we remain one of the most competitive choices among home phone providers.
Don’t forget, with the Vonage Residential Basic 500 Minute Plan, you will continue to receive 25 great features, like Call Waiting, Caller ID, and Voicemail Plus that many phone companies still charge for. International calls are still as low as 1 cent per minute.
As an option, you might consider the Residential Unlimited Plan for only $24.99² a month. For just $7 more you will get:

• Unlimited local and long distance calls in the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico
• FREE calls to landline phones in Italy, France, Spain, UK and Ireland
• Peace of mind – never worry about going over your minutes again!

For even more savings and the convenience of one bill each year, you can pay in advance with our Annual Pre-Pay option and save 20% off the standard rate³ or just $19.99 a month.
Click here to access your Online Account and check out these options and more. If you have any questions, you can call 1-VONAGE-HELP and speak to a customer care representative.
At Vonage, we continue to provide you with the best service at the lowest possible price.
Thank you for your business,
Vonage

Here are some of my favorite parts:

¹ Maintaining Vonage service on or after your adjusted bill cycle date confirms your agreement to the rate change.

Uh, WTF? “Watch as we screw you, and you standing by and taking it is your way of agreeing!”

As an option, you might consider the Residential Unlimited Plan for only $24.99² a month. For just $7 more you will get:

Hey, we’re charging you more, so it doesn’t look so Economically bad for you to Pay us even MORE money for the same non-service! Sound good? IT’s only another $7 ! ! !

I stood by and let the fake ‘surcharges’ and other BS slide for the longest time (I’m a far stretch from when I was paying only $16.91 a month, which was a lot considering our non-home phone usage.   And then after ‘bs surcharges’ it went up to ~20 (Which was more than I paid ATT) But now, you’re raising it even more, so after surcharges I’ll be paying roughly ~25 dollars? Yea, sorry.  I don’t think so.

Who knows what type of VoIP service I will switch to in order to maintain a home phone, but I can tell you it won’t be Vonage for much longer.

First the Good News!

Take a Risk-Free Exam with Cisco’s Come Back Program!

Cisco and Pearson VUE have partnered to give networking professionals the opportunity to re-invest in their careers with the Cisco “Come Back” program, but this offer expires soon. You may have let your Cisco certification lapse, but now’s a great time to come back.

Register now to take any Cisco certification exam at the regular price, and—if you need it—you’ll get a retake exam for FREE!*. Both exams must be taken before this offer expires on October 15, 2008, so it’s important that you schedule your exam soon, in order to allow adequate time for you to take advantage of the free retake.

Visit www.pearsonvue.com/cisco/comeback for more details or to schedule your Cisco exam.

Wishing you the best on your career investment,
Cisco Career Certifications

*Both the full price and free “Come Back” exams must be taken between April 15, 2008, and October 15, 2008.  The free exam must be the same exam number as the exam you failed.

And for the Bad News….!

You’re going to need it.

It’s one thing that in September of 2007, Cisco raised prices on the exams above what they were at the time – Account for the 09/2007 changes of:

• CCNA Composite – $150
• CCNP/CCDP Composite – $225
• ICND 1/2 – $125
• CCIE Written – $315
• CCIE Lab – $1400

But now this they drop this bomb shell on us, in June 2008 of this year!

• CCNA Exam – $250 —– 67% increase
• CCNP/CCDP – $300 —– 34% increase
• CCIE Written – $350 —- 12% increase

This leads me to wonder if this is the price of security in their certification process.

It’s nice to see they’ve introduced this "Our exams are expensive so you have a chance to retake if you fail for a few months"  It’s a shame they didn’t take a page from Microsoft’s book and give you a TAD more time for this Second Shot at an exam.