A while back I found this neat little widget by some company called Callwave. It is pretty simple, install the widget, put in the number and type out a text to someone. The international texts were limited to 5 free ones per day. Five free is a little on the low side, but hey, it was free and it was nice to be able to type out a text to someone instead of using the crap fest that is windows mobile.
Recently there was an update and I went to their blogs to read a bit more about it. Here’s what their blog had to say:
Text Messaging Widget Upgrade
Published July 3rd, 2007 CallWave , Text Messages , SMS Messages , Text Messaging , WidgetsWe’d heard from many of you that you’d like to be able to send more international SMS messages each day with our Text Messaging widgets and gadgets. So, we’ve upgraded our service. Now you can send up to 10 international text messages for free. These can be sent all in one day or whenever you want. After that, you can buy additional international SMS credits at a low rate (and send as many as you want) by simply clicking here.
And, it’s always free to send unlimited text messages to your friends in the U.S. and Canada.
As you can see, we take customer feedback seriously so if you have any questions or comments, please let us know!
Read that as if you are someone who has been happily using their service, though who is hoping for an easing of the 5 per day restriction (and who is completely unaware of any plans by Callwave in the future to make international texts for-pay only). Do you see how you could confuse it to mean you can now send 10 messages per day? Even if you can’t that’s exactly how I and plenty of other people did read it. Then, as we realized that it had been several days since we sent our last free text, we began slowly trickling our way back to the Callwave blog post to see what the problem was.
It turns out, they decided to do just what their post says, allow you to have 10 free messages and then you can pay for the rest. The clever word-smithing was to disguise the fact that they were really changing their service to something much worse than what it used to be. Check out their response to our response:
In response to Confused:
Our free International text messaging was only available during beta testing and was limited to 5 per day. Our new premium service offers you unlimited international text messaging to over 800 carriers in more than 50 countries world wide. There are many benefits to sending SMS messages with CallWave including:* it’s much easier than sending messages on your mobile phone
* our international SMS rates are competitive
* it’s always free to send unlimited messages to your friends in the USA and Canada
*CallWave protects your privacyWe hope you’ll give our premium service a try!
So two things irk me about that response. First, it’s canned and it’s something they should have stated clearly in the original post. Second, check out their prices for texts: $5 for 50 messages, $10 for 110 messages and $20 for 230 messages. That means that text messages start at 10 cents per message (!) and go all the way down to 8.7 cents per message. WTF! You expect us to pay $20 for 230 messages and then you have the audacity to claim this is something you’re doing as a response to customer requests? LOL. Oh and by the way, here’s a nice little screenshot of the Callwave widget, notice that it still says SMS BETA on the top right? Looks like they’re still in beta so their 5 free per day should still apply.
So here was my response to them, posted in here because I doubt highly that it’ll get past moderation on the Callwave blog.
Mike Lane Jul 30th, 2007 at 1:45 am
Wait so let me get this straight. You said:
“We’d heard from many of you that you’d like to be able to send more international SMS messages each day with our Text Messaging widgets and gadgets.”
So your implication was that you heard our pleas to increase the number of free text messages that we can send per day. And then you make it sound as if you could now send 10 messages per day by saying:
“Now you can send up to 10 international text messages for free.”
But you pulled the old switcheroo on your unsuspecting users by careful word-smithing after that to really mean that you can send a total of 10 free messages and after that you’ve got to pay. PFFFFT!
Here’s what your blog post should have said:
“We’d like to apologize in advance to our users. You are now no longer able to send 5 free messages per day. However, we will allow you a total of 10 more free messages (note: total *NOT* per day) after which you will have to pay us a ridiculously high price of $0.09 per message. We can understand why nobody would want to do this but if you can just ignore all your common sense and sign up with us that’d be great.”
You really want us to pay $0.09 (at LEAST!) per message *on top* of the plans that we already most likely have with our cell phone companies just for the luxury of being able to type it in from our computers???
You. Are. Crazy. lol. At least you could be legit and give straight information instead of clever word-smithing. Call Wave, you are deleted, blogged, and dugg.
So, just in case you were thinking that callwave would be a good widget to use or would be an upstanding company worthy of you spending your money on, now you know better.
Oh finally someone who feels like I do! 100% Callwave does suck. I also tried a few other comparable services and finally wound up with youmail because it’s really the only completely free one. This web 2.0 voicemail business is still so green and it’s already got crappy companies….
Got this in my email from Callwave:
Stacy, I’m not sure why my blog comment system isn’t working for you. As you can see, others have been able to make comments and I have not been notified of your comment for moderation. (I suspect an olde spam blocker thing I was using and have now deactivated - sorry about that). Stacy, I’m not mad that Callwave went from 5 free messages per day to 10 free messages total. I’m not mad that you’re charging whatever you’d like to charge for your service. If it is valuable enough to people, they’ll pay it (it isn’t to me so I won’t). What I’m mad about is the word-smithing that went on in your post (not sure if it was yours personally, by “yours” I mean Callwave’s). To make it sound like going from 5 free per day to 10 free total was something I as a customer had been begging for is, well, frustrating.
If you could have simply stated the facts without trying to sugar coat it, this post of mine wouldn’t exist. As I said in my post, it makes me doubt the worthiness of your other products and the reputability of your company in general.
Hello Mike, and to all his readers, and CALLWAVE USERS or potential future users. This letter is in response, not just to what you have written about “Callwave Sucking”, but to my many friends, associates and complete strangers that have asked for my assistance in suggesting a VOIP/Web 2.0 Telephony type company for them to use. I am finally letting the truth out about my experiences with this company - Callwave.
Please note, I extend to you, anyone reading this, my full rights to republish this document ANYWHERE. You have my permission to freely use this anywhere you would like, including any and all Callwave public and/or private outlets. It is my hope that the Board of Directors (yes, you read it right, Callwave is a Publicly Traded Company - What a friggin Joke!!!!), main staff, and any SHAREHOLDERS of this ridiculous company catch wind of this and does something to dynamically improve their services as quickly as possible. Or maybe those Board Members are part of this whole game! Read On!!
OK, let’s get right to it. Let me start out by saying, DON’T WASTE YOUR TIME WITH CALLWAVE! Need I repeat myself? Ok, I won’t for now, but this is a company that, in my opinion is borderline unscrupulous, but at the very least does not have a clue on how to manage their services or their offerings, they say one thing, but do, in some cases, the exact opposite. I’ve notice the few people that commented on Mike’s Blog, and those on other Blogs have been using Callwave for just a little while- pretty much just for their Free Text Messaging. Suffice it to say, I have been on Callwave for years, almost since their inception in 1998.
I was a former beta tester (by accident). I still have a Callwave number (they issued me a number of years ago). Here are just a few of the problems I’ve had with Callwave.
Word-smithing (As Mike Lane Studio’s Blog referred to it) is an understatement! I have seen them go through 3 website redo’s and they never have made it easy for a potential customer to see all of their services (until now, they actually list most of them on one page). You must do some major “reading through the lines” to find the “Callwave reality check” – what you really will get when you sign up with Callwave, but then it is still difficult to do that. They don’t make it easy for you.
Many people have asked me where their Blog is- I sent them to the website, MANY have come back to me bitching about not finding it on their website, and really not getting much info at all about other services besides their Text Messaging services. I just did a quick search for the Blog, COULD NOT FIND IT! When I went to the Website I still did not find their Blog, even though I found a link to their Blog. It appeared to be their “internal” Blog. I did just visit their website now, and as Mike comments, on the front of their website and inside on the questionable pages they still refer to their BETA, but as Mike made note, what they are offering is really not what they say they are offering, in a round about way. This is par for the course with Callwave.
NOTHING THEY DO OR SAY IS STRAIGHT FORWARD! Is it all about them using the English language in a devious way to fool the buying public. I have read many comments from people who feel this company has tried to “Trick” or “Deceive” them into using their services for FREE, then slyly giving them “more”, as if it is such a good deal, and charging them for these services, many times not even letting the customer know there are changes.
This brings up another major issue. MAKING CHANGES WITHOUT NOTIFICATION! Never once in all the years of being a Callwave user/customer have they notified me of any changes they made to my account. Whether I was a paid customer or free customer it doesn’t matter. Here are some of those changes they chose to make without ANY notification what so ever. While you read them, think about the ramifications they would have on you or your business once using their services and if they were to change them on YOU, on the fly- one minute you’re using them fine, the next, NOTHING. How would that effect your personal or business life??
1. Voicemail calls went unanswered when online (dial up) - Stopped Working - NO NOTICE
2. Voicemail service Stopped Working - NO NOTICE
3. Ability to transfer calls from my computer to any predestinated number Stop Working - NO NOTICE
4. Ability to transfer calls automatically to or from my Cell phone Stop Working - NO NOTICE
5. Ability to transfer calls from my Cell phone to a predestinated landline Stop Working - NO NOTICE (This was one of their Flagship products that they heavily promoted; it stopped working dozens of times over the course of about 34 months)
6. Went from a FREE account to placing charges on my landline phone account - NO NOTICE
7. Stopped Free Fax number service Stop Working - NO NOTICE
8. Changed my Main number (Office) to no longer work as my transfer call number Stop Working - NO NOTICE
9. Received many “Busy Signals” problems during the course of several years, called about 8-10 different Customer Srvc reps almost each time this happened, then escalated to Tech dept.- NEVER returned calls as promised, each time repaired said it was my equipment, my usage, it was NEVER CALLWAVE’S FAULT!
10. When people called my Callwave issued number, recordings would answer with strange messages such as, “This is a non-working number”, “This number has not been activated yet”, or “The user you are attempting to reach is busy”, and others; this has occurred throughout using Callwave, but ironically never happened during the beta testing. Callwave always said they do not know how this happened, and again, tried to blame other services or products.
11. Removed Free Fax number from Account - NO NOTICE
12. After replacing Fax and Fixing the Problems, several days later began to charge for service - NO NOTICE
13. Transferring calls Stop Working - NO NOTICE
14. Contact CW, numerous conversations with Cust. Srvc. They fixed call transfer; worked for 1.5 days then nothing! Stop Working - NO NOTICE
15. After numerous conversations WE finally figured out they began to charge for the service- quoted me $3.95. I called back several times and received the same quote. I explained to them I needed to discuss with others. Charges place on my phone bill anyway - NO NOTICE
16. I called back, ask them why they placed charges on bill anyway, could not give me an answer. I told them I would accept the $3.95 billing, but would prefer to be billed. They said ok. The next day the charges went directly to my credit card - NO NOTICE
17. Today (Monday, August 6, 2007) the charge went from $3.95 to $7.95 just like that - NO NOTICE
I have spent literally hundreds of hours on the phone with Callwave over the last few years. I can count on one hand the amount of emails I have received from CW throughout my tenure with them. Never (and I do not use this word “never” lightly) have I received an email notification of any changes that the Callwave company was going to make on my account, NEVER!!!
Callwave transfer problems continue to this day. Actually there are lots of issues that I have not listed here, but due to my lack of time (I have already spent more time that I expected to writing this- but it sure feels good to vent, doesn’t it?) I need to finish this up soon. Mainly, I write this for you, the potential customer needing or wanting this type of VOIP managed, Web 2.0 Telephony services. There are many different companies out there, whatever you do, DO NOT USE CALLWAVE!! Unless there are some major changes in the company, stay far away from them.
These are really just a small sample of the problems with Callwave and the issues surrounding the company. There customer service is horrific. Just the fact that they are a Publicly Traded Company on the NASDAQ, in itself is truly a scary proposition.
Callwave was originally set up as a free service for voicemail and dialup users. Our company decided to keep them when they began to bill us, then reverted back to the Free service because of their lack of service and their horrible management of the company. I wanted to share them with my friends and colleagues, but couldn’t, they have become very scary to deal with, and we learned how to have an arms length relationship with them. Unfortunately because we have used their number it makes it difficult for us to just leave. Don’t make this mistake. Use your own numbers, and only use these companies as backups.
Think about it, What if your local phone company just decided to stop allowing you to take calls automatically without telling you? Or if your cell provider stopped allowing you to use voicemail without telling you? Or if your Cell provider stop sending text messages to your phone on a whims notice and you didn’t realize it until one of your buddies had to call you and say, “What’s up Homie”. Then to fix these problems you had to escalate it all the way up to upper management in some cases. Not a very good choice of companies to use, is it. Learn from our experiences- DO NOT USE CALLWAVE!!!
I will post this in many locations soon. I will give Callwave one final chance to fix the issues and make amends, but honestly, I do not believe they will do right for our company. Buyer beware, stand clear of Callwave.
How do they get you? You begin to use their services (at least in our scenario) and their number and now issue that number to everyone and you get hooked into the “Callwave” number. And then you must stick with them.
Yes, when they communicate with you, they really don’t. Callwave has no clue about communications. They know a lot about tricking their public with deceitful Word-Smithing and unscrupulous business practices. A company that I would almost bet is into this for some other reason unbeknown to you or me. I just hope that maybe, just maybe, a writer, editor, reporter, someone reading this and some of the other’s who have come forth and decides to do some “Investigative Reporting” on the company and finds some things that in this writers guess go beyond being a Telephony company of good moral value. After all, it is beyond me how any company can make so many mistakes, be so blatant about their lack of communications, their open ability to trick their buying public, make many attempts to appear to have “such a great deal”, and then make offers or changes to your accounts that practically push you away. And to think this is a publicly traded company. It is hard for me to believe they really care about building up a company, and are not just a façade for something else. What? Who knows?!
It really is scary to believe that they are a Publicly Traded Company, but they are and any shareholder has the right to know the truth about what is going on with them??? Remember one thing -
DON’T WASTE YOUR TIME WITH CALLWAVE!
I leave you with one last thought, whether you are a Callwave Fan, or someone more angry with them than, well, even me; think about this-
How much money do you think they are really making? The company has been around since the late 90’s. They give away their product. Everyone I talk to, EVERYONE, has never heard of them. They say they have been profitable; sure, maybe, maybe not. Their founder has government ties with FBI, Homeland Security and who knows what else. They brag as to amassing millions of users in such a short period of time- what does that boil down to?
What are they getting from you when you sign up for an account? What have they gotten from me and everyone else that signed up for an account in the old school Callwave?
They got our phone numbers. They got the numbers we use to communicate to our friends, families, love ones, business associates, etc. Once they get those numbers what do you think they do with them? Do you think they are amassing a database of numbers, messages, text messages, and even the ability to turn voice messages into text messages just for the heck of it?? Maybe, and maybe not.
Honestly, I don’t know, that’s why I’m asking you? A little company out of no where all of sudden boom. They have created quite a facade over the last 10 years; you have to, even if you like them, ask WHY? Don’t tell me to become a profitable company. A profitable company does not make the kind of mistakes they make over the course of time.
Remember, feel free to repost this message anywhere. I hope it helps you make a decision and be safe in Cyberspace.
If you know of any good alternatives please send them my way; I have lots of people looking for a “REAL” good telephony company.
Good Luck,
Anthony
C/O Mike’s Blog - http://blog.mikelanestudios.com/?p=23
PS. Thanks Mike for not being afraid to Blog the truth!!
I’ve used callwaves voice mail and text widget and they were alright. NOthing to fancy and I hardly ever use them. there is Vtxt now that i have to try to see if callwave can redeem my interest. Let’s see if they can catch my interest like Jott has (jott.com). Great app jott is! Free and highly integratable to other apps like Vitalist and RTM. Get things done….ohhh yeah!
My fax is down. There is no one to speak with. There is no phone number except for sales. They will get in four hours from now.
My business runs on this fax machine. What am I to do?
Callwave sucks!
Stay away from Callwave. I became a victim of their bait and switch tactic.
Don’t get used to their free services because they eventually becomes a premium service and they will only give you very short notice.
Luckily, I was able to port my fax numbers from them when they start charging me $8/month. It was very difficult to cancel my account with them and they continuously charged my credit card after cancellation. They don’t have a published tech support phone number on their website, so that really tells you something. If you are currently a Callwave subscriber, yes you can port your phone number to another provider.
What’s wrong with all of you? Caveat Emptor! If you don’t like the service, quit! Why the angst? If you like Callwave, stick around. If you don’t, then just leave it behind. Callwave is a business. It is not your entitlement. Get over yourself!
Hello Mike’s Readers and all who might use Callwave. This is in response to my above writing:
“Very Unhappy Callwave Aficionado Aug 6th, 2007 at 1622
Hello Mike, and to all his readers, and CALLWAVE USERS”
Well to put it simply, after 4 months and many, many conversations with Callwave, IT STILL SUCKS!!!
In a nutshell, (and no this isn’t a government conspiracy theory, unless you want to call it that) I don’t believe Callwave really wants to be a successful company.
They have board members with Government ties. They really don’t try to fix anything (this has been proven over and over and over again - but mostly due to their “Wordsmithing”- our company sent them a letter YEARS ago about how their marketing ploys were horrible).
Our company has had many conversations with many people at the company, including the Executive level, and they just seem plain dumb. So what does one do who has become “married” to a company like this because of the PHone Number issue. We are looking into it.
If you have a Phone number with Callwave we have heard (here and elsewhere) that you can Port that number. We’ll, we are looking into it. But what is most unfortunate is, this company came out and seem to be a “media darling”, a beauty of a company that seem to be genuine.
So yes, there are some of us that think this company could be part of that whole Telecom thing of collecting data from users (Verizon, ATT, etc.) and giving it to the government. Maybe they started it all. Sheeesh, who knows, maybe this company IS THE GOVERNMENT. Does anything fool you anymore??? God I hope not. This government that is currently in the USA is really capable of anything, but does that mean we should give up? Hell no!! It just means we have something wonderful to look forward to; well, at least I hope so. But it does mean that we have to be very careful with our “Freedom” and what and who we choose to trust- that is what is very sad.
Have fun, and do stay away from Callwave, unless they have something totally free and you don’t have any problems being a lifelong Beta Tester.
Anthony
Thanks to Mike again for his efforts. And these words are available to anyone to post anywhere just as long as they refer back to Mike’s blog!!!