Minute usage

[genxweb]

Is minutes charged against your account for calls not answered.

Yesterday while trying to get my devices to work with the service I placed several calls where my devices did not ring nor did any packets hit my devices. Though I did get almost a instant message from voipo about the number. I see minutes used against the account but no charge associated with them.

I just thinking about clients complaining about minute usage for calls that are not answered and calls they make that no one answers.

I understand charging if they get voicemail but just wanted to make sure that if there is no response either way that there is no charge.

Thanks

[MacGyverLabs]

The short answer is no, you are not charged for calls that are not completed.

However, as you pointed out, calls that receive voicemail or other messages are considered completed/connected, and do incur usage charges. For instance, if you have an account set to not accept calls from blocked numbers, and someone with a blocked number calls that account, the call will incur a one minute charge for delivering the "this number is not accepting calls from anonymous callers" message.

The long answer (to include the caveats) involves the overall network... VoIPo can only respond/act based on how the upstream carriers respond to their connection request. If the upstream carrier delivers a signal indicating a successful call completion, the billing system will consider it a successful call. This can sometimes become a challenge, especially with international calls, as I have come across a number of international carriers that indicate a call is successfully connected, even though the number is busy and they return a busy signal (or, sometimes, with no-answers). I have found the challenges/caveats to be increasingly rare, however I have encountered this situation more than once.

If the call history reflects a 0 for duration, you are not being "charged" for that call (ie busy signal, no answer, etc.). However, if call history indicates something other than 0, the call is considered connected, and thus triggering usage.
That said, keep in mind the following usage does not incur a reseller charge:
* On-net calls (calls to other VoIPo numbers - reseller or traditional VoIPo residential)
* Outbound toll-free calls (800, 866, 877, 88
* SIP calls (sipaddress@netaddress)
And, of course, on reseller accounts the first 1000 "billable" minutes during the month are waived (ie show up as $0 on call history).

Hope that helps

[genxweb]

Thanks that does help. I am trying to figure a pricing structure for clients that is competitive in the market of unlimited time (nothing is truly unlimited) that will not put me in the hole if they actually use more then what I am thinking.