US trip is very common if you work in any software company these days, and any desi who lands in US will be confused as to which calling card they need to pick, to make phone calls back home.
If you have friends in the US, then it is not a problem as they would have tried out most if not all the options, and will be in a position to guide you to pick the best service available.
Note: I’ll update this page as and when necessary and when things change.
I had two options, either Airtel call home or reliable calling. The first calling card I tried was Reliable calling https://www.reliablecalling.com . Unfortunately, I made a wrong choice to start with.
Reliable calling had a Christmas offer running, it cost only 3.9 cents / min and Airtel call home was priced at 5 cents / min. I thought I’d go with the cheaper option to start with and bought a $10 package.
My first call was fine, but later that night the actual problems started. To get through a single call I effectively had to make a dozen attempts. I could barely hear any thing from the other end, even if I did manage to get through the call. Essentially, I had to try 15 – 20 times which included 3 – 5 drop calls to make one successful call!! Half the rime the IVR failed to recognize the number I was trying to reach – I was greeted with this message “I’m Sorry, I’m unable to understand the number” !
I’m not exaggerating, seriously !! Guess they have failed to implement a decent IVR ! What’s more frustrating is, Reliable Callings customer care sucks. No one bothers to respond to any of your mails !
Lesson learnt – All that’s cheap is really not worth a penny !
Look at this call summary and you’ll realize that I’m not kidding :
Now Airtel has their republic day offer running, and my roomie suggested to pick up Airtel as he’s never had any problem so far.
This week will be trying Airtel Call Home package and see how exactly it works out for me.
**Update**
[…] Call Home Rocks So Far !! Reliable Calling Sucks … yes, read my review on reliable calling and learn how bad the experience with Reliable […]