The “IF” that I missed

My excitement turned into a frustration this morning. After making a call to an offline Gizmo user, which was directed to a mobile number, I suddenly heard a notification that I only had 30 minutes left for a conversation. I could not believe what I heard and I kept talking with this person until I finally found out that I talked to myself.

I tried to contact this user again as I understood that I had the rights to call for free to landline and mobile numbers of Gizmo user with a qualifying number from one of the 60 countries, who was not online. A Gizmo voice message advised me to buy Gizmo Out credit to call this user's landline and mobile numbers of the person or call this user by PC-to-PC calling method for free. Interestingly, the voice message told me to check Gizmo Free Call Plan. If this user has a qualifying number, I may contact him/her for free.

Having received this confusing message, I checked the Gizmo project website again and found same information as I understood. Yet, I checked further the Gizmo website and found the following “IF” statement in FAQ that I missed before.

Calls between Gizmo Project users on the PC have always been free. The All Calls Free plan extends this "free calls, anytime" concept by allowing Gizmo Project users to make free landline and mobile calls to other fellow Gizmo Project users in 60 countries around the world.

If both parties are logged into Gizmo Project, you should just make a Gizmo-to-Gizmo call, which has always been a free call. If the person you want to call is not currently online or logged into to Gizmo at the time you call, you can then dial the "home phone" or "mobile phone" numbers they have added into their Gizmo Project profile.

That call will be free provided (IF):

(a) You both are active Gizmo Project users, which just means you make a few calls a week using the software and

(b) are calling a qualifying number in one of the 60 countries for which the plan is offered.

Skype and Gizmo

I have been using Skype and Skype Out extensively to communicate with friends and relatives abroad for the last two years.

Unless my friends and relatives have Skype account and be online, I would not able to call and communicate for them for free. The only possibility in this kind of situation was to call their landline or mobile numbers. Then, I need to have some credits in my Skype Out.

Calling international numbers with Skype Out is indeed cheaper compared to other VoIP services. However, one of the challenges is put the credit in my Skype account. Once, I used my European credit card. The process was fast and easy, but I needed to pay quite a lot of luxury tax. Now, I use my Asian credit card. In the beginning, it took quite a while for Skype to trust a credit card from this particular country, but finally after several time of transactions with the same card, the process becomes easier for a trusted customer :). Using this Asian card does not cost me extra for a luxury tax. Yet, I still have to pay to make a call using Skype Out.

Recently, I found Gizmo that offers similar services as Skype. Gizmo indeed requires my friends and relatives to have Gizmo account. This is indeed a good promotion efforts of Gizmo. Gizmo also has Gizmo Out service that enables you to call landline as well as mobile numbers of non-Gizmo users. Leaving message at Gizmo is also more convenient because the message will be forwarded to your e-mail that you can access anywhere even with your mobile phone.

There is also an attractive service offered by Gizmo Project that makes me think to use Gizmo more often than Skype nowadays. If my friends and relatives are Gizmo users and they put their landline and mobile numbers in their profiles, I can call to these numbers for FREE.
Isn't that wonderful?
(Note: you need to check the list of countries where you can call their landline and/or mobile numbers)

This actually creates a win-win situation for Gizmo as well as its users. They can get our data for free and we can use their call service for free as well.

One thing to remember
When you use Skype, don't ever open your Gizmo or vice versa, because either one of the programs will not work (even in my Apple).