ProBargainHunter.com

I learned about Frucall a while ago but have never really taken time to look at it until today. This is one of those things that you put into your back burner and never have time to go back to again. I guess one of the reasons is that I am just not doing much shopping in the stores these days. Except my groceries and maybe some stuff for home (think Target and Home Depot) I seem to buy everything else online. Why is it important? Read on.

Frucall is about assisting you in making the decision should you buy the thing you are looking at in the store or order it online -- and you do it all from your phone. How does it exactly work? If you just want to check the price you dial 1-888-DO-FRUCALL from your cell phone, wait for the short commercial to play (this is how Frucall makes money), and enter the UPC or ISBN number of the item you want to check. If the item is found on-line then you will hear the price range and the list of stores selling it.

I have tested UPC's off of several boxes from my recent purchases (those that I could find around the house) and the results are pretty satisfactory. Most of the items were found with the exception of stuff I bought from Sams Club and Costco. As for the prices, the popular items such as printer or tape recorder would return 2-3 alternatives while less popular items would only have one or none at all.

In addition you can do such generally useful things like bookmark the item you are checking the price for or leave yourself a voice message tagged to that item. This might work for some however I prefer to use my PDA for things like that. First, it is visual (I can see it on the screen in front of me), second it is accessible (turn on PDA and go to your notes), third it is processable (I can copy, email, edit, or delete my notes).

If you sign up with Frucall for a free account you can then buy things on the spot via Frucall if you like the on-line price you hear. Keep in mind though that Frucall works off of a network of affiliated stores and this alone already indicates that there is a good chance you will not get the best price (think cash back).

In general I see one big problem with using this tool. Making a call and checking the price takes time and you are not going to do it for small items like tooth paste or a magazine. So it really works for big ticket items (priced $50 and up). The advanced shoppers (the most likely users of this service) will do their research before going shopping for anything this expensive. The mainstream shoppers do not know about Frucall or do not care.

So is Frucall a useful shopping tool or a toy? I think it is for each of you to decide for yourself. Everything depends on your personal shopping habits. As for my advice to Frucall team, get additional funding, do more mainstream media ads, and... support blogs like this (my big evil grin goes here). Educating shoppers works to your benefit.

I have just discovered a company that will let you make free calls to a number of countries around the world using your regular land line phone. The company name is Jajah. It is a start-up founded by two Austrians Roman Scharf and Daniel Mattes and headquartered in Mountain View, CA and Luxembourg.

So how do I call for free and what is the catch? From their web site:

The JAJAH Free Global Calling Plan applies to land line and mobile calls to and within the United States; Canada; China; Hong Kong; Singapore and Taiwan and it applies to landline calls to and within Australia; UK; Germany; France; Italy and most other European nations

There is no catch as far as the pricing goes. All calls between these countries are really free (note, the second group of countries excludes calls to cell phone numbers). The only thing is that both the calling and the receiving part have to be Jajah registered users (the registration is free and only took me a minute of my time). There is also a pretty lax limit of 1000 free minutes per month that you shouldn't exceed to stay within their definition of "fair use".

So how does it work? It really is very easy and you can try it for yourself right now -- no registration needed -- the company is giving away a free 5 minutes call to anyone who wants to try their service. You can use the 5 minutes to call any number around the world. To give it a try go to their home page, type your phone number, type your friend's number and click the big green CALL button. First your phone will ring. Pick it up and wait till it connects you with your friend. That is it.

If you happen to have friends or relatives in Canada, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Australia, UK, Germany, France, or Italy -- this is a really easy way to save on those international calls. If you don't see your country in the list then take a look at their rates page. You might like what you find there as the rates seem to be pretty competitive.

Now, before I call I really want to know if this is a free call. Guess what, they got it covered! Here is how you check:

You can see if your friend is reachable for FREE after you type in his phone number and hover the mouse to the call button - if it's free you will see: "This call is FREE"

If you don't see "This call is FREE" -- make sure you are calling one of the countries above. If this is the case then send your friend an email and have them sign up to the service. When they sign up they will register their work, home and cell number to their account. These are the numbers you should be calling to qualify for the free service.

Now, free is great but how do the companies like this stay afloat? Here is what CNN Money has to say about it:

Economically, there are two tricks to making this work. First, the Mountain View, Calif., firm does charge for some calls -- to European mobile phones, for example -- and for services such as conference calls. On average, Scharf says, Jajah is making $10 monthly from each paying customer. These fees subsidize the free calls.

In a nutshell the paid customers subsidize your free calls. Well, this pretty much looks like any Web2.0 venture these days, doesn't it?

Update 11/15: I just called Scott @ OzBargainBlog in Australia to test the service. I should say the voice quality wasn't perfect but it wasn't too bad either. The usual delay and some static -- average for an international call.

Update 11/19: What does FREE.YOUR.VOICE mean and who is this Jajah man? This web site may give you some idea.