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Virtual Phone System fo Small Businesses

13

Comments

  • banarbanar subscriber Posts: 2
    Hello again,
    User beibeijt told me about RingCentral.com It was really hard for me to choose between GotVmail, Accessline and RingCentral. I finally made my decision and I will get RingCentral.
    Ring Central is in business from 1991. I chatted with their live help today. They are available and ready to help 24/7. I didn`t have to wait long time for representantive. Gotvmail doesn`t have live help. Accessline does. I contacted Accessline`s online help 5 times and average wait time is 5-6 min and they are available only Mon-Fri.
    Ring Central offer local and toll-free numbers.ATTENTIONTheir 800 charge fee is the same as local. RingCentral charges only 1 billable minute per minute. They don`t have anything like IN and OUT minutes. Minutes come with plan and it`s your decision how you use them (in or out, voice or fax).
    I wanted to get local number but I will get toll-free because as I said they don`t charge extra. One more thing. When you buy plan with toll-free number, you are the owner of this toll free, vanity number. When you buy plan with local number, RingCentral is the owner, so let`s say in 2 years from now you want to switch to different provider. You can switch but you can`t transfer your local number from RingCentral to ex. Gotvmail.
    So one more time. Be careful with local plans. You are not an owner of local phone numbers offered by RingCentral.
    If you want Toll-Free, they are great.
    Thank you Joyce. 5 stars for you.
  • williamwilliam subscriber Posts: 2
    I`ve used RingCentral for about a year.  No problems with them.  The primary reason I went with them was to separate the 800 service from the local number.  I don`t use it for press 1, 2, 3, yada yada.  That is the most impersonable way with customers.Good luck.sd
  • wifistudioswifistudios subscriber Posts: 1
    It doesn`t seem like a bad choice, but I really don`t like programs that are not all exclusive. I still like MyVoiceEclipse.com because you get two phone numbers, two fax lines, and two voice mails. Unlimited amount of US, Canada, and Puerto Rico phone calls for only $19.99. They also offer large business solutions, but the $19.99 is great for a home business. You can always add toll free numbers or transfer your existing number(s).They also offer a free softphone. Thanks, jefe.
    wifistudios2006-9-13 19:9:12
  • banarbanar subscriber Posts: 2
    It doesn`t seem like a bad choice, but I really don`t like programs that are not all exclusive. I still like MyVoiceEclipse.com because you get two phone numbers, two fax lines, and two voice mails. Unlimited amount of US, Canada, and Puerto Rico phone calls for only $19.99. They also offer large business solutions, but the $19.99 is great for a home business. You can always add toll free numbers or transfer your existing number(s).They also offer a free softphone. Thanks, jefe. They don`t offer Virtual PBX, they are just regular voip company, like vonage, sunrocket etc.
  • banarbanar subscriber Posts: 2
    It`s probably true that customers like when they call my cell, because they don`t have to wait long for response. But sometimes I can`t pick up the phone because I`m really busy or I speak with different customer. When I`m on the road and don`t have pen or piece of paper and customer wants to schedule appointment I want to be able to transfer him back to voice mail, so he can leave me all his info. About 500-1000 min is enought for me. I`m getting more customers and I`m afraid that I won`t be able to do it longer only with cell.
    I`m also afraid that customers will not like my toll-free. They like local companies, not nation wide like Compusa, CircuitCity, Geek Squad.
     
  • vincentbizvincentbiz subscriber Posts: 0

    I use www.800pbx.com. They offer at just 3.5cents/min. I got a free
    local number and free voice artist announcement from them. There are
    news that they will also release audio conferencing feature very soon.
    looking forward to that feature.
  • jcoylejcoyle subscriber Posts: 0
    You have to be careful when companies talk about the price/minute.  You only get the 3.5 cents/min with www.800pbx.com</A> when you sign up for their Large Business system.  The normal $9.95/month plan is 5.9 cents/min.
  • vincentbizvincentbiz subscriber Posts: 0
    I made a research before getting a Toll Free number from 800PBX. I
    found many others are charging something or the other for there
    additional features like providing local number, getting a vanity
    number, voice artist announcement. I signed up for their free trial and
    it looks good. Then I signed up for the higher plan for $24.44.
    I  got a free local number, got free voice artist announcement ,
    and there was no setup fee for getting the Toll Free number.

    But 5.9cents for the basic plan will be charged once we finish off your
    100 free minutes. I think 5.9 cents/min for the basic plan is n`t too
    high when we look at other companies providing at 6.5cents/min.

    Thanks,
    Vincent




    vincentbiz2006-11-8 16:44:59
  • bpbp subscriber Posts: 0
    Virtual PBXs are great for many small businesses. The ablity to lay over
    cell phones is particularly useful.

    Here are a couple things to watch for and consider:

    Per minute fees -- In a VPBX there are actually two legs of a call, inbound
    to the VPBX and outbound to your cell or landline phone. Many providers
    charge you per minute on both legs. Add in your cell phone usage and
    you could be counting minutes 3 times over. Make sure to research this
    aspect before buying.

    Call Screening/Announce -- If you have multiple departments (press 1 for
    sales, 2 for support) does the service have a way to indentify to you or
    whoever is answering which department the call is for. It is very usefully
    for the person answering the phone to know the who the caller is
    expecting to talk to (sales, billing, support, etc).

    Attendant options -- Can you have to call answers live and then roll-over
    to a call tree or call tree first with an option to get an operator?

    Mobile controls -- Can you transfer an inbound call to another memeber
    of your company? Whether you are in the office or on the road, being
    able to transfer customers to fellow employees is vital. Asking customers
    to hang-up and call someone else is unprofessional. Customers may not
    call the other person leading to lost sales or frustration.

    Voicemail-to-email -- Once you have voicemail-to-email, you`ll never go
    back.

  • jcoylejcoyle subscriber Posts: 0
    Great overview.  Virtual PBX does everything you mentioned, and we only do single-leg billing.  You`re very correct in that you need to make sure how you get charged.  Don`t be enticed by the low per-minute pricing because you may be paying that price per leg, so the total price for a connected call is 2x what that company advertises.
    Please see the following website for a full list of Virtual PBX features:http://www.virtualpbx.com/services/comparison.asp</A>
  • pagejamespagejames subscriber Posts: 1
    I use an online service called RingCentral (www.ringcentral.com</A>).  People call into my 800 number and are forwarded to my cell phone (as well as other numbers I can specify).  If I can`t answer, the caller will be put into my voicemail on RingCentral which I can retrieve their message from my phone or online.
    An added bonus is since it`s a toll-free number, even blocked numbers show up on caller ID.
    It works for me really well.
  • williamwilliam subscriber Posts: 2
    I use an online service called RingCentral (www.ringcentral.com).  People call into my 800 number and are forwarded to my cell phone (as well as other numbers I can specify).  If I can`t answer, the caller will be put into my voicemail on RingCentral which I can retrieve their message from my phone or online.
    An added bonus is since it`s a toll-free number, even blocked numbers show up on caller ID.
    It works for me really well.RingCentral is a good service.  I`ve used them for over a year now.  The toll-free number and faxing are my favorites.
  • sarahmarshallsarahmarshall subscriber Posts: 0
    My company has 4 employees and they are all working from home and we are connected to a virtual pbx system which is hosted by our voice over ip company.  This works really well for us because we have one main number and individual extensions, voicemail boxes, and virtual departments and multiple telephone lines to make and receive calls on.  We got setup with http://www.easyofficephone.com
  • DirectorDirector subscriber Posts: 0
    Tomasz-
    I too am a member of the Brick Chamber and I`m located on Herbertsville Rd.  Drop me an email sometime and perhaps we can help each other out.
    Rick Avelendaravelenda@techsiteamerica.com
     
  • mattbizmattbiz subscriber Posts: 0
    If you want your customers to reach you 24/7 but you aren`t availalable all the time a voice mail system is for you. Since you`re business is computer related I recommended an internet voice mail service called 101voicemail which can be a low costs phone answering solution. They give a free toll free number which can improve your image separating you from your competition.
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