Call Answering Service

[Rick F]

One of my home based businesses is in need of a call answering service which we can switch on and off as when we require.

We use to use a company called Armchair http://www.armchairanswercall.com/products/answercall.php

and we cancelled about 6 months due to us not using the service. However, a few things have changed and we now require the service again.

Armchair quoted us £50 a month (From £10 a month previous) plus 85p a minute (1st minute free). I'm quite happy to pay 50p-£1 per call and a small monthly fee but to pay £50 a month didn't seem justified.

Can anybody on this forum recommend such a service. I literally want someone body to take a message with contact details (no selling, no taking credit card payments, give quotes, etc) and e-mail the message to us.

Can anybody on this forum recommend such a service?

 

[Philip Hoyle]

I signed up for alldaypa yesterday which sounds OK - a £15 set up fee and then approx £1 per call/minute. Hopefully ideal for me as a very low call user. Can't say how good their service is yet, but the set up was done very quickly and easily over the internet - less than 5 minutes and the service was in operation.

 

[Rick F]

Thanks Philip.

I've just done some research on this company you mentioned and I found the following thread which might be of interest to both of us.

http://www.startups.co.uk/6678842911632125278/alldaypa-com.html

 

[alldayPA]

Can anybody on this forum recommend such a service?

Blowing our own trumpet, I know...but I can highly recommend alldayPA as well!

We offer competitive rates for our 24 hour call handling service. Their is a one off set up fee of £15 and our per min rate is 72 pence per minute.

The per minute rate is ideal for anyone who wants to use us on an ad hoc basis like yourself. You are guaranteed to have someone there waiting to take your calls 24/7 and you simply only pay for the calls that you receive.

Everyone's a winner!

Feel free to give me a call if you would like to discuss further.

Ruth

 

[MK Financial Solutions]

What about the people who are complaining about the prices/bills in Ricks link?

 

[gdhfs]

I have used a company callled Professional Call Minders based in Worcester for some time and have always been very happy with the service.

I think the basic charges are now £30/month including a number of calls with a reduced rate for a trial period.

Cheers

 

[alldayPA]

What about the people who are complaining about the prices/bills in Ricks link?

The thread you are talking about is from 2005.

 

[stevon]

So what?

You've, allegedley, given out personal information and charged someone for a service you haven't provided, whether this is true or not is not my point - the fact you seem to think because it happened three years ago it's alright.

Not to mention that the family behind alldaypa is as crooked as an Aberdonian fishwifes teeth...
"alldaypa.com was largely a failure and suffered huge financial losses. The company was bailed out by his parents who bought the company and called in administrators to try and turn the company around. They reduced his role from director to consultant.alldaypa.com was largely a failure and suffered huge financial losses. The company was bailed out by his parents who bought the company and called in administrators to try and turn the company around. They reduced his role from director to consultant." - Wikipedia

 

[Jenni384]

Can Wikipedia be trusted for this kind of info? I get the impression it's user editable and thus can't be taken as gospel.

 

[Rick F]

Thanks for the interesting points/views. Forums/Wikipedia can easily damage a companies reputation without real justification, so I take the information with (half) a pinch of salt!

For £15 set-up fee I think I am going to test the water. I've found out that they offer a fixed rate of 95p a call (no matter how long the call is) so I am going to take this option and see what service they come up with.

The fact that potential customers do not leave voice messages, spending this amount of money is worth the risk.

In a month's time I will repost on this thread with the verdict.

 

[kjmcculloch]

I've come across this, which I think will suit me as there is no setup cost or monthly fee, and only £0.99 per call. Don't know how good they are.

newopps.co.uk

 

[stevon]

If you check the sources on wiki then it can be a very accurate information, just like any website, newspaper or report on the news.

I've nothing against the company, just someone who thinks using someones personal information/providing a rubbish service is alright, as long as it wasn't recently.

 

[alldayPA]

So what?

You've, allegedley, given out personal information and charged someone for a service you haven't provided, whether this is true or not is not my point - the fact you seem to think because it happened three years ago it's alright.

The point I was trying to make was that the thread was from 2005, so I cannot possibly comment on specific details, as I was not with the company at that time. That said, we would not condone any bad business practices at all.

Regardless of what you may read, we are a reputable company and would not be one of the leading companies in our sector if we were constantly taking advantage of our customers.

Do you believe everything you read on the internet?

 

[Rick F]

I've come across this, which I think will suit me as there is no setup cost or monthly fee, and only £0.99 per call. Don't know how good they are.

newopps.co.uk

Just when I made my mind up, you've made me consider someone else!

Had a quick search on Google and cannot find any good or bad reviews. Company reckons it will be AIM listed soon so it must be fairly big, ie not a one/two man band!

The only issue I might have is that are trying to franchise the product which means any tom, di*k or harry could start running the branch in your area!

Any thoughts anybody?

 

[sm1]

Just PM'd you Rick

 

[sjt]

I've come across this, which I think will suit me as there is no setup cost or monthly fee, and only £0.99 per call. Don't know how good they are.

newopps.co.uk

I found this yesterday too! Looks interesting -

I was going to go for alldaypa @ 72p/minute pay as you go, but these guys offer 99p/call payg with no setup fees... (or at least cheaper setup fees!)

Has anyone used them?

 

[website_division]

Hi People,

Has anyone used any other answer services as I am in the market and looking for some feedback.

Ta,
Peter

 

[Rick F]

I found this yesterday too! Looks interesting -

I was going to go for alldaypa @ 72p/minute pay as you go, but these guys offer 99p/call payg with no setup fees... (or at least cheaper setup fees!)

Has anyone used them?

I phoned newopps.co.uk today. I got a message saying they were closed until August the 28th :|

As it is the 19th of September they have probably gone bust!

Lucky escape!!

 

[sm1]

Great advert for themselves

 

[bobster234]

Personally I like money penny - Found the service professionally run and they suit me. I particularly like not being charged for cold calling sales people. They can be found my searching for money penny on google. Used them for 18 months on and off.

 

[Happyeater]

We use Frog (The Answering Service). Used them for about 18 months or so and find them to be flexible and reliable. We shopped around and needed a 24/7 service, they came out best. Never let us down and nice people to deal with too.

http://www.frog.co.uk/answers/index-about.asp

Thoroughly recommended. Ask for Judy.

 

[blazing_air]

Ok, just to throw my hat in the ring... i had an email from this company the other day. callhandlingservicesdotcodotuk. (replace the dots)
Anyone have any experience of them.?
I thinking of giving them a go as i am probably what is classed as a low user and only want to be charged per call.

ta :|

 

[Simonhatfield]

I have used two answering services, The Hot Office and Moneypenny...

The Hot Office were excellent when I started using them, they are a business centre with answering bolted on, to begin with they didn't seem to have too many clients, this seemed to change, but all in all for a 'no frills' answering service I would recommend them to anybody, I think it was £22 per month and the £0.30p per call or something similar...

We left Hot Office after recieving some offers from Moneypenny promising 'Your Own PA' and a whole new level of service.

I have to admit I never did keep my diary up to date etc, but have just cancelled my service as I find them expensive, and to be honest really bad at times. I have had several contacts complain about how they have been spoken too by Moneypenny and they don't seem to take time to understand a call.

My Business Partners Sister called, and they required her to spell her full name and wouldn't try to transfer her or take a message until she had spelt her company name 'Phils Sister' ??? Which just seems bizarre...

Moneypenny are expensive too, however, if you use them, for example to book appointments etc. then it may be more worthwhile.

What I have noticed is they will all give a 7 - 14 day free trial, so give a few a try and see what you think, I would recommend Hot Office though.


Simon

 

[Philip Hoyle]

As an update, I've now been with Allday PA for just over a month. Not too impressed at all, sorry to say. They took too much money from my credit card the first bill - they didn't deduct their "initial" deposit which they claim was to prove the credit card worked. Just had my second bill and am shocked by both bills for the number of minutes charged compared with the messages they have taken - very short messages, just the callers name, number and very brief message (one line) and they're charging the best part of £2 for each message. I've emailed them for a log of their time to prove the bills, but I don't think I'll be carrying on using them as they aren't inspiring confidence in me. A couple of clients mentioned that the phone was answered by someone sounding very bored and disinterested - I phoned myself to see and yes, there wasn't much enthusiasm - it did sound like a typical bored call centre worker. I think I'll go back to just having an answering machine!

 

[Rick F]

As an update, I've now been with Allday PA for just over a month. Not too impressed at all, sorry to say. They took too much money from my credit card the first bill - they didn't deduct their "initial" deposit which they claim was to prove the credit card worked. Just had my second bill and am shocked by both bills for the number of minutes charged compared with the messages they have taken - very short messages, just the callers name, number and very brief message (one line) and they're charging the best part of £2 for each message. I've emailed them for a log of their time to prove the bills, but I don't think I'll be carrying on using them as they aren't inspiring confidence in me. A couple of clients mentioned that the phone was answered by someone sounding very bored and disinterested - I phoned myself to see and yes, there wasn't much enthusiasm - it did sound like a typical bored call centre worker. I think I'll go back to just having an answering machine!

Yes, we had the exact same experience for the 1st few weeks.

After receiving a hefty 2nd bill we asked if we could change to a capped 95p a call instead of 72p a minute but they said they could not do that straight away but eventually did after a week or so and bit of badging on my part.

Since complaining about the service they have improved the efficiency and the bills have come down so we are staying with them for the time being.

People don't leave messages on the answerphone so the call answering service is still viable!

 

[Mwebb]

I've been looking at similar recently, and found "time etc". I think their website is that name .co.uk. Prices seem OK if you are getting alot of calls. I am looking at them from a virtual assistant point of view, so that if I am out driving, I have someone that can answer the phone, take bookings, answers questions on our services etc.

Initially they look quite good, although I haven't actually had any meetings or spoken to them yet, so make your own decisions from doing that.

Michael

 

[glamourousgowns]

we use virtual receptionist - love it they email all messages to me and are very professional

 

[sm1]

Thanks a million for that post Philip - We were looking at using them within the next month and it has changed my mind Thanks for potentially saving me from allsorts

Cheers

 

[symmetryplc]

My name is Darren, I'd like to introduce our service to everyone. I work with symmetryplc.com we are an answering service much like the companies mentioned on this board.

If you visit the site, you will see a 7 day free trial... I welcome all to try our service, most invoices don't go above £50 and that includes 50 calls!

We have some neat free features, like web access to your calls and messages, messages sent to your mobile etc and our staff are very friendly

Hope to hear from you soon

Best Regards

Darren