Frequently Asked Questions

How much does it cost?

We charge a flat rate 99p per call but you can buy call credit at up to 15% discount, reducing call costs to 84p. Optional text messages cost 20p per message (up to 3 std text messages long).

What hours are available?

We operate 24/7, 365 days a year.

Minimum Service Charge

There are no fixed monthly fees. However, there is a minimum account turnover of £5.00 per service number. This covers our cost of providing a dedicated line to our data centre. Therefore if you had spent £3.49p in call charges over the month you would pay a top up of £1.51 to cover the shortfall.

Who will be answering my calls?

When you sign up you will be assigned to a small team of 4 people who will primarily be responsible for your calls. If they are all busy your call would overflow to another group, but typically the same four people will be answering your calls. We find this approach works much better than anyone of 100+ handlers answering because it provides a more intimate relationship with account. Your clients, suppliers and key contacts will be typically speaking to the same people and we truly become an extension of your team.

Can messages be sent to different people?

Yes. You can set up multiple contacts i.e accounts, sales, etc. Each one can have different forwarding and messaging instructions.

I already have an advertised 08XX number, will this work?

Yes we provide a DDI number to route your 08xx service to us either for all calls or just on busy and no reply.

Is there any contact period?

No. You have the freedom to leave the service at any time. We're sure that if we do a good job you will be happy to continue the relationship over time.

I recommended Twitter friends, when do I get paid?

You will earn £10 for every client you recommend who subsequently signs up and adds call credit to their account. This can be paid to your bank or paypal account and will be credited within 7 days.

Call Credit

This is purchased in blocks of £25, £50, £75, £100, £150 & £200. There are extra % options available on each block if the account is still in credit at the time of purchase. We operate a pre-pay service. Credit can be purchased through our website. Our system notifies the client when the balance is getting low.

Invoices

The invoice is generated at the time of purchase of call credit. There is an option to print the receipt but the system also sends email confirmation. At other times you can log on to your account and view usage information and download call details etc.

0844, 0845 Numbers

We recommend a trading partner www.yourfreenumber.co.uk which easily integrates with our 0161 routing number for a comprehensive call management and messaging solution.

Call Transfer

Due to low use and high support costs we no longer offer call transfer to mobile or landline (Dec 08). Call routing to a mobile can be achieved using our partner site www.yourfreenumber.co.uk with our answering service as a back up if the call cant be answered.

Co-Location Data Centre

We have structured our business to continue to operate should we lose services to our main site. We have multiple servers to continue service in all but the most extreme situations.

Non-Std Call Charges

We charge (as advertised rates) for calls received, and a lower fee of 39p for non standard incomplete calls like answering message recordings, caller didn't speak, etc. See our optional 'Junk Filter' to avoid calls of this nature.

Fax Calls

If a fax comes through on your main line we will transfer to our own fax server & forward to you by email.

Sales Calls

We are happy to request any cold callers do not call again without prior contact from you. We offer a TPS registering service to help stop nuisance callers. We also have a unique filter which identifies multiple offenders and sends them to voicemail instead of a live handler. Voicemail is forwarded by email as an attached mp3 file and is free.

Junk Call Filter

We have an optional filter that sends 'known' junk call offenders direct to voicemail instead of a live handler. Answering thousands of daily calls, we can easily identify the main companies responsible for this type of activity (the switch energy providers, the Indian call centres, improve your Google position, etc). You still receive the message as an MP3 email attachment, but don't have the cost of the call.

Why Did I Receive Voicemail Instead Of A Message?

There are a few reasons why you may have received a voicemail instead of a live handler message;

Junk Filter – If the service has been previously registered for the Call Filter then the CLI (call line identifier) may be included in the ‘global’ or ‘local’ list of callers that should go to voicemail. This would also happen if you asked us to filter ‘Number Withheld’ calls.
Credit Out – If there is no credit on account the call automatically defaults to voicemail settings which is forwarded free of charge.
Limited Service – If you requested calls to be answered only by your immediate call team or only restricted hours then calls would default to voicemail if the team are all busy or the time stamp is outside of the requested hours. The answering hours are set in the user control panel. Out of Hours calls are charged at a 50p premium.
Regular Hang Ups – If a number regularly calls and hangs up on connection the system then sends that line to voicemail.
Friends and Family – To save you money you may have requested that calls by friends, colleagues or family members are picked up by voicemail rather than our live handlers.
Wrong Number – If the caller has previously called the line and then stated it was the wrong number, our system automatically filters them from coming through again.

Our filter is designed to keep your costs low by filtering out unwanted calls. If you feel you have received a voice message in error please feel free to reply to the message you received and ask us to investigate.