Question
Since I operate a home based business, I'd like to keep business phone hours, Mon-Fri 9a-5p PST. Any calls outside of these hours would get sent to voice mail that would come to my e-mail inbox as a wav/mp3 file. Are any of your utilizing voice mail services, or even have purchased hardware that can do this?
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why not just put a answering machine on the line and let it pick up after normal hours ?
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hi mango man, I have an answering machine. There's no quiet mode, so I have to hear the message when a customer leaves a message. Just this morning * 6am (Sunday), I got a crazy call from a person in Massachusetts. In the future, I want to get my rest and avoid hearing calls that disturb my sleep. I'm all grumpy now three hours later. http://www.b00n.de/smileys/yellow/icon_smile_grumpy.gif If I redirect my calls based on time, I could have my weekends free and proper sleep in the mornings. 6am is just too early for me, especially on Sunday.
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well you could just switch the ringer off on the phone and turn the volume all the way down or off on the answering machine
thats what I do just a matter of getting into the habit.
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Not exactly what I had in mind, but that could work for now. I was thinking in the future, I could take a wireless laptop and mobile phone with me and have 800 number route calls to my mobile phone.
I see a company called Kall8 and gotVmail is offering something close to what I'm looking for.
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certainley something you could do just depends on how mush you want to spend
I tend to always go for the cheapest that does the job
you can get a auto attendent installed on the line that could route calls depending on the time of day
Im working with a customer now and we are setting his 800 number up to call forward to cell phones in 3 citys
for info in city a press 1, for city 2 press 2 for city 3 ect ect.
it all depends on your needs and how much you are willing to spend
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Now that I'm thinking about it, an automated attendant would be a fantastic idea. I just want make the phone line available for phone orders and sales related questions.
#1 sales - routes to me
#2 tech support - message about posting question to suport forum on our web site
#3 customer service - message to send an e-mail to service*mydomain.com
Phones are just like e-mail - you have to filter the spam out. I get so many calls from people who never purchased the product from me, but want all sorts questions answered about the product. How about contacting the people you bought it from?
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It's entirely possible that I misunderstood but I simply use my cell phone number for this part of the business and the calls I don't answer go to voice mail where I can pick them up at my convenience.
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umm i use Vonage for my business line. If you unplug the phone when you leave you can check your voicemails on the web instead of them going to your answering machine.
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If you have broadband internet and don't mind switching phone companies you may want to check out www.vonage.com or other companies that use VOIP(Voice Over Internet Protocal). You can keep your phone number and add additional numbers beginning with just about any area code you like. It has call forwarding and voicemail that can be accessed from the web along with many other features. I have only been using this service for 1 month but its great so far. The sound quality is about the same as a regular phone. There are several companies that offer this service and you should be able to find them on google.
Tony.