Thread: Landline Service For Office Line

While compiling my business expenses for 2010, I noticed I paid over $1,000.00 in long distance charges for my office line. It seems the bulk of this comes from when I forward my office line to my cellphone when I'm out of the office. These forwarded calls are recognized as toll calls due to the switching area where my cell phone exchange is based. I definitely need to do something about this and was thinking about switching the service I use for my office line while to Comcast Voice. The service I currently have is Verizon for the basic service and AT&T for long distance. The first 6 months of Comcast would be $27.00 per month and $47.00 per month after the promo with unlimited calling.

Does anybody have Comcast Voice? If so, how do you like it and is it reliable? I obviously want to save money but the service has to be reliable.

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I stoped my land line about 1-2 years ago.
The office was always forwarded to my cell anyhow.

My old office # is now my cell phone #.
Since my cell has unlimited minutes, saves me about 500-600 a year.

Why not just get a Verizon wireless phone and have your Verizon landline number moved to be your cell phone number?

rick

There are landlines still in service?

I still have a land line for the sake of giving it to folks I never want to talk to and about 3 to 4 faxes every six months.

The wonders of never picking up that phone knowing that It was from others I never wanted or intended to talk to is wonderful. I do not even have the ringer on and check the messages on a rare occasion. I get so few messages that it will tell you that it is marketers that never make it to the message recorder. The nessages are those that would never have a response anyway.

I'm not looking to ditch the landline. It has been my office number for 8+ years and is on every business card I have out there. I just want a cheaper landline option. I'm just not interested in conducting my business entirely through my cell. Like Ted, I only give my cell # to people whom I want to have it.

Over the years, there have been various times with various carriers when either my cell phone was dead or there were problems with the carrier. Its been nice to be able to forward to a land line,and pick up the calls immediately when I'm in the office, but I'm not sure how much longer I can justify the additional expense.

I just checked my 2010 business expenses. Between monthly charges for my office and fax line and long distance changes, I spent over $1,800.00 and it's just me. Tolls charges alone were over $1,200.00 Ouch!!! Defintely time to make some changes here. I might bag this fax machine too. The only faxing I do is for radon and termite orders but I can covert those order forms to PDFs and e-mail them.

A few people I know are using Google Voice, and really like it.

My fax was on a dedicated line. I dropped the line and moved the fax onto the personal house line for outgoing messages. I use MyFax for $10.00/Mo and messages go to the business email account which I also get on the phone.

I'm also weening off of the business land line. Have changed the phone # on printed stock to my cell # as I have to reprint cards etc. Right now any call to the land line gets a recording to call my cell. I'm at the point now where almost no (desired) calls are coming in on the land line and I'll soon be dropping that as well.

I use MagicJack for my business line. $19.95/year and messages are forwarded to my email as an attachment which I also get on my cell.

Here is an idea:

If you want to keep your old business # and land line get MagicJack or something similar and make all your outgoing calls from that phone. That way you will only be paying the base rate for you business land line since you will only use it for incoming calls. After time you can phase out the land line if you wish.

Originally Posted by Bruce Ramsey

There are landlines still in service?

Haven't you seen the Pergresso soup commercial????

Keep your present cell phone and #.
Convert your cell plan to a family plan where the 2nd line would be $10/m additional.
Carry over business (land line ) # new (2nd) cell phone.
Get a cell phone that can be hooked via USB to computer and have computer handle fax.
May be a way to have 2nd # transfer calls to 1st, not sure.

Have wondered about the Magick Jack.
Not heard from real user for a true use review that I could trust.
The " If it sounds to good to be true, it is."

I have been using Vonage for about 7 years now. I have a 866 number, 2 voice lines and dedicated fax. One of the cool features is simultaneous ring. When a call comes in, it will ring the office line and designated numbers. This way if my partner is away from the office an incoming call will automatically ring to her cell phone. If I happen to be in the office whoever picks up first grabs the call. It works out cheaper than Comcast and the quality is good.

//Rick

Rick, I like the sounds of Vonage. I checked out their prices and you're right.....much less expensive than Comcast. I sent you a PM.

Originally Posted by Nick Ostrowski

I'm not looking to ditch the landline. It has been my office number for 8+ years and is on every business card I have out there. I just want a cheaper landline option. I'm just not interested in conducting my business entirely through my cell. Like Ted, I only give my cell # to people whom I want to have it.

Nick,

You don't have to give up the number associated with your landline if your with Verizon.

I once had a landline with Verizon and went I went with them on a Verizon wireless phone, they linked my landline to my cell phone which cancelled out that monthly bill for the landline itself.

My cell phone still has a separate number but when my clients call my landline it is forwarded to my cell. If I don't answer it just rolls into a voicemail just like your landline does if you don't answer.

I don't care if they call me on a landline or cell as long as they call me, right.

rick

Originally Posted by Nick Ostrowski

Rick, I like the sounds of Vonage. I checked out their prices and you're right.....much less expensive than Comcast. I sent you a PM.

Everyone I've ever talked to about Vonage says the quality of the call reception is poor.

rick

I use Google Voice - One phone number rings my home in off hours, my office 9-4 when staff is working and my cell during the n-between hours. We hardly every miss a call.

Comcast for phone (dig=no long distance)
Google Voice (free)
Cell (regular charges for cell)

Collectively I think I pay about 150 bucks a month. Smart money since I have total control of phone system up and down time.

Google voice sends me an email of all recorded missed calls (I don't have that many) and I can forward the emails (voice recording is attached) to anyone I want. Recording has voice-2-text feature so I can read the email (that part sucks as software does lousy job).

All-n-all I'm happy with office lines...

After having moved a few times, I've ported my business land line to a cell phone. That way if I move out of the area my business phone number will never have to change. It moves with me.

I also have a land line that I forward my cell phone to - for coverage from home/office. I can also forward the cell to my wifes phone, If I need her to cover for me. I like the land line because it's easier to talk on. You don't get that cross-talk delay thing that you get with cells.

I use Comcast voice. It's perfect!! Dependable, clear and cheap. I have the bundled services, and the business land line is a no frills, no long distance, no white pages listing no nothing phone. I use it only to forward my cell to. (I don't even no what the number is?)

There are several websites for FAXing. Depending upon the number of pages, you can send FAXes for FREE. One example is faxzero.com, 3 pages FREE, two times each day. If your only need for a landline is FAXing, then consider internet FAXing.

It may not be available in your area but check out ClearWire.
I recently dropped my house/office landline, my Sprint hotspot dongle for my field internet access and saved about $40 a month.

It's a 4G system and even my house internet connection is via a wireless/wired router and access point. Wicked fast, much faster than the old DSL. Typical speeds are 3-6 Mbs whereas the DSL was >1 mbs on a good day.

Breakdown:
Previous setup; Wired DSL service for Internet
Wired land line for phone/Fax
Sprint AirCard for mobile broadband
AT&T for long distance
Total cost: $140/month

New system: Clear 4-G for home internet for both wired Cat-5 and Wireless, home/office phone on Voip & a Clear Mobile hotspot that uses 3-G or 4-G depending on availability and up to 5 connections at the same time. In other words, others can use my hot spot while I'm using it.

Total Cost: $109/month + much faster speed, unlimited FREE long distance to US and Canada and Mobile access almost anywhere for my laptop. I can even use the WiFi with my Droid phone. (Wifi can be faster for downloads than cellular)

I also use the Google voice system as my voice mail. Sweet, love not having to call in to check the VM, Text shows up and I can decide when it needs to be handled. Ya, the voice transcription is crappy but you can glean the gist of the call at least and decide. You can access your Google Voice on the web and actually listen to the call if needed. Plus it stores all the calls and you can keep or delete as you wish for your records.
Love technology, especially if it saves me money, works better/faster or is FREE as in free beer.

Vonage has worked great for me , about $25 a month and no long distance charges, works great for a fax line as well.