sundance-communications.com/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information Advice sought for home office setup

First, apologies for posting this in the "general" category -- but this isn't about a specific phone system. I'm looking for pre-purchase advice on what to get -- and this looks like an ideal place to ask, given the number of obviously knowledgeable professionals who visit here.

I run a small business out of a home office in an apartment building. My unit has two incoming lines -- one that I use for business, and the other that I use for personal use. If necessary, I could dedicate both lines to business.

I have call-forwarding and three-way calling on the business line, through the phone company.

I would like a phone system that does the following:

1) If the caller presses button X, the call is transferred to a cell phone ... and transferred reliably, with little possibility of 'bleeding edge' hiccups. I could occasionally receive emergency-type calls, and I want them to come through.

Power failures here are infrequent enough that I could live with the possibility of one. But I don't want to buy something that fails to transfer calls to the cell phone a good portion of the time, simply because it's finicky.

2) If the caller presses button Y, the call goes to a voice mail box.

3) If the caller presses button Z, the phone rings, and the phone is either picked up if someone is available to answer it, or sent automatically to a voice mailbox, if no one can answer.

4) Caller ID capable.

5) Not quite as important as #s 1 - 4, but it would be nice if the voice message format is in a fairly standard audio format, so the voice recordings could be made elsewhere and easily swapped in and out.

Other important considerations:

I'd like to install it myself, if possible. I'd rather spend $600 to get what I need than $1,600 -- but, I'll hire an installer and spend more money if that's what it takes to get what I need, particularly the reliable transfer of calls to a cell phone.

Right now Talkswitch looks very good to me, but I sure would like to hear from the professionals who visit this forum before taking the plunge. Is there another system that would do just as well, or better? I've read thumbs up for Talkswitch here, but a few thumbs down, too.

The only way to reliably transfer your calls to your cell phone and also maintain voice quality is with the Centrex transfer feature provided by your phone company. This would be done in conjunction with your auto attendent which would initiate the transfer when the caller presses whatever button you set it up for.

As for that and the rest of your shopping list just about ANY small system will provide them other than possibly your #5.

I have absolutely no love for Talkswitch and I doubt you read any here other than the propaganda provided by the paid Talkswitch schills who sneak past us.

I suggest you solicit recommendations from dealers in your area who will install, warranty and service it for you. This is not a do-it-yourself project.

-Hal

, Ajax 496


What Hal said, twice over.

Your vendor is more important than the equipment. Most systems will do what you want except some of the recording issues for the auto attendant. So the vendor does make a difference.
He is your "neighborhood professional". He will know what services are available in your area from the utility companies, what equipment to use, and assist you when you determine your needs.

If you need a vendor, look at the top of the page for the Installer tab.

Have a good week.

Question: Do you have future plans to relocate the SOHO out of the apartment?

Warning: I'm 99% sure the wiring to each phone jack in your apartment is what we refer to as daisy
chain. This will be the most difficult obstacle to overcome.

Opinion: Talkswitch......BOOOOOOOOOOO!!

There's no need for a system. Everything you desire can be achieved by the phone company these days; Forwarding and Custom call Rounting, especially with the small scale setup you have. Keep in mind though, that this will problably require "business" class phone service.

~r

Rusty, elaborate on this a bit more. Can the service provider set up an auto attendant to create the XY & Z scenarios requested here?

Yes,

Qwest offers this in our area and i suspect that many of the bells can do this now. One of our customers (small local ISP) used to use this feature. An offsite auto-attendant would answer either immediate or by ring delay, thus giving the customer the option for off hours tech support by pressing 1; which would forward to a specified (cell) number or 0 out which would start ringing the main phones.

Also for him to work around the looped wire situation (you spoke of), i would just by a 2 line cordless system which allows for multiple handset off one base.

~r

Thank you, Sundance experts, for your responses so far. I'm going to investigate the solutions suggested.

But in the meantime, of course, I'm curious about the low opinion of going Talkswitch. Before posting this question, I searched this board for all threads related to Talkswitch, and found mixed reviews ... but nothing that terrible. Is is much tougher to configure than their promotional material says, or is it unreliable, or prone to breakdown?

Thanks again for taking the time to respond.

As for personal preferance. I do not like the talkswitch product line. I have had several customers with it and they do not like the feature setup of the talkswitch. I would advise to go with another brand.

I would say NEC. Tends to be the most cost effective product for what you are asking the system to do.

Or I would advise as rusty nails stated that you use the local telco to provide your support as needed. I know in our area that cox communications does this function. As for LA I do not know who does it.

Ajax496:

We honestly try not to directly bash any manufacturer's product in this forum. There are actually strict rules against doing such. Most of us speak from experience with many of us having ten year's minimum experience in the industry. Most have much more experience than that.

When we see a product come along that offers to be a single cure-all for any application, it raises a few eyebrows around here to say the least. This particular product you mention hasn't been known to have been around very long by industry standards. That's why we can't say much about it. Again, we aren't going to bash it, nor can we offer raving reviews about. It truly hasn't been around long enough for us to have any true stories of experience to share.

Remember that many of us are "old phone guys" and will only speak for what we know. We also know that when someone comes along with needs that are relatively minor, we just can't justify recommending something that might cost three to five times what they really need to have.

From what you have described, many if not all of your requirements can be resolved by considering mixing telephone company features with low-cost hardware solutions at the onset. After you have tried this setup for a while, you can then fine-tune what you really MUST have, thus placing you in a better position to make an educated system purchase. You can then take this information and sit down with a telephone equipment vendor and be able to convey your needs in a very educated an experienced conversation.

Far too many times, we are effectively forced into selling someone (with basic SOHO requirements) a system that we know is more than they really need. Many times, this is based upon decisions that the customer has made by searching the Internet for information. The last thing that we want to do is to sell you overkill, only to have you come back and resent us for our having done so.

Although the phone guys are getting the bad rap by many newcomers to the industry these days, we really DO know what we are talking about. We aren't interested in taking your money. We are more interested in earning it.