Frequently Asked Questions:

Q: I am looking for a service where I can receive a fax (virtually) and have an alert sent to my cell phone. either print the fax from my PC or route it to a physical fax machine.
You can do all that and more by signing up for any Freedom Plan with the optional EMail Voice & Fax Messages for $10 per month extra (included if you sign up for WebLink) and the Fax Mail option ($5 per month).  AdTrakker incorporates all the options you need for $24.95.

Voice and Fax messages left on your Freedom system can be sent to any email address.

This saves tons of time. Messages and faxes show up as attachments on the emails we send you and can be double clicked to open. Voice messages are played as .wav files and can be stopped, started and saved on your computer. Fax messages can be viewed, printed and saved as well.

With the WebLINK option, by logging in to the Freedom website you can also view your faxes and voice messages stored online in your account on our Freedom servers. This is handy if you are on the road and don't have access to your office email account but can get out to the web.

The Freedom system can notify you of received faxes either by a call or by email. You can also call in to check for any messages.

You also have the option to print your faxes from the web, email or direct them to a physical fax machine #.

Q: Do the minutes in the 250 plan roll over?
A: No. Packaged Minute plans are billed monthly and every month thereafter. Minutes not used during the month are not rolled over to the next month. Packaged Minute plans are billed automatically every month until the subscriber contacts FV to change to a different Packaged Minute plan or to the standard "per-minute" plan.

Q: Do my special rate minutes expire at the end of each month?
A: The special rate minutes are offered when you prepay for a specific block of minutes. The more minutes you buy the better your rate. If you see that you are not using up all your prepaid minutes you are free to change your minute plan to a smaller package before the monthly automatic renewal date for your account.

Q: How fast is my 800 # allocated to me (whether or not it is up and running) and how will I be contacted to know what that # is?
A: Orders are processed twice daily (at 10 AM & 3 PM PST). Standard Toll-Free #'s are assigned very soon after processing and the subscriber is informed via email of their FV Toll-Free #. Standard Toll-Free #'s and FV Systems are available for use as soon as subscriber is informed that a their Toll-Free# has been assigned.

Assignment of "vanity" Toll-Free#'s or the transfer of an existing Toll-Free# to FV can take up to 2 business days, but subscriber will be informed via email as soon as service has been established.

Q: How do I get a specific toll free number, sometimes referred to as a "vanity number"?
A: Generally, a customer will indicate their choice for a toll free# on their application for a FV package and receive an answer directly from them about availability.

The search for a vanity# can take up to two business days.

As a courtesy to our prospective customers, we can email vanity@freedomvoice.com with the 7 digit number required. FreedomVoice will search a national database which will return availability of toll free numbers in descending order: 800 \ 888 \ 877 \ 866.

We can inform our client of # availability and they can choose at that time to order an FV package. FV will put a hold on those #’s until an order is received. Customer should inform FV that a special # has already been reserved for them at the direction of Voice Information Systems, Inc.

It should take a couple of business days for a newly acquired toll free # to be incorporated and correctly routed to the FV customers package.

Q: Can I take my Toll Free# with me if I decide to cancel my Freedom service?

A: Yes. Your Toll Free Number is fully portable. Just make sure to have your new phone service carrier reserve the number for you before you cancel your service with us. If a toll free number is actively held by a carrier it is considered "abandoned" and therefore "up for grabs" to anyone!

Q: Is there a charge for recording and editing greetings & prompts?
A: Messages and prompts are recorded and edited by calling in to your Freedom system. You will be charged at the "one-way" per minute rate you established for your account. As always, you are only charged in 6 second increments so you'll never pay for a full minute if you are only connected for a portion of a minute!

Q: Why do you require a $25 prepayment on usage?
A small prepayment is needed to cover the cost of calls, because each system has a toll-free number, and we do not limit access to that number. Having you prepay the usage allows us to keep our cost to you as low as possible.

Q: How do I set up my messages if I don't order the WebLink?
A: Once you've ordered you will receive your toll free # via email confirmation as well as a password. You will call into your account and make the message set up via your telephone.

Q: Can I record my messages from the WebLink?
A: Messages are recorded via the RecordEASE system and your telephone.

Q: Is there a set up charge?
A: Yes.  The setup fee is $25 and is non-refundable if you decide to continue with FreedomVoice past your 30-day money back guarantee period.  If you request a custom or vanity toll-free # you will be charged for that purchase. Unless you select a discount minute plan, you will be asked to pre-pay your minutes. There is no long term contract and you can cancel at anytime.

Q: How much will the FreedomLITE (or other packages) cost me?
A: All pricing details will be given as you place your order. If you don't like what you see you can back out of the order process at any time.

Q: Why should I order FreedomLITE (or other packages)?
A: Freedom packages offer ease of use, no long term commitments, great toll free rates, 6 second billing increments, great options.

Q: Can I change my monthly minute plan?
A: Yes.  Special rate per minute plans renew automatically each month but you are free to change to a different minute plan or to the standard rate option, any time before your plan automatically renews for the month.

Q: Could you explain how the Follow-Me-Live-Call-Transfer works? I have a home phone & cell phone, but they both have voicemail. Can this feature try both phones for a certain # of rings, but ultimately use the FreedomLITE voicemail box if I don't answer my cell or home phone?
A: Yes, that's precisely right! If you click through the WebLink tour (link at top right of our site, Tutorials, "WebLink") you'll see a graphical representation of the Follow-Me interface. You can set up numbers without WebLink (WebLink is extra with Freedom Lite) using just the phone (you are prompted through a voice menu) and you can have multiple numbers.

Q: I have a question about the fax option that comes with WebLink - do my customers simply fax to the toll free number, or do they have to do anything special at their end?
A: There's nothing special for your customers to do to send faxes. Receiving Faxes Through WebLink: Click on your "New" faxes, located under your "Received" folder. You can save, delete, move, view, or name your faxes for easy reference. Once you've clicked on your message to view, you can take notes on your fax, forward the fax along with your notes as an e-mail attachment, or forward the fax to a fax number of your choice. Through Email: Your faxes will be automatically sent to the email address/addresses you provide. You can also view the status of your faxes. More information is available from the FaxFreedom user's guide: FaxFreedom_Set_Up_Guide.pdf.

Q: Can I send faxes? ( like eFax ) ?
A: Yes, you can also send faxes, although it's not integrated into Windows like efax (it's more web-based). Sending Faxes: Click on "Send Fax", select a file from your computer, enter up to five destination numbers. You can also view the status of your faxes. You can learn more by downloading the FaxFreedom user's guide: FaxFreedom_Set_Up_Guide.pdf.

Q: How do I create the file to send from my application? Is there a fax option when selecting a printer?
A: To send a fax, you would use your desktop software to produce a file (such as MS Word to create a .doc file), and then use WebLink to upload and fax that file. So, for example, you could use Excel to create and save a .xls file on your local machine. Let's say you save it to c:\faxes\myfax.xls. WebLink would prompt for the file location, and you would specify c:\faxes\myfax.xls. Currently, we support the following file formats: .gif, .htm, .doc, .pdf, .xls, .txt, .html, .ppt, .rtf, .jpg, .tif . Also see the the FaxFreedom user's guide FaxFreedom_Set_Up_Guide.pdf for more information.

Q: We are interested in having a Toll free number in US and UK to be forwarded to Sri Lanka since our main customer base in the US and UK. Please send us all the relevant information on Call rates/Rentals/free phone numbers etc.
A: A basic system would cost about $10 to $30 per month depending on the options you choose. Your forwarded calls to Sri Lanka would be $2.64 (1.2825+1.3575) per minute, and the UK would be .2820 per minute (0.1035 0.1785). You can see the detailed International Rates list here.

Q: We are a Medical Transcription company and are looking for a system whereby a doctor can call a Toll Free number and leave a recording. This recording would then be converted a .wav file and transferred to a file server. DO you offer such a solution?
A: You may want to look at the "Freedom Lite" series of products. These are systems with a toll-free number that will email the resulting .Wav file to a server. If you need additional control, check out the "AdTrakker" product. With AdTrakker, you can identify the incoming email by the 3-digit extension used when placing the call. Prices start at around $9.95 / month, and varies based on features and minutes.

Q: I'll be traveling internationally and would like to be notified by email whenever I receive a voicemail. I don't want the voicemail actually emailed to me (just a notification). I want to be able to logon through the web to actually download the voicemail as an MP3 file. Is this possible on your FreedomLite for a toll free number?
A: Yes, you can use FreedomLite + WebLink (that's an additional option with FreedomLite, included in some of the other packages). Click here to see the "Notify by email with (or without) attached voice message option". You can also use WebLink to listen to the message (see the WebLink tutorial for details).

Q: Does your call forwarding / follow me number incur two charges, one to receive call and the other to call me? For example, what would be the cost for Hawaii residents, originating from Hawaii and destination Hawaii?
A: Yes, for calls that go through to your phone, there are two charges: inbound and outbound. Hawaii is part of the (regulated) US phone system, so you can calculate the charge using the standard rates, including prepaid minute rates.
For example, a 250 minute "prepaid minutes" plan would be 5.5 cents/minute. Since forwarded calls consist of 2 connected calls, you would be using 2 prepaid minutes every minute of connection. That would give you an effective rate of 11 cents/minute for forwarded calls. A 1000 minute plan would reduce that to 9 cents/minute.

Q: We are new company operating from abroad. We would like to have a tool free number for US and Canadian clients with the following functionality at a cost effective price:

* Initial greeting in our company name (female voice, content to be provided)
* Voice mail and Fax (both should be accessible through the web)
* Caller ID
* Web based administration.
* International call transfer may be required in the future.

Q: Please let us know the monthly charges and cost per call from within United Sates and Canada.
A: For your requirements, our FreedomPro system would be a perfect solution for your company. Canadian rates are 6.9 cents per minute (USD). This means if your call originates from any of the 48 contiguous US states, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, or Canada you only pay 6.9¢ per minute in 6 second increments. For connected (conversation) calls you pay an additional 4.4¢ per minute.

Q: I am interested in a New York number that diverts to our London office control room. Do you offer local numbers?
A: The FreedomVoice systems are 800/888 number based at this time. There is some testing of regional numbers, but it is only in the early phases.  However, you may consider another solution. For our software business, we use a regular Santa Monica number that rings at the office - if the lines are busy, or if no one picks up, it call forward to the FreedomVoice system using the 800 number. Something like that might work for you if you have an actual physical office in the city.

Q: What is the customization fee for a customer that would like to purchase one voicemail system with 2 numbers that ring into different main menu greetings?"
A: $8 additional per month

Q: Can your virtual office solution can let us have a local UK phone number that will forward all calls to a number in Israel? We will also need the service for local numbers at: Germany, France, USA, Spain.
A: The overseas routing can be done, but in a limited way.
1. Our toll-free numbers are only accessible from the US, Canada, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.
2. We CAN add local (POTS) numbers to a system for $10/month. They can be dialed from anywhere in the world.
3. POTS numbers are restrictive, in that after the second caller connects, the third gets a busy signal, so that is a possible bottleneck to what your client wants to accomplish.
So, for example . . . We add a POTS number to a FreedomVoice system. The client forwards his local UK number to the POTS number. We then forward to the number in Israel. Doable? Yes. Practical? Maybe. The US side of it, of course, we can do with the toll-free number. So, bottom line is that this can be done with a single FreedomXtreme and additional POTS numbers. The practicality and economics will need further analysis based on your detailed configuration.

Sample Question and Answer Mailbox Greeting

 “In order to get your order processed most efficiently please answer the following questions.  After answering each question dial any key to continue on to the next question.”  First question- “What is your name?  Please dial any key to continue on to the next question.”  The caller will then hear a beep, respond to your question and then dial any key to continue on to the next question.  Second question- “What is your address?  Please dial any key to continue on to the next question.”  There is no limit to the number of questions you can ask.

How to set up your Question and Answer Mailbox

1. Dial your toll free number
2. Dial * and the mailbox number (80-89)
3. Enter your pin number followed by #
4. Dial 5 - This takes you to your mailbox set up.
5. Dial 1 - This takes you to your greeting set up.
6. Dial 2 to record your introduction and first question
7. Dial any key when you are finished
8. The system will then prompt you to dial 1 to listen, 2 to re-record, or 3 to save.  DO NOT SAVE AT THIS POINT!
9. Dial 4 to continue to your next question
10. Repeat this process for each question
12. Dial 3 to save once you have recorded all of your questions

Q: Can I capture digits dialed instead of voice recordings?  For instance if I ask the caller how many t-shirts they would like to order, can they dial the number on their phone instead of speaking it?
A: Yes, the customization fee for this is on a case per case basis, but typically a one time fee of $50 per set of information they would like to capture, and then a monthly fee that varies.

Q: I am looking for a product which will allow our customers to call our main number, or a support number for support, and have it ring a number of phones. We will have primary contact, secondary, and so forth. The system we are looking for would need to ring the primary first, if they do not answer, it would try the secondary contact without going into either the first or seconds voicemail. Then it would try a third person and if they do not answer, it would go to a voicemail box, and the primary would be notified that a message was left. Also, because we rotate who is the primary and secondary person weekly, we would need to be able to easily change the order and numbers of the phones called. Can your service provide anything like that?
A: Yes, you can set up the "Follow me" phone numbers to ring a sequence of numbers for a specified number of rings, and then finally go to voicemail if not answered. The primary can be notified by email with an attached voice message. You can see the way it would be set up if you go to the top of this page, under tutorials, you will see a link for WebLink. The forwarding numbers, number of rings, etc are easy to set up.

Common System Customizations:

Immediate Call Forwarding
This feature connects your customer with you immediately without them having to go through a recording of options first! If you’re not available, it then takes your customer back to voicemail where they can leave you a message.- No Charge

Ask for Name and Number Before Sending a Fax
This feature is used alongside “fax on demand”. It prompts a caller for their name and number before sending them their requested fax back document. This is a great way to keep track of all your prospects!- $10 one time

External Rotation
This allows callers to be rotated between a pool of FreedomVOICE toll free numbers. This is a great way to distribute leads in a co-op situation! Each individual will have their own toll free number for their own leads, but they could also have their number put in the pool where they will get leads from the co-op! $50 one time and $5 per month.

Message Confirmation
This feature gives your caller the option to review their message before sending it to you.- $25 one time fee.

Time of Day
This feature will allow you to greet your customer with, “Good Morning”, “Good Afternoon”, or “Good Evening,” depending on what time of day it is.  This is a great personal touch for your system!- $50 one time.

Pin Protection Mailboxes
Any of your mailboxes can be pin protected, meaning the recording in the mailbox would only be able to be accessed by individuals who had the pin number.- $25 per pin protected box.

Digit Capture
This feature allows your caller to enter information using their touchtone keypad. These digits are then captured and e-mailed to you!- $100 one time set up fee.


Multiple Main Menus
This feature allows you to purchase one voice system, but gives you the ability to have different main menus that all share the same mailboxes. The greeting that is played is based on what toll free number is dialed (additional numbers would have to be purchased at $5 each per additional number)- $30+ per unique main menu (depending on default mailbox, etc.)

After Hours Greeting
Let your customers know when you're not in the office. Have a separate greeting come on after your operating hours. This will give them the confidence that you will get back in touch with them as soon as possible during working hours. The caller can still navigate throughout your system, listening to product information, requesting "Fax Back" documents, go through your "Automated Order Taking," etc, but they will know not to expect a live person. - $5 per month.

Personalized On Hold Music
We can load any selection of music on your system for callers to hear while they are waiting to be connected with you. Want something even more specific to your company? We can load informational recordings about your company as your hold music! What a great way to inform customers of your business!- $5 a month.

Internal Mailbox Rotation
Callers are distributed equally to employees on a 'round robin' basis, whether employees are in the same office or scattered around the country.- $50 one time and $5 a month.

Dedicated Fax
Allows you to have a separate number to give out as your fax number but have it tie into your FreedomVOICE System so you can have your faxes available through fax mail. Also, if you have email delivery or WebLINK you can have the faxes conveniently emailed to you making it even better. When using Dedicated Fax you can select any of your system mailboxes as the fax.- $5 a month.

Message Confirmation Number
This feature allows you to give a confirmation number to any messages left that is emailed to you with the message the caller left.- $100 one time set up fee.