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 of the Virtual Office Products. Voice and Fax messages left on your 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.

Additionally, using the Web Management tool you can log into your account and view your faxes and voice messages. The Virtual Office 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: How fast is my toll free number 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 number on their application for one of the Virtual Office Products and receive an answer directly from them about availability.

The search for a vanity number 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. We 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 number availability and they can choose at that time to order a Virtual Office Product. We will put a hold on those #’s until an order is received. The customer should inform us that a special number has been reserved for them.

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

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 system. You will be charged at the "one-way" per minute rate you established for your account.

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

Q: I have a home phone & cell phone, but they both have voicemail. Can this feature try both phones for a certain # of rings, and then ultimately use the FreedomStart voicemail box if I don't answer my cell or home phone?
A: Yes, that's precisely right!

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.

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 the Web Admin tool 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. Web Administrator 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.

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: All of our systems come with a toll-free number that will email the resulting .Wav file to a server.

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 FreedomStart for a toll free number?
A: Yes, any of our products is capable of this.  Click here to see the "Notify by email with (or without) attached voice message option". You can also use the Web Administrator to review all messages online.

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.

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: I am interested in a New York number that diverts to our London office control room. Do you offer local numbers?
A: The Virtual Office Products are toll free 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. One of our customers has a software business for which they use a Skype number in the office - if the Skype line is busy, or if no one picks up, the call forwards to the virtual system using the toll free number.

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 (Check Pricing). 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 FreedomSuite 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. (Check current pricing)

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. Forwarding numbers, number of rings, etc are easy to set up.