- Don’t think the big guys (Like AT&T/Ring Central or 8×8) are the end all. The bigger the company usually means the larger the customer base and with that comes maximizing their resources to maximize managements bonus. Resources refers to the servers of the VoIP phone system as well as internet access to the VoIP phone system. To combat high costs, these big boys compress the data of the phones connected to their servers to allow more users on their systems. What does this mean? Simple, the call quality is lower which could mean a longer than necessary call because you have to ask the person to repeat what they just said, and/or, consistently poor quality calls could reflect the quality of your goods and services.
- Don’t think the price you see published is the “End” Price. We really have to pay close attention to all our bills and your VoIP phone bill is no different. The published price per phone may look attractive but pay attention to the additional fees such as E911, Tariffs, County Tax, City Tax, State Tax, Economic Adjustment Fee, Payment Processing fee…and the hidden list grows.
- Don’t think that you are supporting American Companies when you’re really not. If you speak with someone from one of the Big Companies, you’re lucky if the sales person is based in the U.S.A. That’s a strategy that’s used to make you feel like you’re doing business with American’s when in fact most employees are located offshore because they work for a fraction of the cost. The salaries paid to the offshore workers go back to their country to support their economy versus ours in America.
- Don’t think the support team you are talking to speaks good English with the “Big Guys”. If you haven’t already experienced this in the past with the Airlines, Amazon questions or even your Doctors office recently, hang on. Get ready to ask the person on the other end of the phone to repeat themselves. You will understand the frustration after repeat calls and phone calls dropping. Note that the call quality is also dependent on good internet connections and a lot of off shore employees work from countries with poor internet service.
- Don’t skip the local VoIP providers as an option. Be sure to ask your local provider where their servers are located as well as their employees. Most local interconnects resell the big guys services and receive monthly commissions so you are not gaining anything there. Our company owns our servers and they are located in Dallas Texas. We provide the highest call quality by not playing the Compression game. We don’t have the hidden fees that tack on an additional 35% and we answer the phones and speak perfect English. Plus, our employees spend their money in the United States of America and support local economies and pay Federal taxes.