Making Sure Cheap Business Telephone Calls Really Are Cheap

Seven Common ‘Tricks’: Hiding Costs Of So-Called Cheap Business Telephone Calls
Trick 1: Are you being billed by the minute, rounded up to the last penny? If so, this may be how your provider is hiding the real amount you’ll pay for your ‘low cost’ calls.
This is a tricky problem and the easiest resolution is to simply switch providers. You’ll find the better suppliers bill by the second not the minute and won’t bill by rounding up to the penny.
Trick 2: Are you being caught out by hidden charges, for example, unexpected ‘connection fees’?
If your supplier is truly competent, they will already have established working relationships with all the major telephony suppliers. This means they can work without having to pass connection charges on to the customer - your connection will be free of charge.
Trick 3: Is your provider implying that insisting on cheap business telephone calls will mean you have to lose call quality?
This is a simple issue: if your supplier is genuinely competent, they will be able to offer you both excellent call charges and the best possible call quality without any fuss. They will discuss services to save money like VoIP for business, a system which securely routes calls via the internet to save you money. When this system is managed properly, there should be no quality issues.
Trick 4: Were you told about cheap charges for local and national calls but only found the higher international call charges in the ‘small print’?
Unfortunately, some less scrupulous companies use ‘confusion marketing’ to hide away some of the less attractive elements of their so-called ‘best value’ deal. The truth is that simply isn’t necessary these days to pay high charges for international calls - speak to the better suppliers about VoIP for business for cheaper calls anywhere in the world.
Trick 5: Are you paying minimum call charges?
Unfortunately, this is another example of poorer practice within the industry used to bolster so-called ‘low cost’ deals. Again, this is a practice you won’t find with the better providers - none use minimum call charges at all.
Trick 6: Are you being told to sign up for expensive and inappropriate services?
Your supplier may be encouraging or pressurising you to accept the wrong systems and services for your business needs and this can become very expensive. You should never be expected to sign up as these are all that they can offer. If this is the case, change to a better provider who can provide you with the newer business VoIP systems. These are specifically configured systems aiming to save you as much as 50% on line rental and offer substantially better day to day call charges.
Trick 7: Are Your Bill And Telephony Options Strangely Incomprehensible?
Another unfortunate method used in confusion marketing to create a type of ‘smoke and mirrors’ approach - if its impossible to understand all the ‘technical’ jargon, you might just pay the bill without questions. The answer is to be pro-active. Have your supplier fully explain everything in plain English, including how it all relates to the current market rates. If they aren’t readily willing or able to do that, simply take your business to another company who operate with more transparency.
To briefly summarise, an unfortunately common industry theme is an attempt to confuse business customers through unnecessary jargon. Work instead with a provider who readily communicates in plain English at all times and always operates in a transparent manner when it comes to both customer service and to billing. They should also offer you the latest products as standards, be absolutely fluent with all the latest technology including business VoIP without any ‘premium pricing’ and demonstrate quality assurance through robust relationships with BT.