survey campaign

[mirandacooper678]

I need a professional to configure me an agi to ask questions and answers, but the answer is open

[hiteshg]

Contact me on Skype : hitugohil

[Voyyp_Support]

Hi - if you are still in need of support, we offer comprehensive (including custom) broadcast campaign configurations. We also provide Tier-1 wholesale VoIP at $0.0059/min (6/6). Our contact information is below, in the signature.

Thanks.

[thephaseusa]

Nice offer voyyp_support! Voip seems to be going down in price))) is that flat rate, not based on usage?

[Voyyp_Support]

Thank you! Yes, this is a flat, metered rate. All volume is billed at this rate, and it is Tier-1 routing (no FAS). We normally wholesale but recently introduced this at the retail level. We also have a referral program that pays lifetime commissions, if that would be something you are interested in. You can message me directly on Skype for more info: mbreslow01

Thanks

[williamconley]

Caution:

Creation Date: 2018-02-02T18:06:00Z

This domain is Private. It's only existed for a couple months. There's no google history for it. All you have is a corporation name, without knowing what state it's in. No address. They deal in press 1 campaigns which are illegal under most circumstances without discussing the rules involved (ie: Compliance is a Very Necessary conversation when talking about Press One campaigns! But nothing on the website.). Payment methods are not discussed on their site.

These are signs of "take your money, run like hell, tossing you under the bus on the way out the door".

Be sure you don't put any more money into this company than you can afford to walk away from until they build a rep.

Make sure you are prepared to defend yourself in court if they violate the law while acting on your behalf if they disappear overnight.

Especially if the "only way to pay" is a wire transfer or paypal or similar. If they don't accept MC/VS/AX ... there's probably a reason.

NOT Saying they are a ripoff. NOT saying they are legit. But I AM saying that I don't personally get a good feeling from their available information, although they do seem quite nice (as most sales reps do).

What about it Travis? What are your payment methods? How do you maintain compliance? What state is your Corporation based in? Are you an actual Telco, or are you a reseller? (If you're a telco, what's your license number so we can look you up? Or at least your 499 Filer ID so we can look you up here: http://apps.fcc.gov/cgb/form499/499a.cfm )

[Voyyp_Support]

EXCUSE ME??

We are the _private label_ of a major wholesaler and transmit over one BILLION minutes of monthly volume through our switches. We warehouse and block nearly .5MM disconnected phone numbers, on average and for 30-60 days (based on the average rate of AC re-issuance), so as to not spam our TIER-1 carriers (e.g. Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, etc). This also validates why we claim "NO FAS". In fact, we would bet that most carriers actually connect these bad numbers so as to facilitate artificial ASR and fraudulent billing.

Our domain is PRIVATE so we don't get spammed.

We will provide a list of customers to verify who we are and what we do. We accept all major credit cards through a First Data merchant account and accept PayPal for overseas clients who have trouble with their domestic card issuers. This means all sales are GUARANTEED for 180 days. We will also give you or _anybody_ a FREE test credit to prove that we do _exactly_ what we claim.

How dare you SPAM our post, williamconley.

[williamconley]

Riiiiight.

Major credit cards ... but no payment method on your site until after signup? Possible. If someone makes a purchase: Whose name will be on the CC Statement? Please tell me you don't take CC information of the phone. That would make this awkward.

You are a "private label of a major wholesaler" and not a telco. Which really means that you purchase your minutes from someone else (who may also NOT be a telco) and resell them to others. It also means you are nowhere near Tier-1, by definition. I hope you have the taxes handled properly. That, too could sneak up and bite your clients in the butt later. Taxes aren't optional and are often delayed during calculation by the actual telco (somewhere in the "upline").

Your domain being private doesn't prevent spam. It lands at your inbox just like it would if you properly purchased your domain for your own company under your own company's actual name and address. They forward all that spam to you, and you can either discard it or not. But your information being private is important since it can't be FAKE according to international law. Private is legal, fake is not. So you want to protect that contact information for a reason other than SPAM. Wonder what that reason may be?

Next up: You still didn't answer the question as to which state your corporation is in. It's an LLC so you can't be sued personally (not an accident, I'm sure). You didn't answer any questions about compliance or how you may indemnify your clients from robodial lawsuits. No mention at all. So if the FCC comes a knockin', you disappear, your LLC ceases to exist, you can't be sued even if they can find you but the clients (whose callerIDs you used OR who got paid by prospects) are unable to hide in such a fashion and are liable for any calls made on their behalf, even if they weren't in direct control of the system.

Fine for companies that don't care (and there are a lot of them), but not fine for companies that want to remain in business for many years to come.

I never suggested you "don't do what you say you do". In fact, I'm afraid that you DO what you say you do, which is robodial without regard for the law and then hide behind an LLC and disappear when the going gets rough. This would definitely explain the young age of the web site and lack of details.

And to be clear: I'm not spamming you, I'm asking the questions that should NOT need to be asked. Why is NONE of this information on your site?

For clarity:

Whose name will appear on the CC statement?

What state is your corporation in?

Where are your terms and conditions?

How do you protect your clients from robodial lawsuits?

Don't deflect and say "He's picking on me" ... answer the questions. They aren't hard questions.

[thephaseusa]

I looked at the site. There is no contact information at all on it. You should have a physical address, a local phone number wherever you are, an email address and official company on your site. If it was an oversight its not hard to add that to your site. In the meantime, you could just post here:

Company Name
Country
Address
City state zip
Telephone number
Email address

We like to know who we are doing business with, where they are located, and how to contact them. Compliance is highly important under US law.

John

[Voyyp_Support]

Riiiiight. Major credit cards ... but no payment method on your site until after signup?

Correct. There's zero benefit to taking payment information before vetting the potential client and setting up their account.

If someone makes a purchase: Whose name will be on the CC Statement? Please tell me you don't take CC information of the phone. That would make this awkward.

That certainly would be awkward! We don't take CC over the phone. We work with a merchant processor that handles that sensitive process on our behalf through our secure web form; we take PCI very seriously.

Your domain being private doesn't prevent spam. It lands at your inbox just like it would if you properly purchased your domain for your own company under your own company's actual name and address. They forward all that spam to you, and you can either discard it or not. But your information being private is important since it can't be FAKE according to international law. Private is legal, fake is not.

It absolutely helps. Yes, some emails still come in (which are easily filterable as they're forwards), but entities scraping WHOIS can't resell your real email and other contact information. This prevents being unsolicitedly engaged by companies providing web design, SEO, social marketing, et cetera, which also come as physical mail and phone calls.

So you want to protect that contact information for a reason other than SPAM. Wonder what that reason may be?

Spam is the only reason. If it came down to a subpoena, there's a 0% chance that having a privately registered domain is going to be any hindrance at all to an investigation. If you check where our website is hosted (which is easy through many tools I'm sure you're familiar with), you'll see our machines are physically located in the States. If we were running an illegitimate operation, that would be really dumb.

You are a "private label of a major wholesaler" and not a telco. Which really means that you purchase your minutes from someone else (who may also NOT be a telco) and resell them to others. It also means you are nowhere near Tier-1, by definition.

Our infastructure's backbone is provisioned by a US-CLEC of 6 states, please call or message us for more information on this. We didn't say we were Tier-1, but that we use Tier-1 routes, which we do, thanks to our CLEC partner.

It's an LLC so you can't be sued personally (not an accident, I'm sure)

While it doesn't explicate so in the name, registering as a Incorporation also provides "limited liability" to its operators. The primary differences are in management flexibility (onboarding owners, stock issuance, etc) and how the companies and its owners are taxed.

Most reputable companies are either an LLC or an Inc. For example, is your company a sole proprietorship?

So if the FCC comes a knockin', you disappear, your LLC ceases to exist, you can't be sued even if they can find you

Dissolving a company doesn't indemnify its shareholders, directors, or creditors from legal exposure. If it was that easy, the hypothetical clients you're referring to could simply close shop as well.

What state is your corporation in?

Florida.

Where are your terms and conditions?

Our ToS is available here, and we'll make sure it's on every footer.

How do you protect your clients from robodial lawsuits?

We don't bring them on as a client if our counsel doesn't approve of them in the first place. We strive to build relationships and empower our clients' businesses, and we understand that's only possible if they abide by reputable business practices. For clients that are new to the space, we refer them to our strategic partners that can help with matters from business development to legal compliance.

Why is NONE of this information on your site?

Well, our website is very fresh and we're always adding to it. We acknowledge there's more we can put on there. Secondly, our clients haven't asked these questions (why our domain is private (which is free and common with most providers), why they can't pay before they're signed up with us, why we incorporated our company, and how we make sure their business is compliant.) Regardless, we're considering your feedback, and we'll work on being more clear about this information in the future.

If there are any further concerns about who we are, you can also feel free to give us a call or send us an email. We see you're also located in Florida, so maybe we can even meet in person. Everything is above-board, and we will gladly prove it. Maybe even over a beer, if that's your style.

We can even provide demo credentials to access our Dashboard, Billing Panel, Terms & Conditions, Master Service Agreement, etc. We also provide advanced VICIdial support, including custom, code-based configurations (e.g. intelligent IVR, custom reporting, lead DB integration, etc).


We understand we're new to the space, and we respect the grilling as part of the process of earning your trust. All we hope for, is the fair opportunity to earn that trust.

[williamconley]

We didn't say we were Tier-1, but that we use Tier-1 routes, which we do, thanks to our CLEC partner.

By that same logic ALL calls are Tier-1, since Tier-1 connects all calls eventually. The question is how many hops before you get to tier one. Implying that you're in any way related to Tier-1 without being Tier-1 is an attempt to make a false impression.

The primary differences are in management flexibility (onboarding owners, stock issuance, etc) and how the companies and its owners are taxed.

Most reputable companies are either an LLC or an Inc. For example, is your company a sole proprietorship?

NO: The primary difference is that LLC protects the OWNERS from being sued. The literal definition of "Limited Liability Company".

Inc is different in that it is NOT "Limited Liabilty". Of course OUR corporation ("PoundTeam, Incorporated") has always been a Corporation, and not an LLC.

A Sole Proprietor takes more responsibility than an LLC: That proprietor CAN be sued. That's a primary reason many switch to LLC, to LIMIT LIABILITY via a LIMITED LIABILITY CORPORATION. Without the LLC, you're just a Sole Proprietor ... who can be sued.

OUR terms and conditions actually contain the state in which we are incorporated. You may want to add that to your terms. Identity is important.

How do you protect your clients from robodial lawsuits?

We don't bring them on as a client if our counsel doesn't approve of them in the first place. We strive to build relationships and empower our clients' businesses, and we understand that's only possible if they abide by reputable business practices.

That's how you protect YOURSELVES. It does not, however, answer how you protect your CLIENTS in any way.

In most cases: Robodialing is illegal. How, precisely, do you get around that tiny little problem? You don't mention the exceptions to the rules, leading one to wonder if you know or care what those exceptions are.

What state is your corporation in?

Florida.

Unless your company name is actually "VOY YOVATS, LLC", there are NO OTHER "VOYY..." entries in the the State of Florida. Unless you incorporated so recently you are not yet listed. (Once again: red flag)

http://search.sunbiz.org/Inquiry/Corpor ... 0002142430

To be clear: I don't want to see anyone who uses Vicidial get blindsided by a bad operator. If you get clients from this site, I prefer that they know who you are and what they are getting themselves into. Even with the information you've provided, after several rounds: I still have no idea who you are. No last name. No traceable corporation or address. A domain that does not address the biggest issue to "Press 1 survey" call centers: Liability.

While we're on the topic: Since you're not a Telco or a CLEC, how do you handle the national do not call list?

I don't have any problem with you tryin' to make a living. Just being sure your living isn't at the expense of someone who came to this site because they really don't have the cash to "just pay for stuff" to get it done. A lot of the people on this site are just trying to get by and getting screwed by someone could cost them their business or job. So come out into the open if you're real. I don't drink beer. I prefer Pepsi. And Pizza. I love Pizza.

[blackbird2306]

I knew that I knew this site from somewhere else.
http://www.vicidial.org/VICIDIALforum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=38270
I've already looked at this page a few weeks ago and noticed the same strange things. The missing name and company address in conjunction with private registration looks very dubious. All these facts negatively affect the willingness to buy. Come out of your hiding place. It will also help you to win new business and customers.

[Voyyp_Support]

This is Mitch, one of the co-founders. We purchased a Class-4 switch from a US Telco with CLEC facilities in 6 states. We also partnered with them to directly service retail clients, as they are primarily a wholesaler. The name of the company is Talkie Communications. Feel free to contact them.

Our routes are purchased from another major provider, and they are indeed Tier-1 from our Switch: https://www.windstreamenterprise.com/wh ... -services/.

We have a Master Services Agreement that indemnifies us from unknown client dissonance, meaning subpoenas pass straight thru. This happens on a regular basis. If we know you are doing bad business, we will close your account. Otherwise, you are responsible for your own compliance.

For anybody who is genuinely interested in Tier-1 routing, provisioned by a US-CLEC in 6 states, please call or message us. We will provide demo credentials to access our Dashboard, Billing Panel, Terms & Conditions, Master Service Agreement, etc. We also provide advanced ViciDial support, including custom, code-based configurations (e.g. intelligent IVR, custom reporting, lead DB integration, etc).

If there are any legitimate concerns about who we are, we can address them offline as well. Everything is above-board, and we will gladly prove it. We would never have a merchant account otherwise, and, once again, this gives our customers 100% Buyer Protection. If we do not deliver, you get your money back. We have no say in the matter.

We have a great product and wonderful clients who are extremely happy with our services. Anybody that works with us will experience the same in kind.

We're done debating with trolls who have nothing better to do than post in excess of 17,000 times. Get a life.

[thephaseusa]

Hi Mitch,

Thanks for the additional details.

What is your company’s name and address and phone number?

John

[Voyyp_Support]

No problem John. The company name is Sandbox Solutions, LLC. As a technology company, we do not have a physical address, but you can lookup the registrations with that information. Our servers are located in NJ, and our partners are detailed above. I implore you to look them up as well or even contact them about who we are.

If you would like any more information, please contact me directly:

Skype: mbreslow01
Phone: 561-331-1571

Once again, our company is 100% legitimate.


Thanks,

Mitch

[thephaseusa]

I understand. Nobody is saying you aren’t legitimate. We just need to know who we are dealing with before we do business with you. You don’t have an office? Do you work out of your home? What country are you in?

[Voyyp_Support]

And, for the record, most VoIP & Dialer providers are virtual, including VICIdial. There is no address information posted on their site, and I just checked a handful of other known major providers -- there are no addresses listed. Does this mean they are not legitimate?

Mitch

[Voyyp_Support]

I understand. Nobody is saying you aren’t legitimate. We just need to know who we are dealing with before we do business with you. You don’t have an office? Do you work out of your home? What country are you in?

We are a Virtual operation, just like almost everybody else in this space. The principals of the company are located in the United States, and our technicians are both domestic and global - we have every time zone covered.

[mflorell]

I usually try not to enter these back and forth conversations, but there are a few points I wanted to address:

First, since you guarantee "No FAS" on your terminated phone calls, what is the compensation you provide to a client if they can give you a SIP capture of an FAS phone call that you terminated?

Second, the VICIdial Group is not "virtual". We have a physical office, in an office building here in Florida with employees that go to work there every day. We even offer in-person training here in our offices three times a year, as we have since 2007. Our servers were assembled and installed by our employees and are owned by us directly. We have a leasing agreement with a multi-location co-hosting and fiber backbone company, and those locations are where we house the hundreds of servers that make up the VICIhost hosted VICIdial solution. The webserver we are conducting this conversation on was assembled by us and is owned by us. Very little of what we do is "virtual".

Third, as for this statement of yours:
"We're done debating with trolls who have nothing better to do than post in excess of 17,000 times. Get a life."
While we don't have any affiliation with William or his company, we do appreciate the considerable time he's given over the last decade to help people on these forums. Posting 17,000+ times on the VICIdial forums does not happen because you have nothing better to do. As a company that offers "Advanced ViciDIAL Setup and Support", can you supply us with some of the Forum usernames your technicians have used here on the Forums to help people in the VICIdial community over the years?

[thephaseusa]

Rameses: So let it be written, so let it be done.

[Voyyp_Support]

First, since you guarantee "No FAS" on your terminated phone calls, what is the compensation you provide to a client if they can give you a SIP capture of an FAS phone call that you terminated?

Our routes are provided by Windstream. They do not have FAS, which means we don't either. If we terminate a disconnected number, we would be open to whatever recourse is available to the client, including chargeback, FCC fines, etc.

Second, the VICIdial Group is not "virtual". We have a physical office, in an office building here in Florida with employees that go to work there every day.We even offer in-person training here in our offices three times a year, as we have since 2007. Our servers were assembled and installed by our employees and are owned by us directly. We have a leasing agreement with a multi-location co-hosting and fiber backbone company, and those locations are where we house the hundreds of servers that make up the VICIhost hosted VICIdial solution. The webserver we are conducting this conversation on was assembled by us and is owned by us. Very little of what we do is "virtual".

There is no address listed on your site, hence the comment. This was in no way intended to be an indictment on your company or its architecture. Our servers are physical as well, sitting on a co-location rack in NJ.

Third, as for this statement of yours:
"We're done debating with trolls who have nothing better to do than post in excess of 17,000 times. Get a life."
While we don't have any affiliation with William or his company, we do appreciate the considerable time he's given over the last decade to help people on these forums. Posting 17,000+ times on the VICIdial forums does not happen because you have nothing better to do.

William attacked us out of the gate, and it was our very first post. That is, by definition, what trolls do. If he is your welcoming committee, then we will probably no longer participate in this "community". We provide a legitimate, quality product, and your group has done nothing but attack us. There is a different way to ask the same questions -- a better way.

As a company that offers "Advanced ViciDIAL Setup and Support", can you supply us with some of the Forum usernames your technicians have used here on the Forums to help people in the VICIdial community over the years?

So, this is the only way to prove that we know what we are doing -- by providing the Forum usernames of our clients? Well, we have no idea if our clients use these forums.

[williamconley]

We would never have a merchant account otherwise, and, once again, this gives our customers 100% Buyer Protection.

That's not 100% Buyer Protection. It may approach "or get your money back". But it does not address the liability involved in DNC and/or robodial violations.

The damage from a single interaction with the FCC (or any of the various other badge types) can cost one heck of a lot more than any individual phone bill. I've watched federal agents load semi-trailers with every computer and sheet of paper from a call center as the owner of the facility scrambled to figure out how to stay in business (how to avoid "losing everything") and how to keep feeding all those families including their own. In fact, I've handed keys to a call center (which my company had just moved from into a larger facility) to someone in that same situation. They had a rough month, but they got through it. And they stopped ignoring compiance rules on that date.

Addressing your knowledge and/or responsibility level on those topics is, at some point, necessary. Even if you take the "real telco" approach of "work that out yourself, we just connect the calls". But for that, you'd need to remove your references to Survey dialing, since NO telco would ever reference that without the legals involved.

I once knew a company that sold minutes that was created by "some guy" who worked for a major telco. He was an insider and as such understood all the intricacies of becoming a telco, so he did. He had only a couple servers (IAX) at first and virtually no overhead otherwise. And he purchased directly from a major telco. I used him as my first telco (and only telco for many months). But he found, ultimately, that the legalities involved in call center dialing were too much and he shut down after several years of operation. Which was a shame, as his pricing was spectacular.

He was, however, quite open about who he was and what he was doing. And very clearly "didn't care about what kind of dialing his clients did", he just tossed any rulebreakers under the bus like any other telco. But that didn't save his business, and he didn't even suggest that robodialing was a good idea.

Those legalities, these days, are even more important. The FCC was much more relaxed back then. VoIP was young. And robodialing ... was legal!

[thephaseusa]

Hold on now. Virtual operation? Do you exist in the physical world or the spirit world)))

Where are you?

If you have bodies those bodies are located somewhere on the planet, more than likely.

[williamconley]

Hold on now. Virtual operation? Do you exist in the physical world or the spirit world)))

Where are you?

If you have bodies those bodies are located somewhere on the planet, more than likely.

He said Florida.

William attacked us out of the gate, and it was our very first post. That is, by definition, what trolls do. If he is your welcoming committee, then we will probably no longer participate in this "community". We provide a legitimate, quality product, and your group has done nothing but attack us. There is a different way to ask the same questions -- a better way.

I didn't attack. If you view it as an attack, that's telling. I advised caution and asked questions. You immediately became defensive which is likely because YOU believe you're doing something wrong. Our belief stems from your interaction. Just answer the questions. As I said many times: The users on this site are people (parents, uncles, millennials, all sorts of people) and they have NO need to be sideswiped by someone who wants to make money and cares not for the rules and laws.

YOU came here to advertise. Nothing wrong with offering services. But don't sell yourself as a white knight who is here to save the day without expecting some trepidation. This is the USA and the call center industry. This industry is notorious for ripoff artists.

"I'll answer all your questions offline" is not quite as good as "that's a good idea, I think I'll put my actual corporation name and state in the contact us on my web site!"

"Our servers are in a colo in NJ and have ONE hop to XXXXX company, which is a tier 1 telco". Also missing from your site. Instead of making someone pull your teeth to get this information: Put it in your website. If you can't spare the time to design it right now, just put it in plain text in your T&C. And get wordpress if your site is not easy to edit.

This was in fact the gist of my original post. Very light on the information available ... exercise caution.

[Voyyp_Support]

Hold on now. Virtual operation? Do you exist in the physical world or the spirit world)))

Where are you?

If you have bodies those bodies are located somewhere on the planet, more than likely.

Troll

[williamconley]

Hold on now. Virtual operation? Do you exist in the physical world or the spirit world)))

Where are you?

If you have bodies those bodies are located somewhere on the planet, more than likely.

Troll

No. That's a guy making a joke. Trying to lighten the mood a bit. This isn't twitter, my friend. This is a business site and humor is sparse. He just asked "where are you" and then tossed in a lighthearted option because this conversation is so long he missed the "Florida" bit.

Troll would have suggested you were in a prison cell in jacksonville and ... well, be careful who you choose to insult. Others on this site may identify with your "troll" and your company's ONLY online footprint right now is your site and this post. Becoming belligerant won't help your google results.

Welcome to "out in the open" where everything you say can and will be held against you (from a customer service standpoint) from yesterday forward.

You are in a Sales/Customer service moment and being judged by all those who will read this post in the future. Govern yourself accordingly. Making mistakes is fine. Fixing them is better, and becoming insulting is not good PR. Everyone is a potential client, so don't go looking for insults.

[Voyyp_Support]

You guys are all Trolls. Our reputation and brand will stand on its own over time.

[williamconley]

You guys are all Trolls. Our reputation and brand will stand on its own over time.

Not if you don't get some online rep other than this post. Learn the lesson and some customer service skills. Take a class. Put some real information on your site.

You may also want to stop insulting potential clients. Seriously: If I walked into a retail operation and asked a rep some questions about a product, even if they were negative/hard questions like "I heard that one of these cars blew up last week" ... do you think the rep would say "go away troll"? Or would that rep answer the question with the official corporate response to "that tragedy which is still being investigated" sidestep to "our very good safety record" and then immediately transition into something more innocuous like "didja know it'll go 0 to 60 in 4.5 seconds? What color were you looking for?" (Ended up with a Bolt EV, though, not because of the "blowing up" thing, but because you CAN purchase a Bolt right off the lot, Tesla Model 3 ... not so much, lol)

But thanks for the insight into your true nature. That we got.

[Voyyp_Support]

You're right, William - I am not suited for discussions such as these, especially ones that begin with: ""These are signs of "take your money, run like hell, tossing you under the bus on the way out the door"."". It put me on the defensive, and, for that, I apologize.

Regardless, it sounds like we addressed all of your serious concerns. I will have somebody else from my team carry the conversation forward.

MB

[mflorell]

As a company that offers "Advanced ViciDIAL Setup and Support", can you supply us with some of the Forum usernames your technicians have used here on the Forums to help people in the VICIdial community over the years?

So, this is the only way to prove that we know what we are doing -- by providing the Forum usernames of our clients? Well, we have no idea if our clients use these forums.

I didn't ask for your clients' forum usernames, I asked for your technicians' forum usernames. Since your forum logins don't seem to show much direct experience with setting up and managing VICIdial yourself, that is a perfectly normal request of someone advertising "Advanced ViciDIAL Setup and Support" here on the forums.

[thephaseusa]

I’m sorry I forgot I did see the Florida reference. My apologies sir.

What address in Florida? And a Florida phone number?

Your deal sounds great by the way. .006 is a great rate.

I added you on skype last night late, and no one accepted the invite.

The Fundraising Office LLC
John Merritt
201 E Gilmer Park
Johnson City TN 37604
4233020580

Hehe......that’s the first time I’ve ever been called a troll. Cool)))

[thephaseusa]

Mitch just called me and we talked for about 10 minutes, and he profusely apologized to me, the forum, and Mr. Conley. He sounds like a good man, and he is a south Florida boy.

On another note, I’m going to be joining you boys in Florida soon. I’m moving down there in the next month or two. I’m going to move to the Tampa Bay area. See you down there soon.

John M

[Voyyp_Support]

Thanks John. I appreciate the opportunity to earn a "right of passage" into the group. The only thing I can relate this to is when I joined a fraternity back at the University of Florida. This is some serious hazing!

As for the our tech insights, I will have some of my guys jump on soon. I believe we have some pending membership requests, but we also have quite a bit of experience on our team. For example, one of our devs recently coded a "Press-2", which allows business owners to schedule callbacks. From what I understand, the client has been very pleased with the results.

MB

[thephaseusa]

Welcome to VICIdial!

[williamconley]

You're right, William - I am not suited for discussions such as these, especially ones that begin with: ""These are signs of "take your money, run like hell, tossing you under the bus on the way out the door"."". It put me on the defensive, and, for that, I apologize.

Did we forget to mention the other part of that same post?

NOT Saying they are a ripoff. NOT saying they are legit. But I AM saying that I don't personally get a good feeling from their available information, although they do seem quite nice (as most sales reps do).

These are all honest observations. For which I was called a Troll. I still don't have a good feeling because I am still in the dark about your "dialer" offering and how it relates to robodialing and the DNC. Caution is still very much advised. There have been some very large recent lawsuits. Especially if your name is Abromovich, or you delve in the robodial / DNC market even with a different name.

Remember that this is a technical forum. Not a sales forum. We don't play with "Perceived Value" and "Bait and Switch" or any of that other emotional silliness. We run servers and keep people employed. And we've ALL seen employers shut down by what would otherwise appear to be "well-meaning" sales reps who promise the world and then ... shrug their shoulders (if they are still around) when it all goes south. "Oops" doesn't cover not being able to make payroll.

Mitch just called me and we talked for about 10 minutes, and he profusely apologized to me, the forum, and Mr. Conley. He sounds like a good man, and he is a south Florida boy.

On another note, I’m going to be joining you boys in Florida soon. I’m moving down there in the next month or two. I’m going to move to the Tampa Bay area. See you down there soon.

John M

So ... did that conversation include anything about protecting the Call Center from liability for DNC and/or Robodialing? His site implies that he runs a dialer and provides that service ... or is it that he 'helps others run their dialers'? I'm still a little unclear on that based on what's available. Still makes me very nervous.

[thephaseusa]

It did include a discussion about DNC and mobile number liability, and an offer to scrub lists against DNC and Cell, for a fee. No mention of robodialing. I think they are a new start up offering sip trunk termination voip. They are offering .0059/minute. That is a pretty good price. The proof is in the pudding though. Let’s see how they perform. Let’s see how the calls, minutes, and charges shake out. I signed up with them today I’m going to give them a try. I’ll report back on the results.

Keep pounding! (I bet when you thought up that name, you also considered HammerTeam didn’t you? We always used to say keep pounding or keep hammering.)

JM

[williamconley]

... an offer to scrub lists against DNC and Cell, for a fee. No mention of robodialing.

I signed up with them today I’m going to give them a try. I’ll report back on the results.

Keep pounding! (I bet when you thought up that name, you also considered HammerTeam didn’t you? We always used to say keep pounding or keep hammering.)

1) Nobody can absolve you of DNC list payment responsibility. If you are dialing in the 608 area code, and have not purchased (or gotten free) the 608 DNC list from donotcall.gov, you are breaking the law. Note you can get five area codes free. No problems. The problem arises when someone else washes the numbers and you don't own the DNC list. Then when someone falsely claims you called them, you lose your case with the FCC once they find you've been dialing 608 without owning 608. However: If you own 608, and you provide your list-scrubber with your SAN code and "downloader credentials" so they are washing your leads with your DNC lists, everything is legal. Anything short of that is a road to nowhere. We have a simplified method for washing lists IN Vicidial nightly (overnight, hefty lifting). You download your lists from donotcall.gov, upload into vici, and forget about it (no unpacking or management of the files: Just download an upload). Because they do not allow "bot" access. Otherwise we'd have built that in, too. But "download/upload" is simple enough for most call center managers.

2) Please do report back. I'm very interested to hear if they offer robodialing services and how they manage this. lol. But also call quality, FAS, channel limits, and "congestion" or other limitations on calls. Note that anyone offering under 1 cent per minute calls into question whether they are really connecting all the calls. Some are straightforward about this and suggest you set up failover for those calls they simply can not connect. So 99.9% of your calls are at the low rate and 1 in 1000 bounces to an expensive "connect all calls" carrier. Not a bad tradeoff if nobody is charging per month.

3) Oddly enough: we went with "pound" because the "asterisk" was already taken. But much later someone made the observation that if we ever close shop, "pound team" could be a completely different type of site with a xxx rating. lol

[thephaseusa]

Will do. You know, I’ve studied and kept up with telephone solicitation laws in Texas for a long time, and I’ve seen the Attorney General in Texas sue almost every type of telemarketer. I just thought about something. You know what type I’ve never see them sue? A political campaign telemarketing company. I also always found it strange that for a lot of laws there, there are exemptions for certain types of calls, such as charitable solicitation. But guess what else always gets an exemption? Political calls. Nice of the politicians to give themselves an exemption isn’t it? That’s one reason it will be hard to ever outlaw telemarketing in the US. The politicians want to be able to call the voters!

[williamconley]

political campaign telemarketing company.

The primary reason is: Money. Not the way you're thinking. But when a polical campaign calls you they are spending money and NOT asking for money. The FTC and the FCC are tasked with regulating COMMERCE. Churches and politicians are not commercial enterprises.

Is it a coincidence that they also happen to be lawmakers? (at least the politicians, not so much the churches ... although.) No, of course not. lol. But this is how the laws are written: To protect the Consumer from Commercial enterprise forcing their way into your life.

Even if you try to mask it by starting religious or political, if you ask for money or refer to someone who will later ask for money in a commercial transaction now or in the future or even permission to call back and make a commercial offer ... you're over that line into "commercial" and now you're regulated.

There's a reason for this: Rich people would not hesitate to make using a phone impossible if they were not restricted. your Cell Phone and House Phone and Office phone would never stop ringing.

[thephaseusa]

Yes times have changed. When I started doing this in 1984 people were happy to hear from you, and surprised as well, almost like a compliment to them that you thought about them enough to call them. Sales/Number/Pitched ratios were great, sometimes 1 in 4.

Today, if they answer at all, (if they have caller ID good chance they don’t answer) they have no qualms about just hanging up on you or telling you no immediately, and some will give you a good tongue lashing before hanging up. And even the polite ones are very tough to close on the first call. That’s why I really appreciate the dispo call features of vicidial. I send emails on sales or callbacks automatically from the dialer when we get an email address, and then later it’s simple to re-email them if they need it again. Makes multiple call closes much easier, and much more convenient. Many times in the past I was just too busy or too tired to sit down and compose 50 or 100 emails and I didn’t get it done. Now the dialer does most of the work. Thank goodness for VICIdial.

Times do change.