Conference Call Rates

The audio and web conferencing business is booming with growth rates of over 30% per annum being reported. With all this activity, it's becoming increasing hard for you to compare 'like with like' and decide a supplier which is proper for your needs. To establish it bluntly, some people are being ripped off.

This article gives you tips to avoid expensive mistakes and win the best deal, whichever service provider you decide.

1. Claiming conference calls are FREE when they are not

RIP-OFF: Advertising services as being free when they can actually work out more expensive than paid-for services.

This is probably the most current trick in the industry. A Google search will return a myriad of so-called 'free' conference call services. They are not really free at all. This is how it works:

The conference access number is what's known as a Non-Geographic Number (NGN) . NGNs normally initiate with 08 or 09 and often cost more, sometimes remarkable more, than calling a normal landline number.

The reason they cost more is that the telephone company gives some of the money for the call to the owner of the NGN - the conference call company. This is how conference call companies form money on these services.

So, although the conference call company does not charge you for hosting the conference call and therefore claim it to be free, you pay your telephone provider for the call so it's not really free. A more just description would be "Free telephone Conference Hosting".

It's worth noting that calls to NGNs from UK mobile phones and calls from abroad can be extremely expensive. Also, there is no guarantee that you will even be able to connect from abroad as foreign telephone companies are under no obligation to connect to NGNs.

Other disadvantages include lack of control and visibility. NGN based services are typically quite extinct and do not include the features and benefit needed by serious business users. Companies who consume audio conferencing regularly are almost always better off using a host-paid service as the cost savings can be noteworthy.

Suggested Countermeasures:

Ask your service provider to issue you how great your conference calls will cost including costs of the phone calls to the conference bridge.

2. Charging you for being slack - or early

RIP-OFF: Charging the host for participant calls from the moment each participant dials in, irrespective of whether the host is on the line yet.

Some companies open the meter running as soon as each participant dials into the conference access number - even though the conference doesn't actually inaugurate until the host arrives.

Beware: This is a astronomical design for the audio & web conferencing companies to perform money for services you haven't actually stale! For instance, imagine you arranged an 11am teleconference for 20 people. If your service provider charged 10 pence per miniature and each of the participants arrived 1 puny early but the host was 2 minutes behind, you'd have paid GBP 5.70 for the privilege of listening to enjoy music.

We consider this practice is infamous but it is quite widespread.

Suggested Countermeasures:

Ask your service provider to jabber you at exactly what point they inaugurate charging, is it when the participants approach or when the host arrives? Remember, even if your service provider is not billing you directly because you are using an NGN based service (examine Dirty Trick 1 above) you will detached be paying for expensive phone calls whilst you wait.

3. Stealth charges - What you don't know can afflict you

RIP-OFF: Charging high rates for services and hiding them by not providing a detailed breakdown in the hope you'll unbiased pay the bill without questioning it.

Unfortunately, this is a very accepted practice. The dusky truth is that many stout companies simply don't have the time or resources to check every single bill. Service providers know this and exploit it. Here are honest a few examples of what can happen:

a) A service provider wins your business by offering you an unbelievably gross rate on UK access charges and then grossly overcharges you for overseas calls.

b) They levy charges for conferences which were booked but subsequently cancelled.

c) They charge for participants which don't turn up, or turn up unhurried - or even turn up early.

The list is almost endless.

Suggested Countermeasures:

Ask your service provider if they are able to provide a FULLY ITEMIZED BREAKDOWN of their charges accessible via a web interface.

The web interface share is distinguished as some companies unbiased dump reams of paper on you hoping that you won't glean around to reading it. Invariably they're good, you won't.

Others articulate you download & manipulate data in a spreadsheet which is fiddly, unimaginative and hence very rarely done. It's also worth checking if the information is available in REAL-TIME. Some companies only explain information days, weeks or months after the call.

REAL-TIME access is particularly valuable if you intend to bill your clients for audio and web conferences as share of your gain company's services.

It pays to shop around and ask for a stout heed list so you can work out the proper costs you'll be paying. It is often possible to keep 40% to 70% by doing so.

4. Charging for no-shows

RIP-OFF: Charging for participants who were booked on a conference but didn't relieve.

Most enterprise level audio and web conferencing service providers offer managed event call services. A managed event call is where operators effect tasks to benefit the call go smoothly, examples include dialing out to participants, welcoming them to the calls and chairing Q&A sessions.

As event calls involve a number of people (sometimes several hundred), they must be booked in arrive. worthy like extinct events, if you invite 100 people, chances are only 80 or so will actually turn up on the day - audio and web conference providers know this and some exploit you by charging for places even if people don't indicate up. For the service provider, this really is money for nothing.

We deem charging for no-shows is grossly unfair. It can be particularly difficult to dwelling unless your audio & web conferencing company includes fat and detailed reporting (witness share 3 on stealth charging) .

Suggested Countermeasures:

Luckily this is one of the easiest scams to protect yourself against. Simply ask your service provider if they charge for no-shows before the date for which you have booked your event call. Don't achieve up with weasel words, and excuses; the reply should be either YES or NO.

5. Overcharging YOU because of THEIR antiquated billing systems

RIP-OFF: Charging the host for participant calls at the highest call rate even when some participants are calling in from cheaper lines.

This one is very difficult to dwelling and it never even occurs to most people to check. Most enterprise level audio and web conferencing companies offer several ways for callers to dial into the conference. The per-minute cost varies by access draw.

The most celebrated example of this is the choice of freephone or local rate access. Participants can either dial a freephone number for which the host is charged, say, 8p per tiny or a local rate number for which the host is charged slightly less, say, 7p per tiny.

Now, if you held an audio conference for 12 people for 1 hour with 10 people calling in on a local rate number and 2 calling on a freephone number you would demand it to cost you (GBP 42.00 for the 10 participants dialing in at GBP 0.07 per cramped plus GBP 9.60 for the 2 delegates dialing in at GBP 0.08 per diminutive) .

You might be alarmed to learn that some service providers would charge you GBP 57.60, an increase of over 10%. This is because they'd charge you the freephone rate of GBP 0.08 per exiguous for all 12 lines even though only 2 people were using the more expensive freephone access diagram. Not a massive incompatibility you might say, but it adds up over time.

To be blooming, not everyone who does this is deliberately overcharging you. It's unbiased that some service providers have outdated billing systems which are not proper of differentiating between different classes of lines on the same call. Whatever the reason though, you are the one who ends up paying extra!

Suggested Countermeasures:

Again, this is a very simply trick to foil. Simply ask them how they handle mixed rate calls. Be particularly careful to check international rates as some of these are extremely expensive.

6. Insisting you impress up for annual contracts

RIP-OFF: Offering you superior rates but only if you ticket an 'exclusive' contract for 1 year.

This is often old-fashioned as a bargaining tool to fabricate you consider that the audio & web conferencing company is giving you something special in return for your loyalty. In reality it is you which is giving the service provider something of value, not the other map around.

By signing an annual contract the service provider can be comely confident that you will not be looking at the competition until conclude to when the contract expires. Even if there is an industry-wide mark plunge, you probably wouldn't peruse and they certainly aren't going to suppose you. Why should they? There is no incentive to do so. They have you tied in for a year.

When you brand the contract, the myth Manager makes a trace to call you 1 month before the contract is up and, very often, you honest brand on the bottom line and renew - at the same, now inflated, rate. Easy money.

We contain that your service provider should be giving you the best deal possible anyway without trying to tie you in. Most so-called 'exclusive' contracts are meaningless and unenforceable anyway. Check with your lawyers but chances are you'll salvage you are free to utilize multiple suppliers.

If you regain a better deal, be promiscuous. Gradually migrate over to the novel company at a dash which suits you. Remember, there's no need to slay your chronicle with your recent supplier until you are confident the novel company can meet your needs.

Suggested Countermeasures:

Refuse to price an annual contract and ask for the same mammoth rates anyway. If they refuse, be suspicious. Are they trying to entice you in with a improper per-minute call rate but then rip you off using some of the tactics described in this guide. Remember, if a deal seems too great to be right, it probably is too pleasant to be correct.

7. Charging premium rates for ordinary services

RIP-OFF: Charging you premium rates for services they claim are tailored to your specific industry, e.g. proper, Retail or Medical.

As more companies enter the market, everyone is looking for a point of inequity and an excuse to charge more. Some service providers charge premium prices for what they claim to be new industry-specific solutions.

In reality all they are doing is using clever marketing tactics to sell standard services - the same services which are available from competitors at grand better prices.

One company we know of charges over 5 times the going rate for true conference calls and gets away with. This is because many people in the good profession lift that there is something very special about a accurate conference call which justifies the premium. I'll let you into a secret - there isn't.

A moral conference call is simply a managed event call, recorded and stamped with a case number delivered on cassette tape. Several audio and web suppliers can provide this service at greatly reduced rates but very rarely collect a chance to quote as the market is dominated by one or two expensive players with tall marketing budgets.

Suggested Countermeasures:

Ask your supplier precisely what extra they are giving you in exchange for their higher prices. Some companies will verbalize that they are the only company certificated to wait on your market - or the only company allowed to do so by your professional body. Chances are they are lying.

A few phone calls should save the facts and you could do a bundle.