VTBrendan
Viatalk
Premium,VIP
join:2005-06-27
Clifton Park, NY
| Fax to Email Service - Opinions Wanted Hi,
We're going to be adding fax-to-email service in the very near future to our product line, primarily as an add-on to existing accounts.
What sort of pricing schemes do you guys find reasonable for such a service? Any specific features that you think should absolutely be included? What is your likelihood of taking advantage of such an offering at various price levels?
Thanks!
-Brendan | |
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dcurrey
Premium
join:2004-06-29 | Re: Fax to Email Service - Opinions Wanted A price per fax type deal. Very rarely need it so a monthly service plan wouldn't be very useful to me. | |
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RockyBB
Premium
join:2005-01-31
Longmont, CO | PM sent | |
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VTBrendan
Viatalk
Premium,VIP
join:2005-06-27
Clifton Park, NY
| Re: Fax to Email Service - Opinions Wanted The setup we have does not require a virtual number - you will have an option in your control panel to enable the feature. Once its enabled, all faxes coming into your main VT line are detected and redirected to our fax to email system.
-Brendan | |
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VTBrendan
Viatalk
Premium,VIP
join:2005-06-27
Clifton Park, NY
| Re: Fax to Email Service - Opinions Wanted Hi,
This will work with our Virtual Numbers as well, so if you didn't want to publish your main number as a fax number, you can simply add a V-Number and publish that instead. The difference in could would be that of adding a V-Number. We're doing it this way to keep overhead as low as possible, as we want this to be a cheap enough solution that its viable for home users w/light usage, as well as the more obvious target of business customers.
-Brendan | |
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VTBrendan
Viatalk
Premium,VIP
join:2005-06-27
Clifton Park, NY | Re: Fax to Email Service - Opinions Wanted Currently, we're leaning towards a small monthly charge (few bucks) that includes X number of faxes, and then allow upgrades from there.
-Brendan | |
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CyberSultan
Premium
join:2006-07-20
| Re: Fax to Email Service - Opinions Wanted said by dipswich  :I assume blacklisting, for when I'm not shopping for Disney vacations, works with incoming FAX, too. I would assume that incoming fax calls would also be affected appropriately by the custom call routing feature of the VT service. I would want to avoid paying for faxes from spammers. | |
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VTBrendan
Viatalk
Premium,VIP
join:2005-06-27
Clifton Park, NY
| Re: Fax to Email Service - Opinions Wanted We're looking at it this way...
For the occasional faxer, a 2nd number is not necessarily something they would need or want if it would in fact increase the cost of the plan.
For a business, if a 2nd number is necessary, the $4 for the number most likely wouldn't be a show-stopping fee.
-Brendan | |
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| | | | | Boolah
join:2003-11-08
| It would seem to make more sense to get a CallCentric DID for $1.95/month + $2.37 E911 fee and $0.015/min. The Fax Reception feature is free with all of their accounts. If you presume that you can receive one page in one minute, you could receive 45 pages per month, have your own DID and pay the E911 fee for $5.00/month. | |
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dcurrey
Premium
join:2004-06-29
 ·ViaTalk
| said by VTBrendan :The setup we have does not require a virtual number - you will have an option in your control panel to enable the feature. Once its enabled, all faxes coming into your main VT line are detected and redirected to our fax to email system. -Brendan Thats pretty cool. Was wondering how you would be able to do it without adding a number thus requiring at least a minimum monthly charge.
Guess my per fax price would work. Think it would be easier to sell them in blocks in advance instead of billing 1 at a time. | |
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PHTP15
join:2006-06-13
Bloomington, IL
| I would be prepared to pay for individual faxes but can imagine that those with greater need would want a monthly fee. A fee of 10 to 15 cents per page would be reasonable to me. If you need to have flat rates, I suggest that they should be tiered for various volume levels. A low end of $3 a month would be acceptable to me. | |
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td100776
Premium
join:2002-12-19
Manalapan NJ | I currently use Trustfax from Comodo, maybe their pricing options will give an idea of what people are willing to pay for this type of service.
»www.trustfax.com/index.asp | |
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taylor2767
join:2007-07-12
Columbus, OH | I would agree to a per fax cost for those of us who only ocassionally receive faxes. | |
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N9MD
Premium
join:2005-10-08
Wayne, NJ
·VOIPo
·ViaTalk
·PHONE POWER
·Callcentric
2 edits | Brendan -- off the top of my head --
Fax to Email Service
Technical Issues include
• File type for incoming Faxes? TIF, PDF, DOC. File size (which varies with the different formats) may be important to some folks.
• SMS capability for Text Beepers as well as Emails?
• Incoming on ViaTalk Local DIDs or TollFree #s (or both)?
Outgoing Faxes
• Capability for outgoing Faxes (T.30/T.38) -- currently hit or miss? (I know, I know. -- It's VoIP not FoIP!)
• Capability for Email-to-Fax outgoing service thru VT?
Considerations for Fax Service Pricing
• Free incoming fax services already exist (J2 Fax, eFax, K7.net, etc.) -- although these do not generally provide DIDs in the customer's rate center.
• You may need multiple pricing models/tiers.
• Folks with residential VT accounts tend to have only occsional use for incoming or outgoing faxes -- suggesting a per fax charge (with or without a small monthly maintenance fee) -- I would consider at most a $1.95 monthly fee, just to "hold" the VT Fax DID -- with a per page fee of at most 2.5¢ (at or just above the per minute charges by most providers for pay as you go incoming VoIP calls). For "bargain-hunting" homeowners, they are very price sensitive and would be scared off by a perception of "high" prices.
• Small/Home Business customers -- using Residential VT accounts --might want an "unlimited" monthly/annual Fax plan. They might be willing to pay anywhere from $4 to $10 dollars for an unlimited monthly plan -- but keep in mind that in the business world (even small business) it is not a big deal for a company to post a Washington State (k7) or Massachusetts (eFax) or Pennsylvania (J2 Fax) phone number because business people have no problem faxing to distant area codes.
• Large Business customers would fall into a different category -- for which I don't have enough savvy to make a recommendation for pricing (although RockyBB might have some good ideas in this area). But given that only 1% of folks who posted in the BBR's good, bad, ugly area indicated business use for VT, I don't think "Big Business" is a major concern. | |
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VTBrendan
Viatalk
Premium,VIP
join:2005-06-27
Clifton Park, NY
| Re: Fax to Email Service - Opinions Wanted Hi,
Incoming faxes will be delivered via email as a PDF, as well as available through the CP interface. SMS notification (and email) are both easy additions that we will make. The default DID for incoming will be your VT number. If someone wants an out of area number or a toll free number, they can order those for their account and they will work as well as the main number, however the goal is to keep the low level package cheap and affordable.
Outgoing will be via file upload and email to fax.
How bout something like $2-3/mo. which included 50 incoming & 50 outgoing per month? That seems to be in line and/or cheaper than most current stand alone offerings.
-Brendan | |
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td100776
Premium
join:2002-12-19
Manalapan NJ
| Re: Fax to Email Service - Opinions Wanted said by VTBrendan :How bout something like $2-3/mo. which included 50 incoming & 50 outgoing per month? That seems to be in line and/or cheaper than most current stand alone offerings. -Brendan This sounds perfect for me, right now i pay $30/yr for 150 total faxes. | |
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CyberSultan
Premium
join:2006-07-20
| said by VTBrendan :Hi, Incoming faxes will be delivered via email as a PDF, as well as available through the CP interface. SMS notification (and email) are both easy additions that we will make. The default DID for incoming will be your VT number. If someone wants an out of area number or a toll free number, they can order those for their account and they will work as well as the main number, however the goal is to keep the low level package cheap and affordable. Outgoing will be via file upload and email to fax. How bout something like $2-3/mo. which included 50 incoming & 50 outgoing per month? That seems to be in line and/or cheaper than most current stand alone offerings. -Brendan $1.99 sounds good to me.   | |
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| | dipswich
Premium
join:2003-06-27
Raleigh, NC
 ·AT&T U-Verse
·VoicePulse for Bus..
·ViaTalk
 ·RoadRunner Cable
| said by VTBrendan :How bout something like $2-3/mo. which included 50 incoming & 50 outgoing per month? That's a fair price, especially for the number of allowed faxes (is that 50 faxes or 50 pages?).
But, I think that usage is well above casual/light/residential-typical. My point of comparison--
I'm using Vitelity's E-fax service (very good service, IMHO). With a dedicated toll-free number and my light use, I'm well below $4 a month. You are valuing a virtual local DID at $3.95/month, so that doesn't leave much room for FAX in a head-to-head.
Of course, we're all cheap b*st*rds here at BBR, so you're probably fine going a little above what we've searched out. A $2 add is at the upper end of what we'll endorse here, but it probably isn't that bad for the average convencience subscriber.
Giving away a free or 3 months is a great idea, and I'd be sure to upsell that virtual number with a FAX signup-- maybe $1 off if bundled with a fax-only virtual number (no dial tone/forwarding features). | |
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N9MD
Premium
join:2005-10-08
Wayne, NJ
·VOIPo
·ViaTalk
·PHONE POWER
·Callcentric
| said by VTBrendan :... Outgoing will be via file upload and email to fax. How bout something like $2-3/mo. which included 50 incoming & 50 outgoing per month? That seems to be in line and/or cheaper than most current stand alone offerings. -Brendan VT faxing in both directions is very enticing and the proposed monthly charge and allowances are rather generous for residential service. I personally might not want to give out my personal VT voice number for some nefarious people to see -- so I would opt for a separate local (or toll free) number for incoming faxes.
How would VT treat the charges for a separate fax DID (Local vs.TF)? VT currently ties a virtual number to the main DID -- that is, calls to a VT virtual number arrive on the main number and there is no independent Call Forwarding or Voice Mail. So do you really mean "virtual" with respect to a fax number -- or would there simply be a DID# that terminates at the VoIP Server and does the conversion to and transmission of email without ever disturbing my adapter. | |
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joako
Premium
join:2000-09-07
/dev/null
·AT&T U-Verse
| said by VTBrendan :Hi, Incoming faxes will be delivered via email as a PDF, as well as available through the CP interface. SMS notification (and email) are both easy additions that we will make. The default DID for incoming will be your VT number. If someone wants an out of area number or a toll free number, they can order those for their account and they will work as well as the main number, however the goal is to keep the low level package cheap and affordable. Outgoing will be via file upload and email to fax. How bout something like $2-3/mo. which included 50 incoming & 50 outgoing per month? That seems to be in line and/or cheaper than most current stand alone offerings. -Brendan If that plan includes its own phone number I'll sign up right now.
It would be nice if you offer a selection of TIFF or PDF and have a Windows printer driver for outgoing faxing.
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Am Heimcomputer sitz' ich hier, und programmier' die Zukunft mir | |
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| | ac_crusade
join:2005-10-06
| said by VTBrendan :Hi, Outgoing will be via file upload and email to fax. How bout something like $2-3/mo. which included 50 incoming & 50 outgoing per month? That seems to be in line and/or cheaper than most current stand alone offerings. -Brendan That sounds like a really good idea. | |
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| | iampedro
join:2005-02-12
Houston, TX
·Comcast
·ViaTalk
| said by VTBrendan :Hi, How bout something like $2-3/mo. which included 50 incoming & 50 outgoing per month? That seems to be in line and/or cheaper than most current stand alone offerings. -Brendan Will that be total # of faxes or pages... I would pay that for total # of faxes correct... | |
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Skyler_WA
join:2007-07-19
Lake Stevens, WA
| said by VTBrendan :What is your likelihood of taking advantage of such an offering at various price levels? I already have a free eFax.com account which works fine for the few faxes I receive, so the likelihood of me paying anything extra for your fax service is zero. | |
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chas3
join:2004-12-03
Dallastown, PA
·Comcast
·ViaTalk
| The free version of efax has been enough for me for 7 years now for incoming. Outgoing, while only 1 or 2 pages per week, it sometimes takes a retry or two using my VT line. (I am ordered to send 1 per week/custody.) It would be nice to improve outgoing reliability a bit, but I'm too cheap to spend extra on it. I did all I could with my fax machine, even adding the VT recommended DSL filters.
Based on my usage, perhaps allow a free teaser for people to try it; somewhat as advertising. Limited to a a few pages per month for free. That way, it can be listed as a free feature, but serious users would need to pay. And the few pages per month would give a try before upgrade feature built in. Besides, at this level of use, the faxes are still going thru your servers as ordinary phone calls anyway...sometimes as repeated retrys. | |
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VTBrendan
Viatalk
Premium,VIP
join:2005-06-27
Clifton Park, NY | Re: Fax to Email Service - Opinions Wanted We're going to most likely offer a month or two of free trial period for people to give it a go and see if its worth it to them.
-Brendan | |
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Brian in MD
Premium
join:2003-05-10
Maryland, US | Definitely worth $2-3/month for me, as a lightweight user. For the heavier users though, I would hope you'll have more appealing pricing structures. | |
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lesf
Premium
join:2002-05-23
Davidsonville, MD
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I would be interested for sure....
I used free efax for a while until I accidentally
went beyond their 'free limit' and was told to
pay or lose my account. I am now using MaxEmail
and pay about $15 a year for basic service plus
extra for outbound faxes. Thats something that is
important to me as well. The ability to email or
import a word file or other format file and have it
sent out to another fax machine.
I didn't see any mention of being able to use this service
for outbound stuff as well so I assume its inbound only?
Still I like the idea of being able to use my normal
phone number for inbound fax.. that is great.
Brendan... you said you could snag these data calls
and redirect them on your end. But doesn't that mean
you would have to actually answer the call first to hear
the fax tone? Or would it ring here at my house and when
I picked up and your equipment detects the fax tone you
would redirect it then? Just wondering how you can
peer into and unanswered phone call to detect fax tone.... | |
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| dipswich
Premium
join:2003-06-27
Raleigh, NC
·AT&T U-Verse
·VoicePulse for Bus..
·ViaTalk
·RoadRunner Cable
| Re: Fax to Email Service - Opinions Wanted said by lesf :Or would it ring here at my house and when I picked up and your equipment detects the fax tone you would redirect it then? Just wondering how you can peer into and unanswered phone call to detect fax tone.... Great observation! That would require Viatalk to process for the CNG, presumably including *after* answering as is often the case for manually-sent FAXes.
The ATAs can detect FAX tones, but they either switch to G.711 codec for pass-through (unreliable best-effort) or T.38 (still requires a FAX machine on the ATA). I wasn't aware there was a FAX-detect redirect/reinvite to a different server. | |
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See 9 replies to this post |
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mogulman
Premium
join:2002-09-09
Parker, CO | Outbound is more important then inbound. There are free services for inbound. | |
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VTBrendan
Viatalk
Premium,VIP
join:2005-06-27
Clifton Park, NY | Re: Fax to Email Service - Opinions Wanted Hi,
Outbound is going to be included as well. Via file upload through the CP, as well as an email to fax gateway.
-Brendan | |
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| | NoVaVoiper
join:2003-10-21
Arlington, VA
·ViaTalk
| Re: Fax to Email Service - Opinions Wanted Brendan-
I would rethink the option of a pay-as-you-go plan if it's administratively feasible. I have an efax number and rarely need to fax out, but would pay up to $1 per fax for the convenience. It's so rare, though, that it's probably not worth $25 a year to me. I guess it just depends where you see diminishing returns. | |
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koam
Pink Pecker
Premium
join:2000-08-16
East Puddle
clubs:
 ·Shoreham Telephone
·ViaTalk
 ·surpasshosting
| said by VTBrendan :Hi, Outbound is going to be included as well. Via file upload through the CP, as well as an email to fax gateway. -Brendan then why have you announced it as "fax to email" ? fax is a 2-way street and you have labeled yours as a 1-way street that you have ot pay for and can be had for free from a professional provider.
on the inbound side, efax does it PERFECTLY every time and is FREE. read between those lines.
Will this work as well as ViaTalk voicemail works? I'm jus' sayin'.....
--
YOU can help reduce poverty, sustainably.
»www.kiva.org/lender/kenandart
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ptrowski
Got Helix?
Premium
join:2005-03-14
Putnam, CT
clubs:
·VOIPo
·Metrocast Communic..
·AT&T DSL Service
·ViaTalk
| Re: Fax to Email Service - Opinions Wanted said by koam :said by VTBrendan :Hi, Outbound is going to be included as well. Via file upload through the CP, as well as an email to fax gateway. -Brendan then why have you announced it as "fax to email" ? fax is a 2-way street and you have labeled yours as a 1-way street that you have ot pay for and can be had for free from a professional provider. on the inbound side, efax does it PERFECTLY every time and is FREE. read between those lines. Will this work as well as ViaTalk voicemail works? I'm jus' sayin'..... I'm just' sayin' you are getting ridiculous. If you want to complain there is a perfectly good rants forum. | |
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MarkyD
Premium
join:2002-08-20
Oklahoma City, OK
clubs:
·Cox HSI
| said by VTBrendan :Hi, Outbound is going to be included as well. Via file upload through the CP, as well as an email to fax gateway. -Brendan this feature, I will buy. can't wait! | |
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xless
join:2004-02-10
Dublin, OH | I'd do $2/mo for 50 faxes (not minutes or pages, 50 complete documents).
What are the chances this will work with BYOD customers, like me? | |
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VTBrendan
Viatalk
Premium,VIP
join:2005-06-27
Clifton Park, NY | Re: Fax to Email Service - Opinions Wanted Hi,
My understanding (I'll confirm tomm.) is that this is all server side, thus making the type of adapter irrelevant.
-Brendan | |
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Cogdis
join:2007-03-26
Floral Park, NY
2 edits | I rarely fax, but could have use for this feature on occasion. I think a per fax option would be good idea for those of us who go months without faxing.
edit: maybe 25-50 cents per fax (kinkos charges 50 cents to fax). | |
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| digger16309
join:2007-06-26
00001
·ViaTalk
·VOIPo
| Re: Fax to Email Service - Opinions Wanted I rarely need to FAX outbound from home, maybe 4-5 times a year. I've been successful twice using ViaTalk as is.
I would pay $.75 to $1 per fax, a la carte, for the ability to do so. But I would not not incur an extra monthly charge for that ability. | |
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Traker1001
@mchsi.com
| I would love a per fax cost, Even at a dollar or 2 for each fax. However I would also be willing to pay a small monthly fee of something like $3-$5 a month, depending on the amt of faxes allowed.
I however wouldn't use it myself if it were a monthly plus per fax fee.
All this is under the asumption that it is like you said 2 way fax2email or viceversa. | |
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traker1001
@mchsi.com | Re: Fax to Email Service - Opinions Wanted I don't know if you can do this, One thing that might be handy is if you made a program to interface our scanners with the viatalk email 2 fax service. | |
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N9MD
Premium
join:2005-10-08
Wayne, NJ
·VOIPo
·ViaTalk
·PHONE POWER
·Callcentric
| Here's an email I just received from vBuzzer (a Canadian VoIP provider) with whom I do not have an account.
-=-=-=-==-=
Vbuzzer extends free internet fax within US and Canada
November 26, 2007
Toronto, Canada - Vbuzzer today announced that Vbuzzer extends its offer of free faxing within US & Canada beyond December 31 2007. Vbuzzer users can continue to enjoy the free faxing by a few easy mouse clicks on Vbuzzer Messenger.
Sending faxes remains a useful mode of communicating for both business and consumer users. Many have found this inconvenient and a disconnected activity from their regular use of their computer for
almost everything else they do in this digital world. Fax rates have been high while telephone costs are dropping dramatically especially because of VOIP services.
Vbuzzer continues to evolve is powerful communications platform which offers text messaging, high quality, inexpensive VOIP and now Free Fax. Not just old fashioned Fax but a unique internet fax solution. Instead of the traditional paper-based Fax Vbuzzer allows a totally digital, integrated and manageable tool. Most importantly for Vbuzzer users worldwide when they need to send faxes to their friends, families, and business contacts in North America, they have a super tool for free
"We are very pleased to bring Vbuzzer's high quality service to so many people for free, and it is an excellent showcase of our continued commitment to providing a powerful communications platform to our customers worldwide," said Mr. Kamil Khan, Chairman of Softroute Corporation, "we will keep setting new standards for valuable and innovative products to internet users all over the world."
The free promotional offer may expire upon 30 days prior notice.
-=-=-=-==-=
And I am aware of one or two other VoIP providers that are working behind the scenes, expecting to offer fax-to-email and email-to-fax in the near future. | |
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| bitsurfer
join:2003-08-18
Los Angeles, CA
| Re: Fax to Email Service - Opinions Wanted Any chance that you could port an existing paid j2.com number (formerly jfax.com, same company as efax.com) to a virtual number? I've had the number since 1999, and it would be nice to keep it.
As someone else mentioned, rather than a "virtual number" that rings on the main number, it would be great if you would offer an option of a second number that accepts fax (and optionally voicemail messages) only. | |
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no_one
@QWEST.NET | I hardly use faxing but 50 cents or a dollar a fax for me would be better than per month. Sort of the cost I would pay a kinko's etc. but without the drive. Then the varying monthly plans for real fax users. | |
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unknvoip
WWJID?
join:2006-07-25
Rochester, NY
·ViaTalk
| I almost never feel the need to fax from home. I usually am able to scan or save a document as a pdf and Email them.
However, if I did need to send an occasional fax, a small per fax fee (no more than $0.50 or $1.00). An alternative would be a $2-$5 per month fee in any month where faxes were sent or received. The higher the fee, the higher the number of faxes that could be send/received.
Since I only send a few faxes a year, paying monthly every month would not be of value for me. | |
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RockyBB
Premium
join:2005-01-31
Longmont, CO
| I don't have a dog in this fight, but VT might consider the pricing model that Qwest (and probably others) uses for it's pay per use services. Assuming that VT can actually measure the usage -- have a modest cost per use, with a cap of $X. In this case, something like fixed cost of $0/month + 50¢/page up to $5/month. If someone uses 10 or more pages, their cost is capped at the $5 amount, if someone uses less than 10 pages, their cost is less than $5 ... light user happy, heavy user happy.
Most critical if charging for usage, at enrollment make customer check a box acknowledging that any received faxes -- including cover pages and unsolicited faxes -- will count toward usage with no adjustments.
--
"Teleblend has an agreement with the Assignee to solicit and support former SunRocket customers." | |
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unknvoip
WWJID?
join:2006-07-25
Rochester, NY
·ViaTalk
| Re: Fax to Email Service - Opinions Wanted said by RockyBB :Most critical if charging for usage, at enrollment make customer check a box acknowledging that any received faxes -- including cover pages and unsolicited faxes -- will count toward usage with no adjustments. This is a good point. This service would have to work with Custom Call Routing to prevent faxes from numbers you know to SPAM and blocked numbers.
I like your pricing model as well, but we all know the 'X or more pages' would have to be capped in some way. Depends on the definition d'jour of 'Unlimited'. | |
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