Now I’m with ATT (iPhone) and it’s a whole different ball game. If I recall correctly, all of ATT, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile don’t charge you for call forwarding. ATT confirmed this via a customer service call last night.

The pricing has always been fairly reasonable. Most people don’t receive more than 40 voicemail messages per month and the $9.95 per month plan will suffice. PhoneTag will bill you $0.25 per message over your 40 message limit each month (I will rarely ever go over). Although this seems like a lot, think about the math when you add it up. That’s 20 additional messages for only $5 more…what a bargain.

They have a pay as you go plan that costs $0.35 per message received, however, if you receive more than a few voicemails per month, this can add up rather quickly. For those of you operating in a business environment, PhoneTag will work with you to craft a solution for your workforce that suits your needs. Simply contact one of their corporate support agents and you will be guided through the process.

For the full-time on the go business person that practically lives by their phone 24/7, they have an unlimited plan that costs $29.95 per month. This plan is more geared towards the die-hard mobile person and would be ideal to expense this to a business requiring mobile work to occur.

PhoneTag works with over 95% of current mobile, home and work voicemail systems today. Some third party vendors may have differing costs to use in terms of carrier services, but for the most part they all work similarly. You forward voicemails on a “call forward no answer” to the number that PhoneTag gives you and they handle the rest.

How easy is it to hook up or install? Here’s what I did. I received an email that contained these instructions (underscores replaced instead of the phone number they gave me).

On your mobile phone, dial *004*___________*11#, hit send, and enjoy!
You are now on PhoneTag!

If you wish to turn PhoneTag off, just enter ##004#

Additional information was included that told me how to customize my voicemail on their servers. It was a simple call to a toll free number they listed and it was done in less than 5 minutes. Recommendation: call from a land line phone for clarity’s sake. Your voicemail message will sound much clearer if you do this.

Vonage, Lingo and Packet8 users are also covered. Those voice over IP (VoIP) services allow free forwarding of voicemail via phone and email. If your service doesn’t allow you to simply forward the voice call in real time to the number that PhoneTag designates, PhoneTag has a special email address that they setup allowing you to forward voicemail as attachments to the PhoneTag service. PhoneTag then transcribes the recorded message and emails or text message’s you with the text version in about a minute.

PhoneTag’s technical support via phone (800-788-0916) and email. I left a message for support for something I needed done this morning and Tom in support called back within 3 hours. They do, however, operate inside of a typical U.S. working day. So if you’re in the UK or somewhere else in the world, the service will work but you’ll likely receive support outside of your own typical business hours.

PhoneTag themselves offer a 7-day free trial of their services. You can remove the service and cancel at any time within the testing period. They have offered me a special code to allow you a full 30 days to try out PhoneTag. If you dislike it for any reason, just cancel at any point within the 30 day trial.

Free 30 Day Trial:
https://apps.simulscribe.com/signup/r/320275

I think the only negative aspects I dislike about the PhoneTag service are:

• Lack of after hours support. Should something (ever) go wrong where I made a configuration mistake and were missing voicemails from important people, I’d be extremely upset. Even the simplest of support via email through their ticket system would be acceptable.
• They brand their name stating that “your message will be transcribed by PhoneTag” when the person is leaving their message. This is both good and bad. It prompts users to “clearly” state their message and phone number, so you’re more likely to receive an accurate transcription of the recording. However, we’re paying for a service at an arguably steep rate. They shouldn’t be forcing their brand on our callers…especially for business users.
• I wish they would create more diversity in their package offerings. Even when they were Simulscribe (I notice they still use the “simulscribe.com” domain name pretty heavily still, too) they offered the same plans. I would suggest a plan for $19.95 that offers possibly 100 voicemails per month.