“The last Rondee conference call I initiated, I was told I was the only person on the call and put on hold when I called in.  However, other people joined the call and were waiting on me, while I was still on hold.  We could not hear each other! Is there something I need to do differently to prevent this from happening?”

This problem is rare but almost certainly being caused by a mis-transmission of the tones for the PIN by your carrier, especially if your carrier recently updated the way it transmits tones.  It is a frustrating problem to tackle since Rondee has no control over the way carriers transmit tones.

Example:

If your PIN is 54781, your carrier might transmit 5478 for person 1 and 5478 for person two.  If both are valid PINs they will be put in different conferences (one into 54781 and the second into 5478)

One solution we’ve heard from users is to simply hang-up and dial back in since the odds are good their carrier will get it right the second time if the first mis-transmission was a fluke.

Another solution is to choose a longer PIN so the chance of a mis-transmission of the tones for the PIN by your carrier will generate an error message.

I am looking to change our current conference calling plan to yours, but I have some questions…We are located in California, is is possible to give some people the “916″ number and others who are located out of state the “800″ number, but everyone the same PIN?

2. What will our phone bill look like? We need to be able to take the phone charges and bill our clients…hoping there is a way to know the total “phone ” charges (our end) and then bill our clients for the calls according to the PIN I set up (thinking each client will have their own PIN). Will that work?

3. Otherwise, I need a job code or something for each call (can I record it in the beginning of the call?) so I can track for billing purposes.

4. Needs to work in Hong Kong and Eurpope

5. Needs to be easy to use, currently we use “ring 2 conferencing” with a 800 number, but can’t use a job code or billing to know what call was for what project. Also, we no longer “require” a 800 number.

6. I like the 5 cents a minute, cheapest I have found!\r\n\r\nPlease let me know.

Responses….

Rondee is a great solution for these requirements.  Your California callerss can use the California number and everyone else can use the 1-800 number with all accessing the same On Demand PIN code.

In terms of billing: for anyone who accesses the conference through the 1-800 number, your account will be debited five cents per user per minute

for anyone who accesses the conference through the California number, you will not see any charges because that is between them and the phone companies

After each call you will receive an e-mail receipt and you will have access to the billing information if you log into your account.

In terms of foreign users, as long as they can dial a California number, they can access the regular bridge.  Though will not, however, typically be able to use the 1-800 number unless they have access to a service like Skype.

>>> Our 5 cent per minute per user rate is inclusive of the FCC charges, local taxes, etc.  No other charges. Please let me know if I can answer any other questions.

“Using your toll-free conference call service, can I assign a number or name to each call?”
>>> Yes, you can have multiple PINs

“We have several different clients and jobs happening simultaneously and we would like to keep track of which job pays for which call.”
>>> Yes, this is exactly a use-case Rondee conference calling supports

“Is it possible to track our past calls online?  And see our info online?”
>>> Yes

“Can we have two conference calls happening at the same time with different participants?”
>>> Yes, just get two different On Demand PINS

“And do we hear a commercial for Rondee or anything else as the conference call is starting or ending?”
>>> No
“Do we receive an email after the call is finished with the total time and minutes, etc.?”
>>> Yes
“Does the call start for everyone at the same time?  Or does the host need to be present for the call to officially start (so every can hear everyone)?”

>>> The call can start for everyone at the same time

Rondee is enlisting the help of students to use new tools before we publicly launch them.  If you’d like to earn $50 as a beta tester, we’ll ask you to spend about half an hour trying out the new tool  and then about 45 minutes providing your feedback.

Just send an email to tester@rondeeinc.com to sign-up and include a brief description of the sort of events you like to organize.

Since 2007 Rondee has been one of America’s favorite event scheduling services.  Rondee has been featured in USA Today, TechCrunch, Mashable, PC World, GigaOm Collaboration and a number of leading technology reviews.

Unfortunately this is the hardest sort of problem for Rondee to solve because it almost definitely means the user’s ISP is blocking our email. It happens pretty rarely because Rondee has become a trusted sender of email and has a long track record.  But when it does happen, the best solution for our users is to complain directly to their ISP and ask them to allow Rondee email to come through.

Would you be willing to complain to them?

The answer is yes.  Callers just need to press pound one in order to mute themselves on any Rondee conference call.

Here are the steps to follow:

1. Login to your account
2. Click the tab for “On Demand” (you’ll see the options bar on the left hand side)
3. Choose the PIN you want
4. You’ll see the option to customize what people hear when they punch in the PIN: simple tone, the ability to have them announce their name, silence.  These three choices are configurable both for conference call entrance and exit

The following are highlights from the release carried by Yahoo News:

Rondee, Inc., the company that originated conference calling with web-based scheduling and response tracking, today announced the official launch of Rondee 2.0. Rondee 2.0 represents a major innovation in the free conference call market. For the first time, users now have access to a single platform providing the choice of scheduling a conference in advance with RSVP tracking or conferencing on demand. These new developments represent an industry first.

Additionally, users now have the option of customizing a variety of features such as configurable greeting tones, audio recording, detailed call reporting. These features can be customized for each conference PIN and users may have an unlimited number of conference PINs. After several months of successful testing with thousands of conferencing organizers, these options are available to the entire Rondee community of users.

Rondee CTO Mike Slemmer spoke to the significance of Rondee 2.0: “Rondee has always been known for combining ease of use with innovation. Our new platform builds on that tradition by giving users the ability to choose exactly how they want to do conference calling and making it easy to do it.”

Rondee is continuing to pioneer new offerings. The first to market with web-based scheduling and response tracking, Rondee’s free conference call service couples an intuitive interface with powerful conference calling capabilities and access to premium features such as toll-free conference call service.