Anyone have a business phone system?
 

I'm looking to setup a phone system for our new office and a bit confused on how this works.

I got a quote from Comcast (who we use for voice/Internet) of over $800 and $200+ a month for 4 lines, plus I need to buy phones which are insanely priced.

I see a bunch of these systems for sale on eBay for pretty cheap, but are they just plug and play? Just curious before I go and spend $400 on a system with 6 phones.

What we have now is a bunch of 4 line phones. ALL day is incoming bs calls. I'd like to get something in place where all incoming calls go through our "system" or pbx type setup and each phone has its own extension.

Why use PBX? Go for VoIP instead. It's cheaper, more portable, more flexible, etc. You have a much wider range of hardware choices, and you can even use soft phones on your computer and mobile devices (Your iphone or even iPad can even become an extension). Route calls to your home or Skype, record calls, have voicemail messages emailed to you, and much more.

You can even take a hardware phone with you as you travel and have instant access to your calls from any Internet connection. Some phones (such as the Cisco 525G have built-in Bluetooth and Wifi) letting you make and take office calls, wirelessly, though its more elegant to use voip or route to your mobile device. But still. I did this for the Qwebec Expo last year and it worked perfectly.

Try
http://www.ringcentral.com

or

http://8x8.com

you could build your own with a pc. alls you need is the lines. i dont know how to do it, but i would go to college and learn it before i threw that kind of money into the black hole that is comcast

Hi there,

8 years ago, I bought a Panasonic TDA-50 with the voicemail system, and it's still running very well. I'm sure they have more recent stuff, but you'll need a company to come to install it, then you'll have to call them for maintenance and updates. But for me I've been lucky enough to find a tech that comes the day after I call him for 75$.

Was just going to say to look into VoIP.
:winkwink:

I seel both hosted voip and pbx based systems including. Cisco/Avaya/Cudatel etc. it really depends what options you need/want such as single number reach / voicemail to email etc. if you want to email me dk at thriveitgroup dt com i can explain how it works in both cases.

Sell - edit

I have ring central now, works great. However I have 3 sales people and incoming calls and the current solution doesn't work well and causing problems, mostly the constant solicitor calls.

As well when we make outbound calls, people call back the number dialed, so if that line is in use, there is no call hunting available and just busy.

I'm looking at some of these Nortel systems on eBay which look pretty good for 6 phones and the box. I got a response back from one seller saying I just need to provide the phone lines and have someone install the lines into the box, which would probably be about $100 or so.

Before we had all our lines forward to our Ring Central number, problem is you can get any of the landlines to actually ring since it keeps forwarding, so they can only be used for outbound calls.

Comcasts pricing is insane and they charge a boatload for equipment and won't install any purchased devices that are not there's. however we do need voice lines and theirs are te cheapest for unlimited calls (4 lines at $85/mo.), and our building can't handle FiOS yet so cable is a must.

If I can figure a way to plug these lines into a system, I'd be happy

Grasshopper.com is nice for a business phone system.

I'll second that, I just signed up yesterday for the service.

Sip + asterisk
 

A few sip lines and an el cheapo server running asterisk is all you need...