Choosing a phone service provider for a business

Ketar

I'm currently in the midst of the application process for a business manager position that looks absolutely perfect for me. I was given three questions to answer by Tuesday that are representative of the tasks required of the position. The first two were no problem, but the third involves hypothetically choosing a provider for phone and fax service for a new branch office in St. Louis, MO.

I need to suggest which company I would choose for 5 phone lines for local and long distance service, and 1 fax line, and justify my answer.

I've been looking up reviews of providers in the St. Louis area, but haven't found many - not enough to justify a decision based on quality thus far. Getting some hard pricing numbers to compare that way is also difficult without actually speaking to representatives of the various companies. I can get a single line price from Verizon's web site, for example, but to get any info on package pricing for 6 total lines I'd need to call and speak to a Small Business Representative.

So, any advice on how else I can research this, or make a reasonable recommendation?

Lail

Phone up the companys and act like you're really interested. Get the required information. Price per month, installation costs, what sort of up-time they guarantee, after-hours support, etc etc.

Edit: And then to make your recommendation - put all the information in a spreadsheet so it's easy to compare and go from there.

khain

Call the companies. If this was an actual assignment there is no way you'd choose a company without knowing the different prices.

DragonPup

Some cable companies, like Comcast, do business class phone too. Check them out for price comparisons, and even if you decide against them, try to use that as leverage when checking prices elsewhere.

That said, you should call the companies rather than their websites for pricing on this sort of thing.