Free Conference Calling Blog

a user recently wrote to us and said: “I have just signed up for Rondee. My question is if someone from sacramento calls the 619 # are they charge long distance?”

A call from Sacramento to area code 619 is, by definition, a long-distance call. How much they will pay for that call is really a function of what carrier they have.  Rondee does not charge for our free conference call service. The person in Sacramento will either pay nothing for the call (if they have a flat rate unlimited plan) or a per minute rate equal to whatever the rate is her carrier normally charges for calls to San Diego from Sacramento.

these were questions recently posted by one of our users about recurring rondee

1) If I have 15 people in my address book and have scheduled a “recurring Rondee” do all those people get conference call invitations every week.

Ø  They get reminders but they do not get re-invited each time!

2) In my Rondee list, I see 7 accepted invitations. Are those acceptances from this week’s invitation or last week’s?

Ø  It would be difficult for me to know offhand because individuals can change their response at any moment .  Assuming nobody has changed their response from the first time, these responses would have been for last week.

3) How do I know which are which are this week’s which which are last weeks’s acceptances?

Ø  Unfortunately all you can really know is what people have said their status is as of this moment in time.

4) How can I avoid all this confusion?

Ø  Recurring rondee works best when you have a stable group of attendees.  If you have a lot of people in a state of flux and you are really trying to figure out if they are going to be there or not going to be there, sending out a new rondee conference call invitation each week is the preferred approach.  It only takes about a minute and many of our users find this is worthwhile.

5) Must I schedule a new Rondee every week in order to know who is in and who is out?

Please see my response to question four

I saw the posting:

“I have used your conference call system several times for my work/company. There are several of us who use the system and we are wondering why we each get different PIN #s when we sign-up for a call. Originally when I set-up our account, I created a specific PIN # for all of us to use. I’ve never seen that number; whenever I schedule a call I get a number assigned by Rondee. However, lately, my colleagues & I are noticing we are each getting different PIN #s for the same call. Why is this? And, what happened to the PIN # I created when I started our account? I look forward to your response.”

The heart of the confusion, I suspect, is coming from the difference between Rondee-On-Demand and Scheduled Rondee.  Here is the difference:

Scheduled Rondees are calendared through the Rondee website. You sign in to Rondee.com to choose the date and time for the call. Rondee sends out email invitations, and invitees respond on the Rondee website. Rondee keeps track of the attendance and displays the call title, agenda and responses on a page unique to that call. Various features can be enabled such as call recording, automated reminders and recurring conferences. Rondee emails each participant a different PIN code unique to him or her.

Rondee On Demand conferences are not scheduled through the Rondee website. Instead, you independently notify your invitees of the date/time, and all participants dial in with the exact same PIN code. Click here to get a PIN code for Rondee On Demand.

What I think happened is that you signed up with a Rondee On Demand PIN originally and are now using Scheduled Rondee….

I saw the posting:

1. Is there any way to stop the loud noise when people come onto the call?

>>> Unfortunately not but we are working on changing the tone to make it less grating!

To date the conference call service has been great but above were a few things we wanted to inquire about.

I saw someone’s question: “Is the On demand conference call pin associated with my email address forever or does it ever expire?”

It is valid as long as the conference call PIN is accessed at least once every six months.

I saw the note: “How do you mute on conference call? How do you unmute?”

While on an actual Rondee teleconference call, you can:

Press the pound (#) key. After that:

Press 1 to mute or unmute yourself

Each time you want to select one of these options on the conference call, you must first press the pound key

I saw this question: “How can I listen to a conference call that I participated in?”

I assume the organizer elected this option….

DIRECTIONS FOR ACCESSING AUDIO FROM A SCHEDULED RONDEE
If so, after the call is done, just go back to Rondee.com, log in, you can get to your call through My Rondees link at the top of the page once logged into your account; you’ll see a new link for the audio.

DIRECTIONS FOR ACCESSING AUDIO FROM A RONDEE ON DEMAND
after the call is done, just go back to Rondee.com and log in, then go to the My Account link and you’ll see the audio links in the Rondee On Demand section.

I saw these questions from one of our users: “What is the maximum number of participants in a Rondee? Does voice quality degrade with large numbers of callers?”

As to the first, the formal limit is 40 but you will most likely be fine up to 50.

As to the second, the answer is no.  Voice quality is not affected by the number of callers.  Having said that, the more callers you have the more likely you may find yourself in a situation where one caller has background noise in his office or home which could interfere with the listening experience for everyone else….so our users typically have folks mute themselves on the larger calls.

A user asked, my organization is comparing conference calling services:

1. any local Numbers to 518
> Not at this time

2. is access/join easy [example]
> Yes!  Just dial in and enter your PIN code

3. can we save conf to mp3
> Yes!

4. how many total connections per conf
> Previously up to 40.  Now up to 50.

5. any /all costs involved
> Rondee does not charge for our basic service.  Keep in mind that your phone carrier will deduct minutes from your cell plan or charge normal rates to call our 619 bridge number

6. any phone type restrictions?
> No!

I saw the note: “I’m curious, with rondee, can you cut off incoming calls after the start time? We are experiencing many late callers and we would like to prevent them from interrupting the call in process by being able to block anyone who calls in late.”

Yes, this is a feature we offer on Rondee Conference Calling.  It is called “Locking the Conference.”

Here’s what you do - look at option 2

While on an actual Rondee call, you can select any of these options by first pressing the pound (#) key. After that:

Press 1 to mute or unmute yourself
Press 2 to lock or unlock the Rondee conference
Press 3 to eject the last joined participant
Press 4 to decrease Rondee conference volume
Press 6 to increase Rondee conference volume
Press 7 to decrease your particular volume
Press 9 to increase your particular volume

Remember, each time you want to select one of these options, you must first press pound.