Free Conference Calling Blog

The following question was just posted….

I requested a re-occuring weekly call and after tonight’s conference call was over, the info was gone….

How do I get it to save my call info week after week?  Also if I have to re-enter it each week, will it keep changing people’s pin #?  I don’t want that - I want them to have the same pin throughout our series of free conference calls.  Please advise.

Response:

The way in which Recurring Rondee works is that once you’ve created the conference, it only lists the immediately next one coming up in your account. And when that was done, it will automatically list the next one after that coming up in your account. However, internally our system has registered the fact that these will be continuing indefinitely (until such time as you cancel it).

Also, on a Recurring Rondee, the PIN codes of the invitees do not change.  This is because PIN codes are “glued” to e-mail addresses.  So as long as your invitees maintained the same e-mail addresses, they will maintain the same PIN codes for their conference calls.

A Rondee user just posted these questions please see below for our responses

Can international callers call into a rondee conference? I need to schedule a conference call with someone from Taiwan.

* Yes, international callers can dial into a Rondee conference as long as they can dial 619-276-6333 or 916-209-4534 (our bridge numbers).

Also, what is the maximum number of people that can call in to a single conference?

*Normally the maximum number of people that can call into a single conference is 40.  Do you require a higher limit?

I saw your posting: “How can this service be absolutely free to my company if we use it, or am I reading this wrong?”

You are correct, Rondee does not charge for basic service.  The way our basic service works is that we give you a California dial-in number which is area code 619 or 916. Calls to these area codes are treated by your phone company just like any other calls to these California area codes.  We do charge for value-added services such as a 1-800 access number and you are welcome at any point to try using our 1-800 service or not.

“So all I do is enter all the phone numbers and time and date of call and all are called by your service and connected and forwarded to our

conference room phone to be placed on a speaker?”

That is correct, please feel free to test it out.  Rondee is used by teams throughout America (both non-profit and for profit) in exactly the way you are describing.

I saw the posting:

“Thank you for your wonderful services.

I am a grade school teacher that would like  to offer various classes available on conferance so as to allow parents the

ability to participate.

Is there a way that you can direct me to distribute a “mute” call in number, so as to eliminate “static”? I seem to be

having trouble locating that specific pin.”

I am delighted to learn about the innovative way in which you are planning to use Rondee. We are currently working on a “Listen-Only” PIN feature and I think it will be quite helpful for you and our other educational users.  In the meanwhile, here is what most of our users do….

While on an actual Rondee teleconference call, you can tell your users to 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 just saw the following post:

“I’d like to learn a bit more about your free conference service.  Is it completely free?  Do you begin charging after X number of attendees have joined a web conference and/or an audio call? 

Can you record a web session both audio and screen?  If so, how is this information accessed after the session ends?

Can recordings be downloaded and hosted some place else?

Any other additional information regarding your services and any associated costs with your conference calling service is extremely appreciated and helpful.”

Here was my response:

Rondee does not charge for our basic conference calling service.  You would only incur a charge if you registered for one of our premium services such as 1-800 access.

Only the audio portion of the call can be recorded.  It can be accessed after the call is over.

To answer your question about how you access the audio, it might first be helpful for me to explain the difference between the two ways in which you can use Rondee:

1.     Scheduled Rondee

You can schedule a call, enter the email addresses of the participants and Rondee will send an invitation to them.  Participants respond to that email - if you have used Evite, it is like that. And you know who got the email and who didn’t and you can also post the agenda for that call on a webpage dedicated to that call for your participants to see.  I did a call last week with a small group of about 10 of my consultants and knew who I needed to text and remind or call and remind.

2.     Rondee On-Demand 

You can register for Rondee on Demand, choose your own PIN number (love that because you can choose something easy to remember!).  You can then do calls anytime you want.  Andy and Beth Piland use this for their weekly Spiritual Calls.  Andre said that a lot of people use it for faith based studies.  What it means is that you have your own conf call space always reserved that is for you only and the number/pin stays the same.

Now, back to your earlier question…. both can be recorded.

To record a Rondee On-Demand, you just log in to your account, click on the “My Account” link and check the box for whatever Rondee On-Demand PINs you want to record. After the call is done, just log back in and click on the “My Account” link and you’ll see the audio links right there.  To download the audio to your computer, just right click the audio link and select “Save As” and save it to your computer (just like you would a document).

To record a Scheduled Rondee, you just check the box “Record audio from this Rondee” when you are going through the scheduling process. After the call is done, just log back into Rondee, click on “My Rondees” and then select the call you want.  About half way down the page you’ll see the audio link.  To download the audio to your computer, just right click the audio link and select “Save As” and then save it to your computer (just like you would a document).

A user told us he just lost his PIN.

First question to figure out is whether you lost your PIN for Scheduled-Rondee or for Rondee On Demand?

The difference between Scheduled Rondee and Rondee On Demand —

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.

To record a Rondee On-Demand, first log into your account.  If you have not yet created an account, you’ll need to create an account using the same email address with which you registered your On-Demand PIN.  Click here to create an account: 

http://www.rondee.com/user_login_register.php

Next, log in to your account, click on the “My Account” link and look in the middle left section of the page….then check the box for whatever Rondee On-Demand PINs you want to record. After the call is done, just log back in and click on the “My Account” link and you’ll see the audio links right there.  To download the audio to your computer, just right click the audio link and select “Save As” and save it to your computer (just like you would a document). 

I saw the note: “Is this totally free? Or are we paying as if we were making a local call and not a long distance call? And how can I get a toll free number?”

Rondee does not charge for our conference calling service. Additionally, your carrier will treat this call like any other call you would make to a long-distance number which happens to be in California.  I’m assuming that you are calling our conference bridge from out of state….

So if you would normally pay say three cents a minute to dial a California number, you would still pay three cents a minute to your carrier.  Or if you get all minutes included in your monthly plan, then there’d be literally no cost to dial the rondee conference call bridge.

You can sign up for a toll-free number on Rondee-On-Demand by logging into your account and clicking on the “My account” link, adding money to your account balance and then checking the box next to the Rondee-On-Demand PIN you would like to enable.

If you would prefer to enable toll-free for a Scheduled Rondee, just make sure you click the appropriate box on the scheduling page.  You’ll see it right as you use the scheduling system.

I saw these questions:

1. is this conference call service FREE?
2. Will you provide a US phone conference bridge and PIN?

Here are the answers:

1. Yes, Rondee does not charge for our basic conference calling service.

2. Yes, we provide you with a US based dial-in number.  We also provide you with a conference PIN code and you can customize the PIN code.

A user just asked: “Does your system allow international callers to join the conference call?”

The answer is  yes! As long as they can dial one of our bridge numbers they can join the conference call.