Terms & Conditions
Flexiable in favor to our clients.
- General Terms.
- Notices & Consent.
- Mortification to Services.
- Termination.
Customer Service
Call 020 3670 7797 or Leave your details, We’ll contact you within 15 Mins
Call 020 3670 7797 or Leave your details, We’ll contact you within 15 Mins
Key Features
YEARS EXPERIENCE
VIRTUAL OFFICE SERVICES
%
COMPETITIVE PRICING
%
SATISFACTION
General Terms
Noticies, Consent
ID Requirements
FAQ
Virtual Number
FAQ
Office Space
FAQ
Fax 2 Email
FAQ
Music On Hold
FAQ
General | FAQ
What is the contract length ?
Our terms and conditions are flexible and always in favour of our clients.
Our telephone answering plans are only 2-months contract. However, if you wish to cancel the service(s), we require a full calendar month notice sent to our email:
info@firstcallvirtualoffice.com
How long does it take to set up ?
It takes approximately 24 to 48 hours on average to set up your account, once you have made your payment and completed the registration process via phone or email.
What type of support can I expect from you ?
At FirstCall, we take pride in ensuring the best customer support. With teams of customer service reps trained to help you or assist you with our latest equipment and software, setting up a virtual service or any other service of ours is made easy.
We will answer every single question you may have and assist you during every phase. Our passion and commitment to every single client does not go unnoticed – in fact, those are the qualities of our exceptional service.
What is the setup deposit for ?
We take a 1-month service charge deposit for any monthly account made on our platform, which is refundable upon cancellation.
This is only to ensure that you meet our monthly terms and conditions – We don’t require a deposit for the annual accounts.
Can I change my plan from monthly to yearly ?
You can upgrade or downgrade your plan by giving us 1 month notice via email: info@firstcallvirtualoffice.com
How can I cancel the service ?
We require you to notify us 1 full calendar month notice prior to your cancellation on your monthly account. If you wish to cancel your annual account, you can only do that at the point of the standard renewal date (the date it expires).
Are there any hidden costs I should know about ?
Our pricing policy is fully transparent, featuring NO Hidden costs or additional fees which are not clearly mentioned on our website and terms.
Are there any setup charges ?
There is a small setup charge which is a one-off.
Telephone Answering Service | FAQ
How do I receive my messages ?
Our Live Operators will answer your calls and will forward the detailed message to you via email and/or sms
Will I receive a dedicated telephone number ?
Yes. You will be allocated a new 0203 / 0208 / 0207 or other number in which you can present as your new business number or redirect your calls to.
What information do you take from my callers ?
Our Live Operators answer the calls as per your custom call script while taking their name, contact number, email and more.
How quickly are my calls answered ?
Our answer rate is 97.5% With an average ring time of 2.8 rings. We hold ourselves to high standards.
Do you answer my calls in my company’s name ?
Definitely. All inbound calls to your allocated number will bring your screen up in front of the live telephone answering operator, letting us answer in your company name based upon your custom call script.
Can I pick my own number of choice ?
Absolutely. We will offer you a range of local or a non-geographical number to choose from.
How can I divert my phone to you ?
Diverting your calls to FirstCall is simple and easy.
The only thing you need to decide is whether you want:
1. All calls to be diverted
2. All calls to be diverted if your line is busy.
3. All Calls to be diverted after a certain number of rings
Can I still answer my calls if I want to ?
Of course. The diverting option should be activated only when you want FirstCall to take your calls.
However, our personal advice is to setup the divert setup so calls that are missed by you, calls after a certain number of rings or when your line is busy are transferred and answered by our live operators.
How do our operators know what to do with the call ?
Whenever you receive a call on your allocated number, a screen pops up in front of our operators, clearly showing them the guideline under your requirements. You can make changes to it as well.
What are your hours of operation ?
We offer 2 plans:
Standard hours: Monday to Friday 8am to 8pm, Saturday 8:30am to 6pm, Sunday 10am to 4pm
or 24/7
What is the difference between 0203 and 0207 numbers ?
0203 numbers came into circulation in 2005 as the demand for numbers exceeded usage in the London area. 0203 and 0207 numbers are for inner London, A allocated 0203 number are included in our telephone answering plans. There is an extra charge for 0207 number.
I don’t want to change my business number
Of course we can provide you a telephone answering service. We will still need to allocate a unique number. You will then have to instruct your existing phone service provider to divert your calls to the new number we have given you.
Mail Forwarding Service | FAQ
How do I sign up for a mail forwarding service?
Signing up for your personal mail forwarding service is easy and simple. All you need to do is visit our mail forwarding page where you would be asked to choose your current location and other relevant details.
It takes approximately 24-48 hours for us to review your sign up process, set up your account and send you the paid invoice and confirmation via email. After that, you can start using your new mail forwarding address.
Alternatively, you can contact us via phone or email at sales@firstcallvirtualoffice.com to sign up your mail forwarding service.
What will my address be ?
Your address will be
” your company name ” followed by the full business address.
Can I receive mail in my personal name ?
Yes, When setting up the account you will be asked for the Company Name, Trading Name, Names of Directors in which any letters or packages received under the confirmed names will be identified and sent to you.
How often will you forward my mail ?
Once we receive the mail, it is sorted and forwarded the same day.
Worldwide destinations require an extra few days.
How often will you forward my package ?
Once we receive the package, it is sorted and forwarded the same day.
Worldwide destinations require an extra few days.
How do you know which mail or package for me ?
It is important that you inform and promote the address including your company name to ensure the senders will send the letter or package correctly for example:
” your company name ”
full business address
If we receive any items without the name of your company, trading name or other which are mentioned on your account these items will be returned to sender as we would not be able to allocate it to your account.
Can I collect my own packages ?
Depending on your selected business address chosen.
If allowed you can definitely collect your own package. However, make sure to send us an email at info@firstcallvirtualoffice.com informing us when you would like to collect.
Do not forget to bring your ID upon arrival.
Packages Charges Explained
We reserve the right to classify any parcel as medium or large once it cannot fit through the letterbox and is larger than A5 in size. The costs of forwarding parcels like these are calculated by us and sent to you via email – with a link to make the payment needed online directly via your account. Once your payment is covered, we immediately proceed with forwarding your package.
The universal cost for forwarding a parcel as special delivery starts from £7.45 (and changes) depending on your current location, its exact weight and size. We calculate the entire cost and send it to you on your email with a link to the payment.
Can I change my mail forwarding address ?
Yes, If you want to update the address your mail is being forwarded to, please send us an email to info@firstcallvirtualoffice.com with your new address.
Note that there is a small one-off admin update fee for this update.
Are there any additional fees I should be aware of?
We charge a one-off fee of £5 per item to every account before sending the parcel to it. If your account is set to ‘Post when arrives’, the cost of forwarding your parcel will be calculated by us and sent to you via email. Once your payment is sent and received on our end, we will forward your parcel.
Please note that our storage space within our offices is still limited, and have this in mind when collecting your parcel. If in any case your parcel is not collected within 5 working days (including the day of receipt), we charge an additional £5.00 per week per item that commences on the sixth day of keeping your parcel at our office.
Parcels that are collected within 5 working days do not incur any storage fees besides the standard £2.50 handling charge that applies to all parcels.
We reserve the right to not accept items that weigh more than 10 kilograms or with dimensions greater than 60cmx60cm. This is because of the fact that we are a mail-forwarding service and unfortunately don’t have spacious storage facilities to house large parcels for all of our clients.
To track your payments for any storage fees or ongoing shipments, you need to log to your account and click Outstanding Payments>My Payments. Here, you will once again see our guideline of all the mail forwarding charges.
Registered Office Mail Forwarding vs. Virtual Office Mail Forwarding
At First Call, we offer both mail forwarding as a Registered Office and Virtual Office services. But what is the difference between these two?
Virtual Office Mail Forwarding: Here, you get to use our London address as your business mailing address and receive letters from your bank, other institutions, clients or customers, just like using it as marketing or advertising it for your company.
What is not included is the used of our London address as your company’s officially registered office. Therefore, if you need a registered office in our London location, make sure to choose the Registered Office Mail Forwarding solutions.
Registered Office Mail Forwarding: This service lets you use our London address as your company’s official office address to receive the official mail.
What is not included here is the use of your address for marketing or advertising purposes for you company. For that, you should either consider using an alternative address or choose both the Registered and Virtual Office mail forwarding plans.
How can I register a business in the UK?
Registering a business in the United Kingdom is a simple process of going online to HMRC click this link to open an account.
Can you update the Companies House and HMRC with my new Registered Office Address ?
Unfortunately, The Director of the company must contact the Companies House and HRMC to update them with the new Registered Office Address.
Mail Forwarding Regulations | FAQ
How long does it take to register?
Your account will be active 24 to 48 hours after you provide your ID and all the other relevant documents. In most of the cases, we activate accounts within 1 working day, so that you get the confirmation email and can start using your new mail forwarding address straight away.
How and where to send your documents?
Our Mail Forwarding Service requires you to send scanned copies of our ID documents so that we can verify them. If you haven’t done that yet, please send your ID and address proof as soon as possible, since they must be received within 1 month from the date you set up your mail forwarding service.
Your mail forwarding address remains inactive until we receive these documents and have our customer service team confirm them. If there is any mail sent to your address during this period, unfortunately, it will be returned to the sender.
Can I send my passport /driving license both as proof of ID and address?
Unfortunately, they must be separately sent so that they count as just the proof of ID. For the proof of address, you must supply other documents such as a bank statement, electricity or water bill etc.
Why is my ID needed in this process?
On behalf of the legal controls under the London Local Authorities Act 2007, we are required to keep records of all clients who use virtual offices and mail forwarding services and a copy of their identification and proof of address accordingly.
Who can certify copies of the documents?
If you are providing copies of your identification and proof of address, the documents need to be certified and signed by someone else (counter signatories) so that their authenticity is proven. Counter signatories must work in (or be retired from) a recognized profession, such as someone of good standing in their community.
Do we keep each document and every detail as confidential?
Every bit of information that you provide to us is kept in the strictest of confidence. You can rest assured that your privacy is guaranteed with our service and that we won’t do anything to compromise your details or give them to any third party.
However, we are legally obliged to provide your information to official bodies such as Courts and the Police if we are asked or required to, by the law.
Information About Non-UK and Non-EU residents
All documents sent by our non-UK or non-EU clients need to be in English and notarised by a Public Notary. Also, they need to be accompanied by the relevant official stamp which can be only be found at a Public Notary.
For more information on Public Notaries and where to find them, click here.
Fax 2 Email | FAQ
Sending Faxes
Requirements
The first thing to do before using our fax to email service is to sign up online or via phone or email. As soon as you complete the process, there will be spaces for 4 email accounts which you can add and confirm in order to receive fax to your email accounts. In case you need more than 4 email addresses to add for your fax to email service, contact us at info@firstcallvirtualoffice.com
Sending Your Fax
We are using the number 22222 in this example of how sending your fax works.
1.You need to create a new mail address
2.You need to address your email to the number you want to send your fax to, including @fax.firstcallvirtualoffice.com. So, in our example the email will be addressed to 22222@fax.firstcallvirtualoffice.com.
3.If you are sending fax internationally, you need to add 00 followed by the country code prior to the address. In our example with the 22222 number, the fax address will be 0022222@fax.firstcallvirtualoffice.com.
4.There should not be any spaces or any other sort of punctuation in the number
5.You need to attach the documents that you want to fax
6.You click on ‘Send’ and the fax is sent
What To Do After You Click ‘Send’
After you have sent the email with the fax, our teams at First Call will keep you informed on the fax transmission progress. As soon as we accept your fax we will email you, and then update you with a further message once the fax transmission is successful.
Can anyone else send faxes using my account?
If you want to add more than one email address that is permitted to send from your account, contact us at info@firstcallvirtualoffice.com.
How do I add fax credit to my account?
The monthly fax to email subscription gives you up to 1,000 inbound points included. Above this limit, we charge on a pay-as-you-go basis, where inbound faxes are priced £0.5 per page and outbound ones £0.8 per page.
Trouble Sending Faxes
If you experience any difficulties when sending faxes, this guide is for you.
Every time you send a fax to us, you should be sending an email to our fax domain (fax.firstcallvirtualoffice.com). If there is any error appearing, we will let you know by replying to you with details and our suggested corrective action.
The notifications we may send include these forms:
NOTIFICATION RECEIVED: THIS USER (EMAIL ADDRESS) IS NOT APPROVED TO SEND FAXES THROUGH FIRSTCALL
This notification means that you haven’t set up an email address that is permitted to send faxes. Also, you should pay attention to the email address quoted in brackets – mostly because some providers can change your domain for outbound emails (for example, instead of @gmail.com your email could be sent from @googlemail.com).
If you want to add or modify your permitted users, contact us at info@firstcallvirtualoffice.com.
NOTIFICATION RECEIVED: ERROR CONVERTING DOCUMENT
If you receive this message, it basically means that your document has not converted to a faxable form because of some difficulties. To make sure it gets converted, check our list of supported format in the Help FAQs section of our site.
NOTIFICATION RECEIVED: NOTHING TO FAX
This notification means that you probably missed to attach a document to your email as an attachment. Because our fax to email service works with documents (attachments) as a must, it automatically shows this message every time you send an email with no attachments. *The exception to this is if you’ve enabled cover pages on your account, where an email with no attachments will be faxed, with just a cover page containing the body of the email.
I am not receiving any notifications – what to do?
If you are not receiving any notifications when sending a fax, please check:
1.Check if your notifications are going to the spam folder
2.Check if your emails are sent to the correct place (address or fax domain)
3.Check your ISP – it may be blocking the notification altogether or marking it as SPAM before it even gets to you. Go to your Spam/Junk folder in the email and see if there are any messages.
Not Receiving Faxes
If you experience trouble in receiving faxes, there are a few possible reasons for that.
In case your sender insists that the fax was sent successfully and they received a delivery receipt from their machine or service, your fax has probably been received by us and email to you but never got to your email client.
Check your received fax log on your account
Besides from emailing faxes at your convenience, we also keep a log at your secure account. If you have troubles with sending faxes, you can reach our customer support specialists to verify them.
However, if your expected fax does not appear in our secure log, it probably wasn’t sent at all. In this case, we recommend you to contact the sender and double-check the number (address).
Your email may be filtered out
Always make sure to check your spam folder for the fax. Fax-converted emails can easily reach your Spam or Junk folders mostly because of the low amount of text they include which triggers the algorithms to mark them as Spam or Junk Mail. In case you see the mail in the Spam/Junk folder, make sure to mark the sender address as ‘Not Spam’ in order to never again receive them in this folder.
And if you cannot find the email on your Spam folder, your ISP may blocked it for some reason even before it reached you. Fortunately, you can test if this is happening by changing your fax number so that it sends to more than one address. You can also add an address from a different domain with a different ISP, send a test fax and see if it comes through.
An important update on email providers
As of recently, we found out that some mail systems are being hosted by GMail and if the mail sent by us is identified as SPAM by GMail, it will be delivered to the SPAM filter in the webmail client, but not sent to any third party mail client. If that is your case, you can “whitelist” our address so that it always delivers mails like these to your Inbox.
To do this, simply add our support mailbox address (info@firstcallvirtualoffice.com) to your contacts in the webmail interface and you will receive every mail from us in your inbox.
Broken Or Partial Faxes
If you receive only part of a fax sent, then it is likely that the sending process fails at some point. It’s true that fax lines can drop from time to time because of the quality of line as well as the location of the sender and receiver. If the fax is a long document (ex. 20+ pages), you can ask your sender to only re-transmit the part that failed instead of sending it over from the beginning. If your fax still fails to be sent after retries and you double checked the number (address), the best way is to get in touch with our support team at info@firstcallvirtualoffice.com.
Multiple Recipients
You can receive faxes to more than one address at the same time, thanks to our Fax to Email services. The only thing you need to do is to configure your fax to email number, contact our customer service team via email (info@firstcallvirtualoffice.com) and wait for the amendments to be made by our side. Once we do them, they become effective immediately.
Enabling Cover Pages
A lot of our clients use cover pages when sending pages. If you want to use a cover page as an extra page that is included at the beginning of the fax which includes information such as:
the name of the sender
the reason for the fax
the fax number of the sender
the number of pages the document has
the body of your email in the message box
then you need to enable the fax cover pages feature. You can do it straight away by contacting our customer service (info@firstcallvirtualoffice.com) and setting up your cover page. However, note that enabling this feature will count 1 additional page to any outbound email for each fax that you send.
Sending Faxes – Tech Specs & Limitations
In the following table, we are listing all the information on the file types supported as attachments in our fax to email service. Please not that every time you attempt to send a file with an extension which is not supported in this list, will result in an error.
DOC, DOT, DOCX:Microsoft Word 97, 2000, XP, 2003, 2007
XML: Currently, only Microsoft Word 2003 XML files are supported.
PDF: Adobe Acrobat
TIF: Group 3 TIFF, may be in standard or fine resolution ***
TXT: ASCII Plain Text
XLS, XLSX: Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, XP, 2003, 2007, Note: Only active worksheets will be faxed
HTM/HTML: ** HTML files
MHT: ** MHT web archive files; HTML with embedded images
URL: Windows URL files
PPT, PPTX: Microsoft PowerPoint 97, 2000, XP, 2003, 2007
GIF: Non-animated GIF files *
JPG: JPEG files *
PS: PostScript
EPS: Encapsulated PostScript
RTF: Rich Text Format
BMP: Windows Bitmap *
PCX: PC Paintbrush Bitmap *
SNP: Microsoft Access Snapshot (Version 10 on Windows 2000)
* For best results use only monochrome (1-bit color, not grayscale) with the following image sizes:
** HTML documents are rendered using MS Internet Explorer, with page margins set to 10.16mm (left, right, top, and bottom)
***Image Sizes
Standard Resolution:
A4: 1,728 x 1,169
Letter: 1,728 x 1,100
Legal: 1,728 x 1,400
B4: 2,048 x 1,357
Fine Resolution
A4: 1,728 x 2,338
Letter: 1,728 x 2,200
Legal: 1,728 x 2,800
B4: 2,048 x 2,714
Limitations
The maximum number of pages per fax are 100 (or more by special request)
The maximum total file size of the fax attachments combined is 20MB
The maximum total file size of fax attachments with electronic signature is 10MB
We don’t offer support for password-protected files
We don’t offer support for read-only files (which will prompt you with a pop-up when opened)
Music On Hold | FAQ
How does the ‘Music On Hold’ feature work?
Our music and messages on hold are programmed in the form of an auto attendant that plays the audio into your company’s phone system. Although in most cases it happens to be an auto-attendant vocalist service, new forms of technology let you host your hold messages on a VoIP phone system. This makes the audio uploadable from anywhere online. There are a few differences between these two forms, but the bottom line is that they are both beneficial, especially the VoIP service, when the message is played every time the caller is placed on hold rather than in midstream.
How can I use hold messages for my business?
Letting your clients wait while informing them about your unavailability helps you entertain them and inform them that you are currently busy. The hold messages to your receptive audience are a great opportunity to also showcase and advertise your company’s products or services. However, their main point is to streamline your organizational efficiency and help your clients stay on the line and directed to their appropriate channel.
Is all the music we use royalty-free (license-free)?
Yes. Our vocalist services are 100% license-free, which means that they are composed, performed and produced by our in-house team of musicians and producers, and ready to be used by any of our clients without any copyright concerns or license fees.
Why can’t I download Free Hold music and use it instead?
It may definitely seem easier for you to download free MP3 music from a player or Youtube, however there may be a risk of infringing or downloading music protected by copyright laws. This can transform to a court matter or subjected to hefty penalty fees, which is why our personalized music is the best choice. It can be paired with any message you choose and after all, is the most professional and tailored music that you can get for this particular service.
Why use a personalized IVR message? Are there any benefits?
Absolutely. The benefits of using a personalized IVR messages are endless. Depending on the type of your business, these messages can be designed to help you use your full business potential and build authority through a professional image. Even more than that, personalized IVR messages have helped businesses to appear more friendly and streamline their customer service experience in a more efficient way.
Can I somehow use my active marketing campaigns on my hold messages?
Definitely. The freedom to customize your music as well as personalized messages lets you basically promote anything that is latest in your business. Whether there is a script for this that you prepared or would like our assistance with the ‘Melody on Hold’ feature, we will do our best to help you incorporate your marketing campaign into your hold messages. This is a great opportunity for every business, and one that lets you provide some insider knowledge about your industry to your clients, aside from letting them know about your active promotions.
How can I maintain my customer service operations after the regular office hours?
Our after hours Out of Hours Message service is the perfect fit for this. By incorporating it into your phone system, you can greet your callers in a professional manner, even if you are not at your office or they are calling from a different time zone.
Do I have to write my own scripts?
Absolutely not – instead, we can do it for you. All you need to do is sum up the message you want to present to your audience and provide us the information about your business (your website, brochures, letters, copy yellow page ad etc.) and we will produce a full script and then e-mail it to you for approval, right before it enters the production phase. *please note this service incurs a one-off fee.
After how many days will my on hold service be ready for use?
The turnaround time for our on hold service varies between 3 to 5 working days after you place your order. In most of the cases, it is usually within 24 to 48 hours. However, if for any reason there is a delay in your project, we’ll let you know up front and inform you immediately. Delays usually happen when our voice presenters are over booked or not available due to health issues.
Why are our competitors so expensive?
There are a lot of vocalist services out there, but only a few match our pricing. Obviously, we don’t compromise on quality – instead, we are priced very competitively in order to give you the best results for the least money spent.
This is mostly because of the fact that there are a lot of businesses outsourcing their hardware, script writing and organizing and installing the audio. Our service though, has all of the above mentioned services in-house, as a single solution ready in the quickest time possible.
Why are we so much cheaper?
Our services come with no contracts, we do not provide any face-to-face meetings or offer telephone hardware support. However, everything we do is done in our offices and in a professional way. From our royalty-free music to our expert script writing service, we do everything to help you present your business in the best way possible.
Do we write the scripts?
Yes. Although we are sure that the best way is for you to write it yourself coming from the fact that no one knows your business like you, we still provide Script Writing as a service. We charge it as a one-off payment for vocalist customer service assistance and are able to tailor to your needs, even if it takes more than one try.
Is it possible for me to reuse my old script?
The short answer is yes, but only if you wrote it.
The reason why you must be the writer is because of the copyright laws that in other cases your competitors may have over it. That being said, it is your responsibility to check if there are any copyright claims on your old scripts and if it’s permitted by them. If you are in doubt about this, we suggest you to rewrite it, or we do that instead.
What if I don’t like the audio or there is something wrong with it?
We strive to aim for nothing but a 5-star experience and 100% client satisfaction in each and every project. If in any case the results do not meet your expectations, we can do the following:
If there are mistakes or mispronounced words in your script, you should contact us immediately so that we can organize a re-record in the correct form. Note that you must provide the phonetic spellings and specific directions in cases like these.
If the mistake is made by yourself and you need to change it, we charge a nominal re-record fee and can completely redo the project within 48 hours. To avoid situations like these, we suggest you to triple check your script before sending it to us.
If the script is too loud, noisy or has an audio problem, we can solve it within 2-3 days and easily change it at no extra charge.
If you don’t like the background music that you chose and think that it doesn’t fit well with your message, please contact us within 3 days and we will change it at a nominal fee.
If the voice over we delivered sounds different to the demo on our website, please contact us immediately after receiving the audio ( 1 to 2 days). Although this should never happen, if it does we will do everything from comparing the recordings with our voice presenters to re-recording them if necessarily. If you leave it for several days or weeks, though, we will consider this as a paid re-recording.
If the voice over you got comes with an incorrect pronunciation, contact us immediately upon receiving the audio or 1 to 2 days maximum after we send it. In case you leave it for several days or weeks, we will consider this as a paid re-recording.
If you decide that you don’t like the voice over and would like a different one from scratch, we would have to charge for this. After all, we still have to pay the original voice over artists and editors for the job they did.
Office Space | FAQ
How do i view the serviced office i have found ?
We welcome you to email us the link or location and we will get one of our managers to make direct contact with you to arrange a tour info@firstcallvirtualoffice.com
Meeting Rooms | FAQ
How much is a meeting room?
Prices of meeting rooms varies depending on location, facilities and availability. We welcome you to email us for further details and a quick quote/booking: info@firstcallvirtualoffice.com
Can i cancel my Meeting Room booking ?
Once a booking has been made, we are unable to cancel.
Can someone help me find a meeting room ?
We welcome you to view our large variety of meeting rooms, you may use the custom filter to be able to find your perfect meeting room with your requirements.
How do i book/pay for a meeting room ?
Well, its simple once you have selected your meeting room, you may sign up online or contact us customer service team.
Call 020 3670 7797 or Leave your details, We’ll contact you within 15 Mins
Call 020 3670 7797 or Leave your details, We’ll contact you within 15 Mins
