Filed under: Internet, Utilities, Features, E-mail, Office, Productivity, Web services, VoIP
Grand Central - puts you in charge of all your phone calls
If you dread the evening onslaught of telemarketer calls as well as the monotone response of "please take me off your call list," (on a good day -- we can't print what we say on a bad day -- ), a much welcome and highly rated phone service is here to help. Grand Central puts you back in charge of all your phones, (work, home, mobile, etc.) as well as all those pesky phone messages.
First you simplify. Grand Central provides you with a phone number for life which links all of your existing phones and consolidates voicemail into one mailbox. When someone calls this number, you can pick up the call from any of your existing phones. All of your work, home, mobile voicemail goes into one mailbox which you can access from your phones, the internet or email.
Now, for the good part. You can send all the annoying telemarketing calls to a spam folder. B'bye! Even better, you can choose a setting called "not in service" which will play the detested and jarring three note alert, followed by, "we're sorry, the phone number you dialed is not in service." HaHa!
Take the jump for more on Grand Central...
Below are some other cool features from Grand Central:
- Check your messages by phone, email, or online
- Keep all your messages online for eternity
- Record and store your phone calls (just like voicemail)
- Quickly (and secretly) block an annoying caller
- Click-to-dial from your address book
- Surprise your callers with a custom voicemail greeting
- Turn your Mp3s into the ring tones your callers hear
- Forward, download, and add notes to your messages
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Ryan Sullivan said 11:16AM on 3-21-2007
Grand Central is a great service. I have a small business on the side, and I put my GC number on the business card. That way I can have my called forwarded to either my cell, work, home and even my wife's cell phone. It's great and I've had it for a long time now too with no complaints.
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Steve said 2:28PM on 3-21-2007
I've gotta add my impressions. I too am a huge fan of Grandcentral. My wife and I don't have a landline, just a pair of cell phones on a family plan. With Grandcentral, people can call our family number and both of our cell phones will ring, just like a typical home with landlines. The service has all kinds of filtering, recording, etc. If you haven't checked it out, I'd at least suggest going to the site and reading up about it. You'll be surprised with how much they offer for free.
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Scott-O-Rama said 4:00PM on 3-21-2007
Add me to the list of people who love Grand Central.
It reminds me of TiVo in the fact that once you try TiVo, you tell all your friends about it. I feel that way about Grand Central. Once you try it, you'll love it.
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bryan said 11:35AM on 3-22-2007
I've had a GrandCentral account for some time now, but never have done anything with it. I've been seeing stories about it all week (not sure why all of a sudden, but whatevs) and had the idea that I could use it to ring all my wife's phones (home, cell, work) so I didn't have to guess where she was.
I just rang my number, and some guy named Kelly answered. Wha? I checked the account numbers ... they were all right. I'm pretty sure I dialed the right number, because I heard the custom ring tone I set up a while back.
So. Either GrandCentral gave me a number that's already in service, or my wife and I need to have a chat ...
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Bill said 9:42AM on 3-22-2007
Me three...er..four!
Since I signed up, I now only give my GC number when I have to put something on an application somewhere. No I have some control if I start getting telemarketing calls. Also, we don't have a landline anymore...just cell phones. Family has our cell numbers and everyone else have the GC number. I can tell GC to not accept calls after 9 PM and on holidays, for example.
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Mark said 11:50AM on 3-22-2007
Another awesome feature is how you can have it handle calls on a per person basis. For instance I may have someone in my contact list that I only want to go to voice mail. You can also have custom rings and greetings for each contact.
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Kelly said 1:10PM on 3-22-2007
bryan,
Sorry about that. She told me not to answer the phone, but curiosity got the best of me.
I'm glad we met..
Kelly
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