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Happy Birthday from me too Steve and Goog Luck too for the impending arrival

Well the point about call answering Vs answering machine is that the latter is just that - a machine. A lot of people prefer someone to answer and that can make all the difference with conversion. With some, its a necessity.

There are also people who don't need the interruptions, have a large campaign that will generate a lot of enquiries, they might be on holiday and need calls picking up for a week or two, or sudden emergenciesn - you name it, loads of reasons, short or long term. It's not always just to replace you, it's to assist you.

Some clients just pop it on divert when they are in meetings, or having a day off. We don't even need to know when it's on divert or not. It's often peace of mind as much as anything, but it can be a full time receptionist for you too. It's not for everyone so if you can answer all your calls and guarantee not to miss any that might be a potential sale, then it's not for you.

Agree about SEO, it's got to be as bad as the cowboy building trade now.

I'm not offended as long as the replies aren't aimed at spoiling our advert - seeing as this was posted in the Marketplace section of the forum.

I understand it can happen and it happened to you, but wouldn't want people to think that it's a regular occurence. It really isn't.

You rarely hear stories where someone hid behind a virtual office and scammed people. Much less than scammers who operate from a legit address actually. There are tonnes that rent an office or hosue then do a moonlight flit after doing people over.

It's the person at fault, not where they operate from.

You wouldn't ordinarily know a virtual office address anyway until you turned up and found out that's what it was. Not sure how you know all your spam emails are from people using legit virtual offices?

It's no different to people who use mobiles with no traceable landline. Or have a website with no mention of their name and address. Loads of them do it but I wouldn't go with anyone who didn't satisfy my basic checks, and more, pending the transaction value involved. I wouldn't think "they have an office on the high street in doncaster so that means they are safe to do business with".

You don't say how you got scammed exactly and what it was to do with SEO that could lead to being scammed? Can you explain more?

Anyway, my point is that they are as traceable just as if they had rented an office.... and then done a runner.

I will chip in on this one seeing as it's a company I co-own, though will say this thread was regarding for SEO reasons, not specifically as a trading address.

I will agree there are scam companies out there, where some might try using virtual address...but it can't last long.

You'll never avoid scammers but you can take steps to avoid them. Do a credit check and get good, genuine legit references. Who are the owners? Do they have a history? Are they traceable/transparent?

I would say do more than checking they have an address though as that's not really a thorough check of a company by any means. You don't say what else you did so your argument seems to rest on the address, even Googling it as you said.

Did that prove to you they weren't a scam outfit - that you thought it was a real office they resided in so meant they were legit? You can't surely just base your trust in an address alone? So i'm presuming all other checks came up trumps? They passed a credit check? You got references that were from genuine, legit people/companies? You did as much as any reasonable company could before parting with your money?

A virtual office service plugs a gap where a demand exists, mostly for home workers, but for other genuine business reasons too. The scammers are a tiny minority where it cannot operate for long due to the fact it will become obvious to the virtual office providers pretty soon.

It's irrelevant really that it's virtual. If they are going to scam you, they will, and from anywhere. End of the day, if you involve police then the virtual offce would have to declare their private details like the address they invoice to, their bank details (where their payments came from), etc. so clients are nearly always traceable.

We take also ID and most of our clients pay by bank transfer, and a small few by PayPal or Cheque, so again, a means of being traced.

Equally, we check they appear to be legit using common sense when checking things, and will cancel their service if they are - or appear to be - abusing our service in any way, not just in a dodgy way.

Someone actually did turn up to find a client at our premises, and long story short, I was able to get our client on the phone for this visitor to speak direct and resolve the issue.

True, the visitor found out we were a virtual office for our client but that was our clients fault for not providing the service or replying to emails, causing the customer to go looking for them!

There is an element of making sure you don't wholly mislead your customers, but a virtual office is a very modern way of doing business in this modern world we live in. Many large business centres in the UK operate them, they are not known or have a reputation for being a lifeline for scammers.

We have had queries from some very large well-known organisations considering having a Northern 'presence' using our virtual office address. We have also had them using our call answering service - again, it certainly doesn't mean because it's not their staff in their office answering those calls that they are not legit, or that they need to hide.

Even banks and the mighty PayPal cannot avoid scammers using their service, so ultimately how could anyone 100% prevent a scammer using their service? You have to be reasonable in the logic of the argument applied here.

Ultimately the repsonsibility is on the customer, no matter what address the seller uses, to take precautions. That's no different from a bounced cheque - you don't blame the bank for providing the account and a cheque book to a scammer do you?

You say the virtual office was unhelpful and by that I guess you mean they wouldn't supply you with the direct contact details they had for their client? If so, then they are not at liberty to disclose that information unless it is already public information of course. However if you report it as fraud then a police investigation would be able to request that information and follow it up.

You and I both know that dodgy people exist in every walk of life in business and I would say there are more dodgy plumbers than there are scammers using a virtual office, wouldn't you?

Steve, to answer your question, it is run as a networking group in it's own right (with it's own name and own website; in fact in May I will be re-launching it with a new name to give it a better identity, and moving to a new venue too.

I do not get the chance to join in the actual networking to promote Indizine. I don't get enough time because I am busy time-keeping for the table shuffles and hosting, etc. I tried joining in the last one but only managed to join one table. I am going to try and join in more though in the coming months!

I now run an evening (5-7.15) networking group in Doncaster. I started in in October to fill a gap in the market. We get around 23-25 every time, usually about a dozen are new faces and the others are returners/regulars so a nice mix. I am also adding in 3 speed networking events.

I run this is a

Durrr Yes another one asking you to write out the obvious unique content to the most popular question on the internet.

Yep, good thinking there batman, never occurred to me to check that way but i'll go off and do that.

Thank you guys, much appreciated, so far sounds like a gym-related catch phrase should be used. I need to come up with something in this next day or two. I'll let you see the final result.

I can have upto 3-4 screen changes in that 20 seconds. Actually 20 seconds 4 times an hour isn't bad since repetitiveness is what is needed for memory recall. I need to brainwash people into calling me! Hmmm...how can I do that?!!

There is a reason they using those annoying go compare or safestyle UK chaps but think I will give that a miss!

I get bored when on cardio machines too....glad it's not just me!

Hi Folks,

I'm starting some advertising in a Nuffield gym in Doncaster in May for my web design company.

It's a 20 second commercial which will be played 4 times an hour, for the full duration of their opening times 7 days a week. It will appear on the TV screens in the gym (across the back wall in front of all the cardio machines) and in the cafe, played in between music videos and the music will still be played over it, so it's visual only as far as my ad is concerned.

I need to decide what text and animation/graphics to use and wondering if it should have a relative headline something on the lines of "Does your website look as good as you do?" or "Is your website getting the same attention as your body right now" now they are just what spring to mind right now, off the top of my head as I write this. Or does this sound cheesy? Or do you think it won't matter, or should stick to words that don't connect in any way to fitness/body/gym/etc?

Any ideas or feedback is welcome. Never done a commercial before so that aspect is also new, let alone advertising in a gym.

They are ABC1, and stay an average of 2hrs. There is an average of 12,000 footfall per week, from a membership base of approx 3,500 (who go there an average 3 times a week).

PS I can change the commercial twice at no extra cost, during the 12 month period, so i'm mostly looking at something that will initially be used for the first 3 months to see how it goes, and then review it and see if it is connecting with the audience, and producing enquiries as a result.

Thanks