Notes
Arguments rather than announcements. Mostly about the gap between what this category advertises and what it charges for.
Booking Should Not Be an Upgrade
Rosie gates appointment booking to its $149 tier. Taking a message and booking an appointment are not the same product at a similar price.
Designing a Greeting That Does Not Annoy
The first sentence decides whether the caller cooperates or hangs up. What to include, what to cut, and where the AI disclosure belongs.
How the Handoff to a Human Works
What happens when the assistant cannot help: the mechanism, the rules you control, and what the caller hears when nobody picks up.
How to Evaluate an AI Receptionist Vendor
The tests worth running, the claims worth distrusting and the questions that separate a real answer from a confident one. Apply them to us too.
How to Read an Answering Service Invoice
Where the surprises hide: rounding, billable-unit definitions, setup fees and the difference between calls answered and calls billed.
Inbound and Outbound Are Not the Same Rules
Most AI receptionist compliance content describes outbound robocall law. Answering calls people place to you is a different activity with different rules.
Maine's AI Disclosure Law, Explained
Title 10 section 1500-DD has applied since October 2025. It covers spoken conversation, which means it reaches an AI answering your business phone.
Questions to Ask Before You Sign
Twelve questions that produce a different answer from each vendor in this category, including us. Print them and use them on the sales call.
The Anatomy of a Good Call Summary
Three lines that let someone act without opening anything else: what the caller wanted, what was agreed, and what happens next.
The Case Against Unlimited Plans
Unlimited usually means a fair-use policy you have not read, enforced at a threshold nobody published. A metered plan with a published rate is more honest.
The Integration Matrix Nobody Publishes
Integrates with has been stretched to mean anything from a native write to a webhook someone could build. Three honest states fix it.
The Real Cost of a Missed Call
The figures circulating in this category have no source we could find. Here is how to work out your own number from data you already have.
The Two Numbers Every Vendor Hides
The overage rate and the definition of a billable call. Neither is usually on the pricing page, and together they decide what you actually pay.
Utah's AI Rule for Licensed Professions
Utah requires state-licensed occupations to disclose verbally at the start of an interaction. If you run a dental, medical or legal practice, that is you.
What an AI Receptionist Cannot Do
The limits are more useful than the feature list. What this technology handles badly, where it should not be used, and what to keep with a person.
What We Tell Customers About Recordings
Why we will not publish a definitive list of all-party consent states, which ten appear on every list, and why the notice is a switch you control.
When Not to Use an AI Receptionist
Five situations where buying one is the wrong move, written by a vendor who would rather you did not buy than churn in month two.
Why Most IVR Menus Fail
Press one for sales was designed to route calls to departments that no longer exist. What replaced it, and why menus still survive in some places.
Why Transcripts Beat Recordings
Nobody listens to call recordings. A transcript is searchable, skimmable and usable by the person who has to act on it, which is the whole point.
Why Uptime Claims Are Mostly Meaningless
A number on a marketing page with no measurement behind it, no definition of downtime and no consequence attached is not a commitment.
Why We Do Not Claim HIPAA Compliance
HIPAA compliance is contractual, not a product certification. It needs a signed agreement with every layer that touches patient information. Ask which ones.
Why We Price Per Call, Not Per Minute
A per-minute meter charges you more for the calls that work. Here is the arithmetic, and the case where per-minute genuinely wins.
Why We Publish Our Limits
No customers, no reviews, no certifications, English only. Putting that on the page costs us sales and is the only proof a new product can offer.
Why We Publish Our Overage Rates
Four of the vendors we track hide the rate you pay after the allowance. That number is the price of a busy month, and it belongs on the pricing page.
Hear it take one of your calls
Two minutes, your own scenario, no card.