This just seems like an amoral SaaS service I kind of want to die. Fast.
I agree.
> and out of place on HN.
I disagree.
Why should we be discouraged from calling out what appears to be (at best) amoral behavior?
- They mention that the tiers have 1, 5, or 10 users supported. Is this concurrent users? Does "user" even mean phone call recipient in this case, or is it just someone who's _dispatching_ the Upcall calls?
- The enterprise tier seems like it should be subdivided; some of the things you pay for are really, really niche, but likely cost a small fortune to get set up on Upcall's end, justifying a much higher price. Looking at you, HIPAA compliance.
- What is, even, a "Logic Decision Tree" in this context? Is this just the fact that the caller should offer the recipient a few specific paths? Isn't it cheaper to do this using a robocall (and widely done this way by many enterprise phone support systems)?
- "Custom inbound voicemail" is a weird feature for a company marketing itself as outreach towards clients rather than the other way around; my understanding is that this is marketing and reactivation, not support, and incoming calls should be minimal in most use cases.
- All the email stuff is probably cheaper being handled by a specialized standalone service; why try to fracture your business's focus by trying to enter a space dominated by well-established players? (Not trying to say competition is bad, but this company clearly specializes in something other than email, so it makes little sense to me that they should be dividing their effort like this).
I assumed user to mean people who are the clients (the people paying for the service) who can login to see the progress of the "call tasks".
>- The enterprise tier seems like it should be subdivided; some of the things you pay for are really, really niche, but likely cost a small fortune to get set up on Upcall's end, justifying a much higher price. Looking at you, HIPAA compliance.
That's pretty common for this type of service offering. Basically the pricing is there to give you an idea. You see in the basic plan where it says "Ideal for Simple Tasks"? That usually means "you can have it your way, but don't get crazy." Think things like "call and ask Carl if he's coming on Friday" or "let Lakisha know that her order is finished." Everything else is a custom plan!
- What is, even, a "Logic Decision Tree" in this context? Is this just the fact that the caller should offer the recipient a few specific paths? Isn't it cheaper to do this using a robocall (and widely done this way by many enterprise phone support systems)?
My take away from the How it Works page leads me to believe that it's for use with the "scripts". The script changes when the callee answers a certain way.
>- "Custom inbound voicemail" is a weird feature for a company marketing itself as outreach towards clients rather than the other way around; my understanding is that this is marketing and reactivation, not support, and incoming calls should be minimal in most use cases.
They're banking on people setting the custom caller ID to their actual number. It's probably just their so there is no "hole" if someone calls back. Certain types of calls do generate a lot of callbacks.
>- All the email stuff is probably cheaper being handled by a specialized standalone service; why try to fracture your business's focus by trying to enter a space dominated by well-established players? (Not trying to say competition is bad, but this company clearly specializes in something other than email, so it makes little sense to me that they should be dividing their effort like this).
I think it's specific to the use case of contacting new leads. If I were upcall, my intent would be to scan the emails for specific types of customers that the client wants to call and start "call tasks" based on that.
But despite do not call lists etc, I can no longer answer my cell phone when I don't recognize the number, because of all the unwanted commercial calls, scams, surveys, etc. Many are falsifying their caller ID data because they know that everyone would block them if they could.
This product really really looks like it will be used to make that situation worse. "90% MORE LIKELY TO CONVERT A LEAD if you reach out minimum six times". Blech.
Somewhere, people are failing to communicate about something important because these people are pissing in the well.
These are not cold calls: they are inbound leads that you have to source and have permission to call. If someone fills out a lead form on your site and checks the “contact by phone” option, this allows you to scale a bit more rapidly in high-volume top-of-funnel lead gen where you are trying to filter out unqualified or low-value leads.
Edit: sueders101 pointed out that they reference cold calls. With the TOS in mind I bet that’s a copy mistake as they require permission to call berg secured before making a call. Thy definitely could use some copy updates and calling out security/privacy more clearly.
When you hover over the solutions options they literally say
"Prospecting: We cold call businesses and generate new leads for you."
How does Upcall verify this? Does their employee UI have a big red button that they have to hit every time the person picking up the phone says "Sorry, I've never heard of CLIENT_X", and after a certain number of "cold call alarms", the account is terminated?
https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html
Also first time submitted was 2 years ago.
It is a slimy business, it is booming at the moment, but there are a lot of other, healthier ways to make money and I think they built perception to be better then others for good reason. This just doesn't suit them.
I am open to hear opposing views and explanations, sans kposehn who acts as these guys advocate here.
When I get an unsolicited call, I always ask pertinent questions. If they can't be answered swiftly, I know that the company doesn't care enough to properly train their sales critters, and so my trust in them to do anything properly is significantly decreased.
Pertinent questions might include "how is your software or service delivered?", "where is the company located?" or "where is your security policy documented?".
