asterisk users - Apr 2006 - Telephone support charging system with Asterisk?

Hi,
I'm interested in anybody that is providing a phone support service
using an Asterisk system, with  built in charging system.

I run a PC support company and use Asterisk at the home/office. I
would like to be able to provide technical support to my customers
using asterisk. However I want to be able to charge them fairly for
this support, and with little work on my part.

My idea was for them to phone or login to a website and create a
support account. They can then top this account up with X amount of
credits, lets say 1 credit= 5 mins of support. Their account has a PIN
associated with it.

When they call to get support they have to enter there number and are
told how much credits they have remaining. They then get put through
to my office phone, if I am available and pickup, they start to get
charged for the duration of their call. If I am unavailable they go to
voicemail and dont get charged.

Does this sound like something which is possible with Asterisk?
Anybody doing something similar?

Regards

Mike

Mike Dent wrote:
> My idea was for them to phone or login to a website and create a
> support account. They can then top this account up with X amount of
> credits, lets say 1 credit= 5 mins of support. Their account has a PIN
> associated with it.
>
This is a typical prepaid system at work.
> When they call to get support they have to enter there number and are
> told how much credits they have remaining. They then get put through
> to my office phone, if I am available and pickup, they start to get
> charged for the duration of their call. If I am unavailable they go to
> voicemail and dont get charged.
>
A few lines in the dial plan or a macro is all that's needed for this.
> Does this sound like something which is possible with Asterisk?
> Anybody doing something similar?
>
I don't do this for support since support is free for our customers.
But you can use ASTCC and generate a prepaid card for each support account.
Of course, you can call the number a "support account number" and they
won't know the difference. :)

You will of course have to take into account your e-commerce system to 
allow your customers to pay online.
ASTPP works with OSCommerce while I've managed to make ASTCC work with 
Virtuemart/Joomla.
There are other applications. Look around.

-- 
JP Carballo

http://www.netfone2x.com
Bringing the world closer.

It might look like I'm doing nothing, but at the cellular level, I'm
really quite busy.