The whole formula
How a vendor gets a number
The full score is 100. This version publishes 50 of those points, from pages anyone can open. The other 50 stay blank, including for vendors we might one day earn from.
| Part | Weight | How version 1 scores it |
|---|---|---|
| UK number | 15 | Yes on their own page: 15. Documented in a setup tutorial, with extra steps: 9. On request: 6. Unverified or no: 0. |
| Published price | 20 | A numeric price with an allowance and an overage, or a £0 pay-as-you-go rate with a per-minute price: 20. A numeric price without that detail: 10. Quote only, with no number: 4. Nothing published: 0. This scores whether you can check the price, not whether it is cheap. |
| Trial | 15 | A no-card trial of your own line: 15. A public demo, while a self-serve trial is unclear or needs a sales step: 10. A trial where usage fees or a card are part of the offer, and no public demo: 6. Not stated: 0. |
| Call handling | 30 | Not scored. One shared script, ten situations, published audio. None of that exists on this site yet. |
| Booking and transfer | 20 | Not scored. A sentence on a pricing page is not a test of a diary or a handover. |
A 50 does not mean the receptionist is good. It means we could see a UK number, a checkable price, and a trial. Ring Verity and Alayic can both show that and still be unheard by us.
The 150-call illustrations on each review use a rule we state there: 3 minutes a call where the vendor charges by the minute, and 150 calls where they charge by the call. Those illustrations are not added into the score. We do not convert dollars into pounds.
Commission rates, voucher values, and whether a programme exists are stored so the disclosure page can quote them. They are not passed into the scoring function. How we make money.
When identical-script calls are published, call handling and the booking test will be filled from those calls, with the date on the recording. Until that file exists, both cells say “not yet tested”.