Getting rid of the pager

[Wally]

I'm wanting to get rid of the pager and have the Laser call my cell phone. What do I need to do besides change the phone number?

 

[DavidM]

I did this earlier this year with our Laser 4000. I don't know about the M5 or G5. On a 4000 you can't have it call a cell phone directly and get the error code.

The workaround....
Our Laser calls Interpage (www.interpage.net, using their direct page service - $10/month), they forward the page as an email to my Gmail account. My Gmail account then forwards it to our phones as a text message. It doesn't take any longer to receive the pages this way than it did with a pager.

You may be able to skip the gmail step and send the email from Interpage directly to the text message address for your phone.

If you want more details, let me know. Doug Reick wrote an article in Northeast Carwasher last year detailing how to do this.

David

 

[bigleo48]

Wally,

I have an m5 and just sms my cell via email. All carriers have this ability. Just make the email as follows depending on carrier. If not listed, then check your carries webpage or give them a call.
T-Mobile: phonenumber@tmomail.net
Virgin Mobile: phonenumber@vmobl.com
Cingular: phonenumber@cingularme.com
Sprint: phonenumber@messaging.sprintpcs.com
Verizon: phonenumber@vtext.com
Nextel: phonenumber@messaging.nextel.com

Big

 

[koliver]

The other option that PDQ has available is the LaserNET as an add on for the LaserWash 4000. This will tie in between the CPU and printer. It will give you the ability to send out an email or text message. Internet would be required at the site.

 

[lag]

A few years ago we went to the pager company ,and explained we wanted the laser codes sent to our phones as a text message. They did it fairly easily, they just needed some information from our phone carrier, and we have not had the pager since.

 

[Wally]

Lag, I contacted my pager company, Morris Communications in Greenville SC, and they said they couldn't send a text message instead of a page.

 

[lag]

Lag, I contacted my pager company, Morris Communications in Greenville SC, and they said they couldn't send a text message instead of a page.

I PMed you our company info. The pager company just needed some information from our phone carrier to make it work. It really was not to big a deal, have them contact our people ,and maybe they can help.

 

[bigleo48]

To use a paging service with SMS requires a 'link' between the paging controller and the SMSC. My cell carrier also has a paging system. They have a service called Dialup PCS. What it is is a modem bank tied to a number that your machine dials. It then uses your cell phone number as the PIN. That way your Laser (or any other machine that uses TAP protocols for paging) thinks it's calling a paging terminal, but really calling into the SMSC of the cell carrier.

But be forewarned, most cell carriers no longer advertise or train staff on the availability of this service, so you're gonna have an uphill battle getting this service. Some carriers are dumped it too.

Big

 

[jimmyjj]

The paging company we use directpage.com offers "virtual paging service" where our laser 4000 dials out our regular pager phone number but the pages appear on our phone as a text message and we also have the page sent to a secondary email address so we also have a log of all pages sent. Our one maintenance guy has a blackberry and programmed the email address into it, so when the email is received it sets off a distinct alert and he can see the page right in his email. We setup a separate free gmail email account just for the pages so the pages don't get lost with other emails.

 

[jimmyjj]

Virtual Paging

For those of us still using pager notification with our laser wash equipment as well as the credit card authorization equipment. We have been using a virtual paging service offered by directpage.com that forwards pages to our cellphone as well as an email address that we set up just for receiving pages. No need to carry a separate pager anymore and since it rings to the cellphone, it works just about everywhere not just the limited coverage of the pager.

 

[pitzerwm]

Jimmy, you should review this company, sounds like a lot of guys could use it.

 

[jimmyjj]

I spoke to the manager at directpage.com yesterday to see if they would be willing to offer a discount on their virtual paging service to car wash owners. He asked me how much interest there would be and I guessed that there could potentially be hundreds if not thousands of car washes that would want to use it if the price was right.

He said with that number, directpage could offer a substantial discount of $48 off per year bringing the cost down to $7.95/month from their regular rate of $11.95/month when prepaid annually.

Here is the discount code when you order online: carwash

He said he would offer the discount through the end of December 2010 and if there is a substantial number of orders, they would continue the discount into 2011.

The link to order online is: http://www.directpage.com/directpage-virtual-paging-service-annual-p-246.html