Someone I was calling on the telephone the other day wanted to ring me back. "What’s your extension number?" they asked.

"You’ll come straight through to me on that number," I said, which in its way was a little white lie.

It made it sound as if I have a dedicated line at my workplace. Which is true enough. But then it’s the only number at my workplace, and I am the only person who answers it. If I’m not there in person, then it’s my dulcet tones on the answering machine.

I’m of the generation that is still in awe of such machines. It is obvious how they work, but what a brilliant idea.

Next came the redirected telephone number. That’s even better, although I have no idea how they work. A few years ago I got a couple of 0870 numbers, which meant that wherever I was, on the beach, halfway up a mountain (unlikely) or at a bookfair (much more likely), I could plug in my pin number and get all calls redirected to my temporary number.

All was great until I realised that I was ripping off contacts and customers alike with the 0870 number. So I started to phase it out and from this August it will be no more. When booking this service, I had not been seduced by the thought that I would receive a percentage of the call charges. All I wanted was the convenience, and at that time I could see no alternative.

But I was soon alerted to its insidious nature and now, especially after ringing Pitney Bowes' 0870 customer "services" line seven times in a day just to get some extra postage put on my franking machine (and being left to hang on and on, and all the while paying more and more for the "service"), I’ve been won over by www.saynoto0870.co.uk, a website which is opposed to 0870 numbers and the companies that use them.

I agree with saynoto0870 so much that I even went to the Ofcom website to fill in a questionaire about it. But I couldn’t understand the form and I was only on the first of 61 separate questons. The deadline for responses in Ofcom's survey is this week, so if you want to express a view, you will need to hurry.

But I digress. I’ve been looking around to seeing what I could do to replace my 0870 number. An 0845 number looks to be the favourite. It works just the same, apparently, but the call rates are much less and nobody gets or feels ripped off.

Then I found out about virtual offices. Specifically, it was a mailshot from a company called Moneypenny. A publisher colleague of mine had used them and I was always slightly astonished (if you can be slightly astonished) and a little spooked when the same person answered his telephone and put me through to him when all the time I knew that he was a one-man band too.

What they promise is that they will answer your phone number when you are engaged, out of the office, or whatever. You will have your dedicated phone answerer and he or she (looks like it would always be a she if you look at their brochure) will put the call through to you wherever you are, or take a message.

They offer other services, too, but that’s the nuts and bolts of it. I then discovered it’s not the newest idea; virtual offices are all over the place (as they would be, if you think about it.).

So I’ve got to decide if that’s the way I want to go. It can make a very small business seem as if it is run with the apparent smooth efficiency of a much bigger concern, with dedicated secretaries and personal assistants, but without many of the costs. Of course, if your clients and suppliers think that you have your own receptionist, then they might start to consider that you can also can afford to pay a bit more for their goods or services, too.

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