What sort of work does Take A Letter conduct?
How do you guarantee the confidentiality of my work?
What other guarantees do Take A Letter provide?
What size jobs will you take on?
Can you work over weekends and Bank Holidays?
Where are you based?
The Finished Product
How will you send the finished product to me?Can printed reports etc be delivered by hand as soon as they are completed?
Can I have electronic copies of my work?
What format will electronic documents take?
Can I choose what type of paper you use?
Costs
Apart from your flat hourly rate, what other costs will I incur?How long does it take to transcribe a 1 hour tape?
How long does it take to produce a presentation?
Is there a minimum charge?
Must I employ you for a minimum monthly period?
How do I pay?
When do I pay?
What if I'm not satisfied with the quality of your work?
Contact
How can I contact Take A Letter?Will you need to meet me?
What are your office hours?
What information do you need from me before commencing a task?
Miscellaneous
What backups do you keep?What other office services can Take A Letter provide?
What equipment do you use?
How do you ensure that your computer network remains Virus-Free?
General
Take A Letter will act as a fully incorporated part of your business; whether you are a medical consultant, or an independent engineering company, we can provide the administrative support that suits you. You may already employ administrative staff, but wish to maintain cover during periods of illness, leave or particularly high loading.
When you employ Take A Letter to meet your typing and word processing needs, you only need pay for the time spent actually working on your business- you do not pay during lunch breaks, holiday periods, you need not be concerned about sickness or capital maintenance.
Take A Letter specialize in producing the highest quality typed letters, reports, theses and presentations. If you can get your thoughts on tape or drafted onto paper, we will accurately and swiftly generate the typed equivalent, printed and delivered to your door.
What sort of work does Take A Letter conduct?
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With past experience working within the NHS and the Ministry of Defence, our staff are perfectly accustomed to the requirement of absolute confidentiality . We would be perfectly happy to sign a Non Disclosure Agreement, or Confidentiality statement if you wish.
How do you guarantee the confidentiality of my work?
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If there are any problems with any of the work we produce for you which are attributable to us, we will be happy to make any changes necessary at no charge. If you are still not happy with our work, there will of course be no charge.
What other guarantees do Take A Letter provide?
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We will undertake any typing or word processing tasks from a single page invoice to scientific theses. Authors are welcome to submit drafts for typing.
What size jobs will you take on?
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Our routine hours match standard business hours - Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm, but emails are usually answered in the evenings and at weekends. Urgent tasks can be accommodated, and may be done out of normal hours by prior arrangement.
Can you work over weekends and Bank Holidays?
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Although our office is on the outskirts of Portsmouth, our location is largely irrelevant since virtually all contact between us will be by telephone, fax, post or via the internet. The only exception is for rare occasions when the creation of complex Presentations may require a face-to-face meeting, when we will visit you to discuss the content and structure of the slides.
Where are you based?
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The Finished Product
How will you send the finished product to me?As a rule, we will post typed reports to you via the Royal Mail (First Class postage). You can also receive a soft copy by email, and if you require, we can post you a CD or Floppy Disc containing the files. If you wish, the printed report can be dispatched to you by courier, at cost. Occasionally, a business may require an emailed copy of the file for approval, and once they have seen it, we post the report direct to their client.
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Unless you happen to be based near our offices (ie in the Drayton/Farlington/Widley areas), your work must be delivered by post or courier.
Can printed reports etc be delivered by hand as soon as they are completed?
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We will email copies of your work to you at no charge; if you require, we can post a CD or Floppy Disc containing the files, for which there will be a small charge.
Can I have electronic copies of my work?
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We generally use Microsoft Word or, if you prefer, Adobe's Portable Document format (.pdf), previously known as Acrobat format. This is a platform independent format readable by any computer once the free viewer software has been installed. Adobe Reader can be downloaded here:
What format will electronic documents take?
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Of course you can - we routinely use standard white A4 paper (90gsm), but if you need us to use a different size, colour or weight then we can, although this may incur an additional charge, simply to cover the extra cost of the paper. If you already have a printed letterhead, we will be delighted to use your paper.
Can I choose what type of paper you use?
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Costs
Apart from your flat rate, what other costs will I incur?Unlike most other independent typing services and Virtual Assistants, we simply charge a flat rate for our work. Any additional costs are passed directly to you, without inflation. For example, if you want us to use heavier paper (such as Conqueror Correspondence Paper), the only additional cost to you is the actual cost of the paper used (pennies!). Lamination, photocopying and other services are priced similarly - £20 per hour, plus the cost of any materials used.
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As a rule, 15 minutes of clearly recorded speech takes one hour to transcribe. Thus a 1 hour tape would take 4 hours to type. Approximately an equivalent period to the tape duration should be allowed for printing, proof-reading, and posting the transcription. So a clearly dictated 1 hour tape would probably require 5 hours work. Obviously, longer would be required if the recording is muffled or otherwise unclear. We will inform you in advance if your tapes are proving problematic rather than struggling on and incurring additional charges.
How long does it take to transcribe a 1 hour tape?
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As with transcription, the time taken to create a presentation is infinitely variable; if you have a very clear idea of exactly what you require, a short presentation can be produced within an hour. If your ideas are more nebulous, or if you want to see a number of prototype styles before settling on one, clearly additional time would be required.
How long does it take to produce a presentation?
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Yes, but just £3. We charge a flat hourly rate, and divide the charging period into 15 minute segments, so the shortest chargeable period is quarter of an hour, charged at £3.
Is there a minimum charge?
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Absolutely not; while we do have regular clients, we welcome occasional work equally.
Must I employ you for a minimum monthly period?
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We accept payment by Bank Transfer, by cheque or by Credit Card.
Payment is due within 30 calendar days from dispatch of the work to you.
If you are unhappy with any aspect of our work, please contact us immediately, preferably by phone, so that we can discuss your complaints. If we are unable to resolve the issues, there will be no requirement for you to pay for that work.
Our contact details are all
How do I pay?
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When do I pay?
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What if I'm not satisfied with the quality of your work?
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How can I contact Take A Letter?
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No. See the answer to this question: (Where are you based?)
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Our phones will always be answered on weekdays between 8:30am and 5pm, but work is often ongoing outside those times. If you need to contact us outside these standard hours, contact is best achieved by email.
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What information do you need from me before commencing a task?
If we have not undertaken work for you before, we will want to discuss your exact requirements, so please phone or email us. Regular clients usually just post us their tapes/drafts, with a note explaining the urgency or any deadlines they have, and we will take care of the job, calling them only if clarification is needed.
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Miscellaneous
What backups do you keep? All work is backed up to a second hard disc daily, and archived to DVD weekly. The DVDs are stored in a secure off-site location to safeguard your work in the event of a break-in, fire or other such disaster at our offices.
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What other office services can Take A Letter provide?
We can conduct research for you and make travel and accommodation arrangements.
If you require 0800 or 0845 phone numbers for your business at minimal cost (0845 numbers can usually be arranged for free), or if you need a telephone answering service to answer your calls and take messages for you in your absence, we recommend Response Answer-Call. If you have any additional administrative requirements, don't hesitate to call us.
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Take A Letter operates a network of Apple Macintosh (Mac) computers, using Microsoft Office and Apple Keynote as required to produce your documents, spreadsheets and presentations. Printing is primarily done using a Lexmark T522 Laser Printer, with an HP Deskjet and Epson 930 inkjet for colour/photographic output.
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How do you ensure that your computer network remains Virus-Free?
One of the many advantages of using Apple Mac computers is their inherent virus immunity; not only are they impervious to all virii affecting MS Windows, but there has never been a single report of a Mac virus that could affect a Macintosh running the latest Mac Operating System (OS X). Nonetheless, our computers and mail server run anti-virus software to ensure that PC virii are not passed on, and our network is protected by a firewall to protect against unwelcome prying.
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