Looking for a very basic virtual call-forwarding and auto-reception service

Remember how call forwarding works - the caller is connected with some system, that system calls another system (i.e., the cell phone) and connects the audio. Being able to take the middle system out of the loop is called a Release to Trunk Transfer, which is, to put it mildly, complex. That's why you're still consuming minutes on the VoIP.ms system. It's unlikely you would be able to do this kind of release with any reasonably-priced hosted system.

I don't know that any solution would forward the calls directly to the employee's phone I think that's the nature of an automated attendant type system. Isn't that the whole point though? If you wanted to reach someone directly, you'd dial their direct number. Having said that, have you looked at http://www.phonebooth.com/?

Thanks eatcake. I haven't looked at Phonebooth. I'll check it out in more detail and see if it fits what we need. As for why I want the service in the first place... We get a lot of calls from new customers through our website. I don't really feel comfortable putting all of our individual cell phone numbers on the website for everyone to see. Once we establish said customer, then yes, we'll have them directly call our cell phones.

If the question is "something something phone something" then the answer is almost always VoIP.ms.

Thanks for the suggestion on Voip.ms. I spoke with customer service and while, still not ideal, it's better than RingCentral and Phonebooth. However, you have to perform a strange workaround in order for the cell phone's voicemail to answer instead of the VOIP service's voicemail. Also, you're still charged for VOIP minutes after it redirects the caller to your cell phone. I'm open to any other suggestions, otherwise it looks like I'll try out voip.ms.

Normally I'd suggest http://callcentric.com as an alternative to voip.ms but I don't think either one of those offer the automated attendant feature (Press 1 for Jim, Press 2 for Bob, etc ...) that the OP had mentioned. I've used Callcentric in the past and although you can set up complex call management (ie forwarding etc) any type of forwarding accrued a double charge. One charge for the incoming call and a second charge for the outgoing (or forwarded) call. So if the per minute rate is $0.015 then a forwarded call would cost $0.030 per minute. This is of course on the pay-per-call plan. They do have monthly plans too.

eatcake, voip.ms does indeed provide some IVR (Interactive Voice Response, aka automated attendant) options. You attach an IVR to a number Voip.MS hosts. You set up a list of where various button combinations go. Possible places to have button presses go include; another IVR setup, another phone number. As odinsdream explained, using call forwarding from basically all cheap providers (if you are not paying thousands a month to a carrier, than the plan is cheap) charge per minute for calls forwarded. As eatcake points out, some providers charge for two minutes instead of one for each minute of call because you are using both an incoming and an outgoing line at the same time.