Vanity number squatters usually want to rent out numbers by area codes because they make a lot more money that way and maintain control. But when you don't own the number, the more you advertise the number, the more you wind up at their mercy. Your ability to change carriers is also your ultimate guarantee that you'll always have decent service and a competitive rate too. It's much more important than most new customers realize.
That's why every number we get for anyone is always nationwide. Actually you can also add Canada and a few territories too if you want. You can block calls outside your area if you want or need to. But I usually don't recommend that unless you're getting a lot of wrong numbers from other areas. You don't want someone local that uses a cell phone, skype or a voip service with a number outside your area code to be blocked. The ability to be sure where someone is calling from by their number is fading with new services and local number portability.
Showing posts with label common questions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label common questions. Show all posts
Thursday, February 1, 2007
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Toll free service to a cell phone
Many phone companies don’t like to provide toll free service to a cell phone for three reasons. It costs them a little more to terminate the calls to a cell phone, they don’t get the outbound long distance which they always want to sell too, and they're usually smaller accounts too. So most companies just say they can’t or won’t do it. It's really not that they can't but they just don't want to or quite often don't know how.
Most cell phone companies and voip companies are usually pretty ignorant about toll free service and how to process transfers, not to mention how to help you get a good number. To be fair though, I don't know how to even use half the features on my own cell phone so I couldn't begin to do their job. But I really focus on finding valuable vanity numbers and have gotten good numbers for tens of thousands of s over the past 12 years so I’ll be happy to help you. And the bottom line is that you can certainly point any toll free number you find with our site to any cell phone company you want.
Look in the toll free manual that we email you after you activate a number for an explanation of the process of "Picking Your Provider" and some forms. You can of course take your number to any company you want but we also try to make it as easy for you as possible to get not only the best number but the best service for your needs too.
Most cell phone companies and voip companies are usually pretty ignorant about toll free service and how to process transfers, not to mention how to help you get a good number. To be fair though, I don't know how to even use half the features on my own cell phone so I couldn't begin to do their job. But I really focus on finding valuable vanity numbers and have gotten good numbers for tens of thousands of s over the past 12 years so I’ll be happy to help you. And the bottom line is that you can certainly point any toll free number you find with our site to any cell phone company you want.
Look in the toll free manual that we email you after you activate a number for an explanation of the process of "Picking Your Provider" and some forms. You can of course take your number to any company you want but we also try to make it as easy for you as possible to get not only the best number but the best service for your needs too.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
7+ digits on a cell phone
Every couple months I hear someone say they couldn't get through on our number. That usually means theyre calling from a cell phone. Anything after the first 7 digits is usually ignored. The last R is basically only there to make it easier to remember and it doesn't matter if you dial it or not. But some cell phones think you must have hit the small buttons wrong and don’t put it through. It’s not network specific, it’s related to the hardware.
Some of the newer phones are even smarter and will put toll free numbers with extra digits through but they’ll block local numbers with additional digits. In any case, most people look at the screen and then drop the last digit. You lose far fewer calls for that than you would for people that don’t remember your phone number, although the people who don’t remember your phone number usually don’t contact you.
Some people don’t want a number that stands out. I usually point out to them that your goal isn’t really to make the most important part of your advertising, the call to action, blend in. Your goal is to really get them to notice it and think about it long enough to get it to stick with them. Some people do really funky things to make their commercials stand out. You don’t have to go crazy but you shouldn't worry so much about trying to make it blend in or take less thought, if that makes sense. Part of the job of your advertising is to get the visitor to notice you or think about you.
Some of the newer phones are even smarter and will put toll free numbers with extra digits through but they’ll block local numbers with additional digits. In any case, most people look at the screen and then drop the last digit. You lose far fewer calls for that than you would for people that don’t remember your phone number, although the people who don’t remember your phone number usually don’t contact you.
Some people don’t want a number that stands out. I usually point out to them that your goal isn’t really to make the most important part of your advertising, the call to action, blend in. Your goal is to really get them to notice it and think about it long enough to get it to stick with them. Some people do really funky things to make their commercials stand out. You don’t have to go crazy but you shouldn't worry so much about trying to make it blend in or take less thought, if that makes sense. Part of the job of your advertising is to get the visitor to notice you or think about you.
Unlimited toll free service?
People sometime to go looking for unlimited toll free plans because they like that for their outbound phone service. Ironically it's the people that need it the least that tend to want this, which is probably why a couple companies you've never heard of, pretend to give something called an Unlimited service. It NEVER really is unlimited but they can sell some people on it as long as they hide the limitations deep down in the fine print.
If you think about it, it's pretty obvious that almost any big business could blow out any really unlimited toll free plan. Companies like 1-800 FLOWERS would LOVE it if they could get an unlimited toll free service. They can generate thousands of dollars per hour in toll free charges so they'd blow any real unlimited service out of the water. No big company uses anything like that because, point blank, it just doesn't exist. There are ALWAYS catches and limits to it. There has to be. And further, there is NO REPUTABLE COMPANY that sells any unlimited service.
I personally own several domain names related to flat rate 800 service and have even worked and tried to promote a couple services like that, but the only way that they can exist and make money is if the customer uses less than what they're paying for. I have thousands of small business customers and the average bill for them is much lower than you would think, probably about $12 to $15 per month. That's because toll free service is cheaper than most people realize.
Most new businesses tend to picture a huge volume of calls and think that $49 a month will be a bargain, and if you know that you consistently use just a little more than what they are charging, it might be. But in reality, most customers will wind up paying for more than they use, and the ones that use more than what they are paying for will usually have a spike of calls at some point and then the company will cut them off, often imposing huge penalties or at best, charging a higher per minute rate or simply asking them transfer away. Either way, you are at their mercy because you can't afford to have your toll free service shut off when you need it the most.
So the bottom line is that you should never use a flat rate plan unless you have a track record of using more than the monthly fee is on another service and also know that you won't have any spikes that push you too high above what you're paying for. Think of it as a gambling game and them as the house. You may think you can beat them and may do it for a little while but they wrote the rules (and often rewrite them as necessary) and once you have the number advertised you are at their mercy and the system is set up to insure that the house always wins.
I know a couple people in the industry won't like someone exposing this but I think it's also important to point out that I'm probably the only major person in the toll free business that's not trying to sell you their service. So I really have no axe to grind at all, except to be a valuable resource to my visitors.
If you think about it, it's pretty obvious that almost any big business could blow out any really unlimited toll free plan. Companies like 1-800 FLOWERS would LOVE it if they could get an unlimited toll free service. They can generate thousands of dollars per hour in toll free charges so they'd blow any real unlimited service out of the water. No big company uses anything like that because, point blank, it just doesn't exist. There are ALWAYS catches and limits to it. There has to be. And further, there is NO REPUTABLE COMPANY that sells any unlimited service.
I personally own several domain names related to flat rate 800 service and have even worked and tried to promote a couple services like that, but the only way that they can exist and make money is if the customer uses less than what they're paying for. I have thousands of small business customers and the average bill for them is much lower than you would think, probably about $12 to $15 per month. That's because toll free service is cheaper than most people realize.
Most new businesses tend to picture a huge volume of calls and think that $49 a month will be a bargain, and if you know that you consistently use just a little more than what they are charging, it might be. But in reality, most customers will wind up paying for more than they use, and the ones that use more than what they are paying for will usually have a spike of calls at some point and then the company will cut them off, often imposing huge penalties or at best, charging a higher per minute rate or simply asking them transfer away. Either way, you are at their mercy because you can't afford to have your toll free service shut off when you need it the most.
So the bottom line is that you should never use a flat rate plan unless you have a track record of using more than the monthly fee is on another service and also know that you won't have any spikes that push you too high above what you're paying for. Think of it as a gambling game and them as the house. You may think you can beat them and may do it for a little while but they wrote the rules (and often rewrite them as necessary) and once you have the number advertised you are at their mercy and the system is set up to insure that the house always wins.
I know a couple people in the industry won't like someone exposing this but I think it's also important to point out that I'm probably the only major person in the toll free business that's not trying to sell you their service. So I really have no axe to grind at all, except to be a valuable resource to my visitors.
800# to an 800#?
Can I have one 800 number ring to another 800 number?
No you can't point a toll free number to another toll free number. It's kind of like dividing by zero. You can point it to the same local number the other toll free number points to, or you can transfer it to the same service that the other number is with and they can point it to the same place (even if they don't give you a local number). This sometimes comes up in connection to toll free voicemail services, or a call center type service that only issued you a toll free number without a local number.
No you can't point a toll free number to another toll free number. It's kind of like dividing by zero. You can point it to the same local number the other toll free number points to, or you can transfer it to the same service that the other number is with and they can point it to the same place (even if they don't give you a local number). This sometimes comes up in connection to toll free voicemail services, or a call center type service that only issued you a toll free number without a local number.
Sunday, January 28, 2007
What is the average price?
"What is the average price to 'buy' a toll free number from an existing customer?" That sounds like simple enough question. Unfortunately it's not like your house. There is no book value or market rate that you can look up like you can a house or a car. The value of a toll free number is much more subjective, meaning it depends on how it's used by the current owner as well as how it could be used by the purchaser or other potential purchasers.
When a number is only really important to one buyer it becomes even more depedent on what they want or think about it. That is especially true for company names that don't mean very much to anyone else. Generic terms can be measured more against other transactions than fanciful names.
The best advice I can give to someone trying to pursue this is to take your time, because if you're in a hurry and try to go to fast it make you look more desperate and gives the other party the upper hand in the negotiations. And you also have to go into it with the realization that your goal is to make a friend as much as anything else. Picture if a friend of yours from school found out that you had a number and he wanted to start a business around it. You'd almost certainly sell it to him for a fraction of what you'd try to get from a large company. So don't come into this with a big company attitude, just try to make a friend and take your time. Unfortunately we don't always have time, but at least knowing that may help a little.
The other thing that makes that a very hard question to answer is that you really have to do all of the work to complete the deal just to be sure what it will ultimately cost you and if they'll ultimately go through with it and be willing to sell it to you. That fact, plus the fact that there's no centralized list of transactions the way there is in real estate or cars for instance makes it very hard to answer that question.
I also like to tell people that when you only need one successful deal, the odds really don't matter very much. If you needed to close 10 deals then the closing rate would be relevant, but if you only want one number and therefore need to close just one deal the odds don't matter. It's like asking a girl out or to marry you. You only need to get one good one so t doesn't matter how many said no in the end or if the first one says yes. You just keep looking until you find the right one. You don't need to find 10 right partners, just one. Hopefully at least one at a time, anyway.
When a number is only really important to one buyer it becomes even more depedent on what they want or think about it. That is especially true for company names that don't mean very much to anyone else. Generic terms can be measured more against other transactions than fanciful names.
The best advice I can give to someone trying to pursue this is to take your time, because if you're in a hurry and try to go to fast it make you look more desperate and gives the other party the upper hand in the negotiations. And you also have to go into it with the realization that your goal is to make a friend as much as anything else. Picture if a friend of yours from school found out that you had a number and he wanted to start a business around it. You'd almost certainly sell it to him for a fraction of what you'd try to get from a large company. So don't come into this with a big company attitude, just try to make a friend and take your time. Unfortunately we don't always have time, but at least knowing that may help a little.
The other thing that makes that a very hard question to answer is that you really have to do all of the work to complete the deal just to be sure what it will ultimately cost you and if they'll ultimately go through with it and be willing to sell it to you. That fact, plus the fact that there's no centralized list of transactions the way there is in real estate or cars for instance makes it very hard to answer that question.
I also like to tell people that when you only need one successful deal, the odds really don't matter very much. If you needed to close 10 deals then the closing rate would be relevant, but if you only want one number and therefore need to close just one deal the odds don't matter. It's like asking a girl out or to marry you. You only need to get one good one so t doesn't matter how many said no in the end or if the first one says yes. You just keep looking until you find the right one. You don't need to find 10 right partners, just one. Hopefully at least one at a time, anyway.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Crunching the 800 number database
I'm going to try and post some interesting or funny questions and answers about things related to toll free numbers here.
Dear Eric,
As of 1/6/2007 at 11:59pm eastern time, there were 8,201,245 toll free numbers available in the spare status. If you printed that out two columns per page in small print with 200 numbers per page, it would be 80 some reams of paper. Lets just say it would fill a medium sized closet almost to the ceiling. Not only would it be out of date before you could do anything, but the cost of producing it would be ridiculous.
I’ve been in the vanity number business for 12 years. I’ve spent 4 or 5 years and at least half a million dollars developing my system. It’s far better than anything any phone company or resporg has access to through the SMS administration, through 8MS (a third party API access). It costs me about $15,000 per month to produce and I give access to it away for free of the general public right over the web. Its so simple my 9 year old daughter could make it work, by just typing in a couple words and her email address.
I can understand that some people want to do things themselves. But what you’re asking for is clearly NOT AVAILABLE. You also have to realize that from my perspective it seems more than a little silly to think you can just crunch a few numbers and run a dictionary against a list and somehow come up with anything better.
.Bill Quimby.
1-800 MARKETER
TollFreeNumbers.com
billquimby@billquimby.net
I should point out that this was from someone at a very large company. It isn't exactly a common question but I thought it was interesting to get a little better idea of the size and scope of our system and what it takes to do all this stuff.
I came across your website while searching for a solution to a request from our CEO. We'd like to get a listing of available toll-free numbers so we can run a tool developed in house against it to generate available vanity numbers. I know you offer the search function but my CEO wants to easily manipulate the results against a large cross section of numbers.
So, essentially we are looking for a listing of all available toll-free numbers at any given moment, understanding that the list will probably be outdated 10 seconds after it is generated because of how quickly toll-free number availability changes. Can you provide such a list and what would be the possible cost? If you are unable to provide the list do you know of a possible alternative we could pursue?
Thanking you in advance for your attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
Eric
Dear Eric,
As of 1/6/2007 at 11:59pm eastern time, there were 8,201,245 toll free numbers available in the spare status. If you printed that out two columns per page in small print with 200 numbers per page, it would be 80 some reams of paper. Lets just say it would fill a medium sized closet almost to the ceiling. Not only would it be out of date before you could do anything, but the cost of producing it would be ridiculous.
I’ve been in the vanity number business for 12 years. I’ve spent 4 or 5 years and at least half a million dollars developing my system. It’s far better than anything any phone company or resporg has access to through the SMS administration, through 8MS (a third party API access). It costs me about $15,000 per month to produce and I give access to it away for free of the general public right over the web. Its so simple my 9 year old daughter could make it work, by just typing in a couple words and her email address.
I can understand that some people want to do things themselves. But what you’re asking for is clearly NOT AVAILABLE. You also have to realize that from my perspective it seems more than a little silly to think you can just crunch a few numbers and run a dictionary against a list and somehow come up with anything better.
.Bill Quimby.
1-800 MARKETER
TollFreeNumbers.com
billquimby@billquimby.net
I should point out that this was from someone at a very large company. It isn't exactly a common question but I thought it was interesting to get a little better idea of the size and scope of our system and what it takes to do all this stuff.
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