The quickest way to lose an 800 number
Sometimes a customer asks if we can remove a reservation so another resporg can request it. They usually ask that because the representative at another phone company will tell them they could have reserved it for them and if they just remove the reservation they will be able to get it. That’s actually the fastest way to lose the number.
That may sound good in theory and might have been reasonable to do in the past, several years ago. But that just doesn’t work any more. I was responding recently to a customer who had reserved some numbers and didn’t activate them and realized that this is a good example of why this doesn’t work.
I’ve pasted the actual history of these numbers because you have to see this to believe it. Both of these numbers were Spare or Available for around 5 years with no activity at all. But after a customer reserved them through our website they were both taken by a phone sex business (one of the biggest Squatters) just 71 seconds and 21 seconds, after they were released.
No other phone company can even begin to compete with that. Why do you think it takes them days t activate numbers? They go through several people are never efficient. It’ll take them days just to tell you that the numbers are gone again. They will feel bad but unfortunately they aren’t the ones that would be hurt, you are.
Click on the images below to see the full size image. Our resporg ID is QZA01. Look at the dates that it was released from us and picked up by PIT01.
This is why it’s necessary to activate the numbers and transfer them to your new company, no matter what anyone tells you. You may think you are being smart and trying to save our one time fee. But it would just wind up costing you a lot of time and probably the number too.
If you want to avoid our one time fee that bad, just start over looking for another number, because that’s all you would end up doing anyway if we removed the reservation.
See also: Transferring, activating and canceling reservations
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Rita says:
December 4, 2007 at 12:42 pm
This happens a lot and more than people may imagine. It’s not so much of a coincidence that folks may think. Also, the folks that customer are speaking with are generally sales reps and customer service reps who don’t really see what happens. I bet if they spoke with folks in RespOrg departments the RespOrg person would not recommend letting it go spare because they are the folks who really know what is happening.
Scott Vogelsang says:
January 23, 2008 at 10:25 pm
I “had” an 800 number that was serviced by a telephone reseller (TTI National). I did not order a disconnect and was out of the area. When I returned I found that my main 800 # had been disconnected and I was told that I couldn’t get it back.
What can I do about this “theft” of an 800 #?
800 722-4548
Bill Quimby (678 comments.) says:
January 24, 2008 at 1:46 am
Hi Scott,
I realize it certainly feels like it was stolen. But in this case I would have to classify it as lost, rather than stolen. There’s not much difference in the end, but it wasn’t that someone else “took” it as much as it was just released, probably inappropriately by your carrier. It was disconnected by your carrier on 6/26/07 and was dropped from the disconnect process to the spare or available status four months later on 10/26/07. And it took a whole 17 seconds for a company I call the Black Hole to scarf it up. That’s why I call them the Black Hole, because they suck up everything night the world and nothing ever comes back out. They just don’t release anything to anyone at any price.
Did you have any issues with the bill last summer, or did you change your phone company to another one and forget to transfer your toll free number? Those are probably the two most common ways to lose a number. And this isn’t the exception that it gets taken fast. This is very typical and probably about average for them, and is certainly the rule more than the exception.
Click on the image SMS History below to see the full size (more legible) image.
Dave P. says:
December 2, 2008 at 11:01 am
I am searching now and I’m really blown away by how many of the one’s that show active have been reserved already. It really seems like the number of reservations have picked up or is it just because it’s later in the cycle?
If I search AT&T’s vanity search and it shows as active and your site shows Reserved….Is it really reserved already and AT&T is just behind?
Thanks for the feedback as always!
Dave
Bill Quimby (678 comments.) says:
December 2, 2008 at 3:57 pm
I think the competition has picked up. There is also a new player in the Mass Misdial Marketing business that is sucking up the random ‘800’ numbers faster and faster.
AT&T is just saying it’s not available. They don’t differentiate when a number is in Disconnect, Reserved or Activated. They just say it’s not available. Our does give you more info on those, but it doesn’t give say whether it couldn’t get through to the database or if they are on hold because they were just searched. Both of those things make things say they’re not available any more when they might be and that’s the next thing I want to fix in the lookup.
Bill