Murphy’s Law (of Custom 800 Numbers)
Whenever you translate a Custom 800 number wrong that is usually the one that’s available.
After you spend two bleary eyed hours trying everything under the son one at a time (you should be using the Keyword Lookup long before you go that far) the one number that you translate wrong will inevitably show up as available.
I guess that makes sense since the one you spell wrong or translate wrong is much less likely to be a number that other people would have asked for before of course. But whatever the reason it is certainly frustrating!
When you search for or order a vanity number on TollFreeNumbers.com it’s usually easier to use the letters you’re looking for instead of translating it to digits. This actually makes it easier for you to remember what you were thinking of later on as well.
You do have to be careful about who you tell what you’re looking for. There are definitely some vanity number businesses that will take advantage of you. Unethical services will automatically reserve any numbers they find available so you have to use their more expensive service to get them. But don’t worry, we are probably the only custom 800 number service that really doesn’t care what the number spells, because our pricing isn’t based on the value of the number. Other custom toll free services will want to charge you more if the number you want sounds more valuable but we charge the same thing ($49 for any regular activation) whether we think the custom toll free number you want is amazing or just mediocre.
We also won’t charge you if you make a mistake and activate the wrong number. We don’t want to charge you for a number that you can’t use. We’re real people and we’ve all made mistakes like this. So we will definitely correct it if possible or refund your money and hope to help you find something that does work for your business. This applies to regular activations and backorders if you cancel them before the date they come out. Unfortunately backorders are like mixed paint and aren’t refundable after they come out of disconnect and we get them for you. But anything else we can do to make this work for you we’ll be happy to do!
See also our misdials section with the different types of wrong numbers and how to make money off of wrong numbers too.
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Thanks for the informative site Bill. I've learnt a lot about Toll-Free Numbers and look forward to increasing revenue through their use.
Brian Walthorn says:
July 6, 2008 at 12:06 pm
I was just checking out several toll free sites and found a number I really want and started to make the purchase but then found your site and I would like to give my business to you but I beleive because I started the process at another site, the number is now unavailable through you. Perhaps you can help me out , the # is (***edited so they don’t re-reserve or activate it). thank you very much
Brian
Bill Quimby (212 comments.) says:
July 6, 2008 at 3:34 pm
Brian,
It looks like you looked up a number on CustomTollFree.com. They are one of the sites that I warn people about. They not only reserve numbers you find available, because that number was available for the past four months. But they will not only say you have to get the service from them but you are only renting THEIR number from them even though they only took it out of the spare pool like a regular phone company. They are pretending to be a phone company with their lookup but they are also pretending to be the owner of the number so they can “rent‿ it to you. And the more you use it the more at their mercy you become and the more the rate goes up too.
They are definitely someone you want to avoid, even more than regular phone companies just reserving the numbers they are a shared use company pretending to be a regular phone company to get you to tell them what you want so they can get it like a phone company and then rent it to you like a shared use number squatter.
There are also a few other people who have used their site that talk about it at http://www.tollfreenumbers.com/darkside
James Cullen says:
July 7, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Hi Bill,
I am thinking about purchasing a # this week. There are a few great names I see on other websites such as mytollfree800number, ourtollfree800number.com, customtollfree.com and telename.com The problem is that it seems as if I would be trapped borrowing one of there #’s and being forced to pay whatever rated they deem necessary once I brand this # into my business. Is this correct? If I purchase a # through your company I will own that # forever and never have to pay a rental fee to any company? Thanks for taking the time.
I am starting a referral business in the Bay Area called, “BAY AREA CERTIFIED” and it is a company based on finding only the best highest/top rated companies. Thought I would throw that out there in case you could come up with anything? Otherwise, I will continue to search your site and possibly put a order in on a back order. I would prefer a 800# unless something really nice comes up under another prefix.
Thank you for the help and look forward to working with you soon,
James Cullen
Bill Quimby (212 comments.) says:
July 7, 2008 at 8:21 pm
Yes James. Those websites are all shared use companies and they will definitely have you by the balls. They have a kind of drug dealer business plan, getting you hooked and then once you’re stuck with their number they can raise up the rates both for the usage and the monthly rent as high as they want. They own you. They have contracts but they are written to protect them and guarantee that you have no power or recourse at all. Try looking up who actually owns those websites. Many of them hide the actual ownership and identity of the principles for a reason. Ours is the only service like this in which you will OWN the number with no strings, usually for less than the introductory monthly rent for just a small piece of one of their numbers.
It looks like you’ve already used the Keyword Search based on your email. That’s what I usually do when people ask me if I know anything for whatever their project or business is. In terms of preferring an ‘800’ you have to know what you want but take what you can get too. And toll free numbers aren’t like women, you can always add another if something better comes along later on. So get the best you can for now and watch those 800 Watch emails too. I hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other questions or need help with anything else.
Bill
Mike says:
September 2, 2008 at 8:48 am
In your article, you write everything under the son (not sun). Is that a typo to prove the point of the article?
Bill Quimby (212 comments.) says:
September 2, 2008 at 8:53 am
No, that wasn’t to prove the point. And spell check doesn’t find tu type of mispelling either, does it?! But now that you point that out, it does kind of fit the article so I’ll leave that one.
Bill