Proof of Ownership is your Insurance policy
Most of the time there’s no issue about the ownership of your numbers. But life gets complicated and occasionally things happen. Things get even more muddy whenever you add a call center or any type of enhanced voicemail service or vendor that provides additional service into the mix. These things make it harder for the underlying carrier to see who is the owner and end user of your toll free number.
We just got the testimonial below from a customer from several years ago that had an issue with their IVR vendor. They left the vendor but then they didn’t want to release their number. The carrier had to protect their customer, the vendor. And if we hadn’t worked with them and been able to produce all of the original screenshots and transfer requests from several years ago they would definitely have lost their numbers. Here’s their story:
“I temporarily used a reseller to provide my service (who was using Sprint as the underlying carrier), and this caused Sprint to lose visibility of my ownership for three specific tollfree numbers. Then when we had a dispute and I had to leave, the reseller claimed ownership of the numbers, so I LOST CONTROL OF MY NUMBERS!! Bill worked diligently with Sprint on this resp org dispute, and I was able to also use the tollfree birth certificated to prove my ownership of the numbers to the executive management of the reseller company –the birth certificates convinced them to release the numbers back to me. Thanks again, Bill, and tollfreenumbers.com!!”
–Dave R, Overland Park, Kansas
BuyAnything.com
We hope you never have any issues or dispute over your numbers. But if you do, we’re here to make sure you have the best possible documentation and an expert on your side. Think of us and our service as your “toll free insurance.” It’s insurance against someone else being able to claim ownership of the number you’ve been using in all of your advertising. You still have to keep it active and pay whatever company you use it with, but as long as you do that, they can’t take it away or prevent you from transferring it to any other service you want. Even if you can’t find the perfect 800 number, this proof of ownership is worth its weight in gold if anyone disputes your ownership.
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Dave Robinett (1 comments.) says:
October 24, 2009 at 3:46 pm
Lesson One is get documentation / proof of ownership like the tf.com birthcertificate.
Lesson Two: don’t get your name or company separated from your number(s) via a 3rd party.
–this seems like it has relevance to that info field under Bill’s Favorites, that indicates whether the carrier will “claim ownership” of your numbers.
Your experience might be that it’s usually not a problem, but after this experience, I wouldn’t chance it, and I’d choose a carrier that did not claim ownership.
I found it’s easy to ask Sprint to change my ring-to number on a moment’s notice, but one thing I did was use a Yahoo Voice number as my ring-to (so I had complete control), and then I could forward THAT number to any other number, meaning I could effectively change my own ring-to number in less than 10 seconds in the Yahoo Messenger control panel.
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Dave Robinett