Don’t put your kids in charge of guarding the cookie Jar
Putting the kids who want to eat the cookies in charge of guarding the cookies is probably a recipe for disaster. And putting the phone company that wants to keep you there in charge of your ability to transfer your number away is just as bad!
How do you avoid this paradox of conflicting incentives and responsibilities? Get your toll free number from someone independent and transfer it into the organization you want to use it with. That way they can’t say that they provided that number for you as part of their service, so you can cancel the service but you can’t take their number with you if you want to leave. Basically they can’t hold you hostage by your 800 number that way.
It’s no surprise that the kids say you can trust them, and that you don’t need to have someone else certify that they are your cookies, and your phone company representative will probably tell you that they can do just as good of a job or that you don’t need to use another organization to get you the number. That is true if you don’t ever have to leave. But even if you are sure you’re going to want to stay at one particular phone company forever, which is almost impossible to predict these days, your ability to transfer the number away is what keeps them honest.
Ultimately the more they say you don’t need to use someone else, the more you need to have independent proof of ownership before you trust them with and start advertising YOUR number. And if they say they take a long time to transfer numbers or worse yet, won’t do it, that’s a giant red flag to say the least. So no matter what a phone company representative says when they’re trying to sell you the 800 service, don’t advertise a number you down own, and don’t take chances.
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...
It’s more than Voicemail! at TollFreeNumbers.com says:
December 2, 2008 at 8:15 am
[…] rely on the people that want to keep you there for your ability to transfer away. That’s kind of like leaving the kids in charge of guarding the cookie jar. It’s well worth just a little effort to not only insure that nobody can hold your business […]
Are you being held hostage by your 800 service? at TollFreeNumbers.com says:
December 3, 2008 at 9:03 am
[…] Don’t put your kids in charge of guarding the cookie Jar (1) […]
Find out who owns your toll free number at TollFreeNumbers.com says:
December 26, 2008 at 9:37 am
[…] Don’t put your kids in charge of guarding the cookie Jar (2) […]