Has Custom TollFree ‘Locked Up’ your 800 number?
In the past four days I’ve had three separate people tell me essentially that CustomTollFree.com Locked Up their 800 number, just because they searched for or checked a number on their website. They don’t show you their exhorbenent rates or explain that THEY own the number until after you search for the number and they automatically reserve it so you can only get the number from them.
This is especially despicable since Customer Toll Free is actually a shared use company, not a regular phone company, although they certainly act and look like a regular phone company to the unsuspecting visitor on their website. They use their power as a phone company to reserve the number after a visitor does a search for it but then they pretend to be the owner of the number and offer to rent it to you as if it was now THEIR number. I’ve written about how they want to have both the rights of a phone company and the rights of the end user at the same time in an article on the Dark Side of Shared Use.
They don’t make the form to check numbers the biggest thing on their website for no reason. They know that if they can get you to enter something there, they have you trapped. It’s wrong but they love trapping people like that, and if you think you’re trapped now because they’ve reserved your number, wait until you’ve got it in all of your advertising. Because the more you advertise THEIR number, the more at their mercy you become.
What can you do if this happens to you?
First of all, do NOT contact them. If you use their search process, the number you find WILL be reserved or ‘Locked Up’ but if you contact them they will only activate it so it doesn’t expire and they’ll hold onto it.
Email us about it and we will confirm that they reserved it on you, and tell you the date it comes out. We’ll also schedule it so we can try to get it right away for you when the reservation expires which is 45 days from the date it was reserved. If we’re able to get it it’s only a one time fee of $49 just as if you got it yourself right from the available, spare pool.
We like to help customers get numbers back from them because what they do is so wrong and we enjoy sticking it to them and helping the customer. You will own the number this way and can bring it to any phone company you want and be guaranteed to be able to transfer it away if they don’t do a good job or anything better comes along too. That’s WAY better than renting it from someone like Custom TollFree.
If you think this is wrong say so
If you write anything here change your name (if you gave it to them) and certainly don’t mention the number. I will also change the dates of any post or reference to numbers as well to protect you as well. We do want to tell people about them and anyone else that does that but we don’t want to do anything to undermine your chances of getting the number you want.
When a number is reserved it is held for 45 days. Unfortunately we can’t cut it shorter or get it directly from them. I think you can understand why they and any shared use company for that matter really don’t like us. But that’s OK because we don’t do this to be popular. We always keep the customer focus and find that everything else usually takes care of itself.
But do write up your thoughts or reaction to this if it’s happened to you. I’m going to start by adding the exact emails of the people who complained to me recently. We’re really not out to change the system or hurt anyone but hopefully if enough people give their two cents worth it will add up to something. So if you think this is wrong post your comment and let everyone know.
(2 votes, average: 3.00 out of 5)
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Learned the hard way says:
November 18, 2008 at 2:13 pm
Unbelievable! Talk about excitement being absolutely crushed with a mouse-click! My company had a large media opportunity coming up and we decided to try and find a relevant vanity number to publicize at the upcoming event. I did as most would and goggled some companies offering vanity numbers. I spent HOURS until the early morning and finally found something we were very excited about. This was at customtollfree.com. We started putting the graphics together and even reserved a matching domain name to correspond to the “available” vanity number. We had half of our material written up and ready to go. I then clicked on the number to “get started” with the new vanity number and FELL OUT OF MY CHAIR when I saw what this company charged for the number. I had never even HEARD of prices that high for a regular toll-free number. It WASN’T an 800 number, it WASN’T our company name, it wasn’t ANYTHING special, but they wanted outrageous money! So, I googled again and found what seemed a MUCH more reasonable service. I pulled up the number and – WHAT?@?#?$$ The number is unavailable!?!?!& It was available just an hour ago!! I came to find out that customtollfree.com had LOCKED UP THE NUMBER the instant I clicked to find out more information. WHAT CROOKS! How do these guys SLEEP at night? I hope they have to at least PAY something for doing that! I don’t know if there’s any financial penalty for STEALING MY number – but They certainly aren’t going to get any money from ME for that number! Buyer Be VERY aware!
Bill Quimby (678 comments.) says:
November 19, 2008 at 7:06 pm
No, unfortunately there’s no cost specifically for reserving numbers up to a certain amount. What they are doing is certainly wrong and hopefully pointing it out to people will ultimately help.
Bill
Bill Quimby (678 comments.) says:
December 4, 2008 at 1:36 pm
I just saw that they’ve brought in a new President, Michael L. Evans to join CustomTollFree.com. They also say that they want to take it public!
I don’t personally think that a company with a quarter of our traffic is really a candidate for going public but I guess they make a lot more per customer so they don’t need as many visitors. And if it forces them to clean up their act, that’s certainly a good thing. CustomTollFree is certainly one of the worst in terms of abusing customers, locking up numbers and then claiming they are THEIR numbers and the customer can only RENT them from them, claiming the customer rights as well as the phone company capabilities. Hopefully he can find a way to still make money without using shared use to cheat their visitors.
Bill
Chris Watson says:
March 5, 2009 at 5:04 pm
AVOID AT ALL COSTS – CustomTollFree.com! I want to warn anyone out there trying to secure a toll free number through a professional toll free service to AVOID at all costs going to the website CustomTollFree.com They are anything but reputable in my opinion. It is a highly misleading service and website that encourages you to use their site to search for available vanity numbers only to automatically reserve them under their company so you can’t buy it elsewhere. That’s only the half of it. Their fees are almost criminal in that they won’t let you buy the number but lease it for what is probably one of the most expensive fees out there. Thankfully I found out about their unethical practices before I did business with them. Stay away at all costs. Hard to believe that people can stay in business in today’s world with such bad business practices.
Josephine says:
February 8, 2011 at 8:47 pm
IS it possible to find out if customtollfree stole the phone number that I searched for? thank you.