Selecting a phone company based on price alone
Selecting a phone company based on price alone is like marrying someone based on looks alone. That may be the easiest way to judge things by on the surface, but if that’s your only criteria you’re going to be very unhappy at some point. The same can be said for a nice website too. And don’t fall for a fake review site like TollFreeReview.com either, because on the internet it’s easy to make multiple versions of fake companies and sites that look nice and credible on the surface, but again have no depth.
Would you select your car based just on price, or your cereal, or your house or even your soda? A low price is great, but the mistake many people make is thinking that price is the only factor to base their decision on for their phone service. You need to realize that the very cheapest company is the cheapest for a reason. It may mean they are adding additional fees somewhere, or they have less customer service or they may outsource the customer service overseas. They may be new and willing to do anything for a sale, or they may they may be having financial difficulty. Maybe they lower their feeds only to raise them later on. Some companies play with the instate rates or even change their definition of a minute and charge you for two minutes for each minute you’re connected to your customer.
Phone Company Feedback and Research
There’s no easy way to tell these things. But there are two things that can help. The first is real customer feedback and the second is the depth of a company. The depth of a phone company is hard to measure without a little research. That’s why we try to dig deeper with the companies in our providers section to show the depth. Honest reviews are also very tricky to do. That’s why we only accept reviews from customers that came through our service because that’s much harder to fake. To get a number from us you need to provide valid credit card information and we see the IP address and we spot check them over the phone, please we’ve done this a while so it’s harder to get fake reviews in.
The bottom line is that we try to do more research and try to make some helpful recommendations to get a good company but we are also the only company that guarantees you the option to change your mind and transfer it away too. So pick the best company but worry too much because your independent proof of ownership means that even after you transfer your number to them, you’ll never get stuck with a phone company that only looks good on paper.
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Billy says:
August 20, 2010 at 5:52 pm
It does not say anywhere on your website on what the recurring cost are to owning a 800 Number. Why is this information now easily found? All you have is 30 Days or 100 mins Free. What are the other costs
Bill Quimby (678 comments.) says:
August 20, 2010 at 6:01 pm
Hi Billy,
There is NO other ongoing charge or fee at all. We give you free
service for the first 30 days or 100 minutes so it’s working right
away and we help you transfer it to whatever company you want to use
it with. There’s no fee to transfer away from us or to most companies.
You’ll just pay whatever company you want to use it with for the
ongoing service as if they got it for you, except since you had it
active before transferring it to them, they can’t hold you hostage or
claim they gave you the number as part of their service. Your ability
to transfer your number is much more important t most people realize.
That’s what keeps them honest, the rates low and the service good. And
if it ever stops being any of those things you can just transfer YOUR
toll free number away!
The above is from the Price page http://www.TollFreeNumbers.com/price
which is one of the keys on the keypad. I’ll be happy to help you too if
you have more questions or need help with anything, and I’m sorry
that’s not obvious. It’s a little confusing because we have a different business model
than anyone else, empowering the customer to go anywhere for the use
rather than trying to keep you here and charge you for the use
forever.
Bill Quimby
Billy says:
August 20, 2010 at 8:12 pm
If i stay with you How much do you charge for the 800 #. I could not find your pricing.
Billy
Bill Quimby (678 comments.) says:
August 20, 2010 at 10:27 pm
Billy,
We don’t provide the ongoing service. The cheapest services go down to just under 3 cents per minute. We give you the ultimate price guarantee that nobody else gives you. We guarantee you that you can not only pick whichever company is the best (maybe cheapest?) service now, but if anything better comes along you are guaranteed to be able to transfer your number to them or anyone down the road. Everyone else is trying to keep you paying them so they want to make it look cheap but actually get as much as possible in the long run.
You can go somewhere else and they may give you something that sounds like the cheapest or best for you, but unfortunately the reality is often not quite the same thing you think it will be when they’re selling you on it. But if you get the number from them, at that point, your stuck because the fine print of anyone else you’ll find online is probably going to say it’s THEIR number NOT yours so you can’t take it away if something better comes along.
You can pick one that looks like the cheapest or you can get a number that you’re guaranteed to be able to use any service at any time. I don’t list prices because I’m not limiting you to one service or price. Does that make sense??
Bill Quimby
Shaun says:
October 27, 2010 at 1:02 am
Hi Bill,
I will definitely get a number from you instead of those phone companies.
At the beginning, I don’t want the hassles of transferring in and out. Because I don’t care about any particular number, I thought I should just get a number from the phone company and start it right away.
However, after speaking/emailing with representatives in several companies such as Phone.com, RingCentral, FreedomVoice, my1voice, OneSuite, Accu800 and Get800Today, I realize this is a shady industry in terms of reserving toll free numbers.
Many of these companies publish a list of toll free numbers available for immediate activation. But other companies (including yours) cannot access these numbers – isn’t it number hoarding?
One company’s representative doesn’t know what SMS/800 or Resp Org is. Another company’s sales guy told me a number is available, I own it and feel free to transfer it out. But then I dialed the number (a trick learned from your site) and found out another business is using it. That owner was just as surprised as I was.
After all these experiences, I start to worry about what kind of deep xxx I am getting myself into. What about their AFTER-sale customer services? Will my technical questions be promptly answered? Are their networks stable and problem-free? Do they overcharge the minutes and/or surprise me with hidden fees?
Thanks for providing so much information and such a great resource. Your knowledge and experience is definitely very helpful and appreciated.
Shaun