Could Onebox steal YOUR toll free number?
That may sound ridiculous but a lot of people don’t even realize that if they got their toll free number directly from their phone company, some phone companies might claim that it’s THEIR number NOT YOURS and refuse to release it or in some cases even yank it back even after it’s taken away.
That’s exactly what happened to LaRick Calhoun recently. He got an 800 number from Onebox (J2 Global (NASDAQ: JCOM), also the parent company of Efax) and used and has advertised it since October 2007. When he decided he wanted to transfer it away however, he was suddenly surprised by the fine print at Onebox.
Not only did Onebox claim that he owed them additional fees, but just a couple hours ago they yanked the number back after we transferred it away. The interesting part is that they filled out the form to transfer it back in an employee’s name with their own address! So not only are they demanding additional fees, but now they’re telling the SMS who manages the national database that it’s THEIR number in order to yank it back.
The SMS form to yank a number requires them to specify their documentation and they say “Signed Customer LOA attached” but the LOA is their own address and the name of one of their employees and isn’t even signed by that employee, it’s just a squiggle. Take a look at forms they submitted to the SMS for yourself, (Onebox 800 number forms) and the webpage we found that mentions Susan Isherwood.
The image ABOVE is from the transfer form they used to yank it back last night and image to the LEFT is the page that comes up when you search for the “customer name” on the form. They’re both linked to the original webpage or document.
In reality, a large company like AT&T wouldn’t and couldn’t do this type of thing, but smaller companies get away with a lot more things than a large company could. Large companies make mistakes sometimes, but they don’t get vindictive toward their customer if they want to leave.
I’m showing this to illustrate how even a reasonably good service can really screw you if you don’t get your number from an independent service and transfer it in to them. I tend to be very customer oriented and work hard to empower and protect end users. That’s built into our business plan. But I don’t want to present just one side. Onebox is more than welcome to present their side if they have any explanation. I’ll link to it or add it here. I’d also really like to hear from other customers or other people in the 800 number world too. I think this is an important issue for a lot of people and I’ll update this with the final outcome as it unfolds.
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Bill Quimby (248 comments.) says:
July 15, 2008 at 8:51 am
I’m traveling today 7/15 so I probably won’t get to yank it back today, but I will tomorrow if the customer returns another signed form and copy of his phone bill.
If Onebox returns the number today, I’ll remove the pdf form from the website. Otherwise I will take it back tomorrow and consider whether it’s appropriate to send word about this situation to other people internally at J2 or the SMS from there.
Bob Bussman (1 comments.) says:
August 29, 2008 at 9:05 pm
just found out that my 1-800 was taken away months ago without telling me. Qwest gave it to me over a year ago. a neighbor informs me he has been trying to get a hold of my business using the number off of my van. qwest informs me it was never their number but AT&Ts number and looking into the matter. I cant even figure out how much business I have lost. What do I do? Bob-a small business owner
Scott Pritikin says:
October 9, 2008 at 2:45 pm
i Bill,
Currently I have an account with Onebox and they are trying to steal / hijack my
888 number I found and had them get over a year ago. Shame on them, it is completely despicable and unethical behavior. This past August as I have now found out, they changed their “Terms Of Service:
stating that they lease these numbers now (new policy), even though they admit that their policy used to be that we could take our toll free number with us — no strings attached.
Thank you.
Scott
Scott Pritikin says:
October 18, 2008 at 9:44 pm
After serious negotiations to the highest level at OneBox, and threats of litigation, they “approved” our request, so we can port our number. Their “new” policy still stands of owning the toll-frees and leasing them, even though they acted only as an agent to acquire them prior to their “terms of use” change in August 2008. They state they sent out a “Terms of Use” change notice — We never got it. Those like us, who used their service as a temporary “virtual office” until we set up a real world office — were and are placed in a very bad situation.
It was the amazing skills of my partner who was able to twist their arms, headlock them, smack them down and back them into a corner. Now we are able to take our number forward. I feel for those who will not have the gumption to fight.
Tony Kaczmarek says:
October 27, 2008 at 5:57 pm
Greetings….we’ve apparently had our 800 number “hijacked� numerous times, and have had random people call us and complain that they’ve received calls from our number for solicitation or harassment. This is the 2nd time this happened, after changing our number once. Our phone supplier tells us there’s nothing they can do…
Help???
Bill Quimby (248 comments.) says:
October 27, 2008 at 8:13 pm
Tony,
I think you’ve confused identity theft with kidnapping. When someone hijacks something that are taking that thing. It doesn’t sound like someone actually took your number. They you programmed your number into the caller ID of their dialer, whether on purpose or by mistake. That’s really not the same thing as actually taking your phone number and using it to make the phone calls.
There isn’t that much you can really do about that. The only things you can do are the things you normally do to try to fight misdials, such as changing the area of service, or putting a greeting message with your company name in it. This won’t eliminate the calls but it does usually reduce the calls. If you don’t need calls from the whole country you can limit the coverage area to the areas your customers are in. If you provide a local service in your state and maybe a couple surrounding states this will eliminate most of the calls from the rest of the country.
Bill Quimby
5 reasons why it’s Harder to get a good Toll Free Number than a good Domain Name. at TollFreeNumbers.com says:
November 12, 2008 at 8:48 am
[…] hoarding millions of numbers just to make money from the wrong numbers and some people even steal 800 numbers. All of these things definitely give the industry a bad name and make it harder for even large […]