We get a lot of callers starting out like this, usually followed by an explanation that the number went to some type of disconnect or error message. And when you try to explain things, they tend to want to answer you back with sentences that start with “But…” alot too. In some ways that’s kind of like thinking you can or should be able to buy a house just because there’s nobody home. They could be home but just work nights or it might be active but just from Canada or some other state where it’s used by a tow truck company that doesn’t want calls from outside his state.

There are a lot of different reasons why a number might be going to a message that sounds like it’s disconnected without the toll free number actually being in disconnect status. It could be pointing to a local number that’s disconnected. It could just be set up wrong in several different ways in the carrier. It could be working at the carrier but just not programmed in the switch properly. It could be active with the carrier but they might show it going to a reseller who doesn’t have any record of it. It could be a pager number that’s not in service. It could be a call in number for American Idol that they only turn on during the show hours.

Calling an 800 Number doesn’t prove very much.

The point is that calling a number doesn’t prove very much in terms of availability unless it goes to a customer; then you know it’s definitely NOT available. There are a lot of reasons why a toll free number could be Active in the national 800 database but not answered by someone like you may be expecting.

That real estate analogy of picking out a particular house is actually much easier than buying a specific number. You can look up the records to see who owns a house, which you can’t do for a toll free number because there is no whois type 800 lookup for toll free numbers. Phone companies are required to keep their customer information confidential.

There is also no book value or even a regular marketplace for toll free numbers. So you can’t just offer them 10 or 20% over market value or book value and get them to give it you and/or move for you. They aren’t used to selling toll free numbers so it seems odd or strange to most people. You will get lucky sometimes and because there’s no book value some people do just give them away because someone asked nicely, which they don’t do with real estate. The third obstacle is how to transfer 800 numbers, which is another topic in and of itself.

Dating married people versus dating single people

I’ve been using a lot of analogies already but what the heck, here’s one more. The most important thing to realize is that if you’re trying to find the right spouse or partner, you’ll have a much higher likelihood of success if you ask out single people instead of married ones. It’s not that it’s impossible to get someone to leave their spouse. Maybe they were going to soon anyway. This seems obvious when you’re looking for a partner, but you’d be surprised how many people do that when they’re looking for a toll free number.

They want their dream number and refuse to realize that it’s a real long shot so you need to have a backup. Fortunately toll free numbers aren’t like girlfriends, because you can have more than one at a time and you don’t need to give up the backup one if you get your dream girl to go out with you. So make sure you get a backup.

We really do NOT go chasing after numbers or girls that aren’t available. You certainly can, but our strength is really helping customers find things that are available based on their keywords. If you’re holding out for that supermodel, nobody can really help you with that. So we can appreciate holding out for that dream date. There’s a lot more about digging deeper to get that perfect toll free number in our 800 Number Consulting section, but at least use our Keyword Lookup and find a good backup number that’s more readily available in the time being. And whatever you do don’t chase after 800 numbers that say they’re with a company that NEVER releases toll free numbers.