Should we be allowing users to buy and sell numbers?
03/18/2008
If we knowingly allow brokers to buy numbers on our service and then turn right around resell them are we an accomplice to that broker who may be violating the FCC regulation against hoarding and warehousing?
This doesn’t happen all that often but I have noticed from time to time that people are advertising and listing numbers that I got for someone, almost immediately after I get it. At first I figured this just showed that the number I get for people are worth much more than the flat fee we charge. But this does concern me because it makes it look like I’m selling this number. I don’t mind if someone legitimately gets a number and then decides that they don’t need it and wants to sell it. But if they are in the business of buying and selling numbers I’m concerned that I shouldn’t be supporting that.
This relates directly to several other posts about selling numbers:
Is it legal to buy and sell numbers?
Are we skirting the law or selling numbers?
This may be a question that I have to run by an attorney but I wanted to open it up for discussion here a little first. I’d like to open it up to get a little more input and a discussion about this rather than just make a decision and have that be the end of it.
I’ve always felt that in order to build a really successful growing business I had to be very clean and set an example within the industry. But I’ve also felt at times people buying and selling numbers weren’t really hurting much and that it wasn’t my job to police anyone else. I don’t monitor what people do with my website or numbers after I get them. But when someone immediately lists them for sale, in this case on ebay, and I see it, do I have an obligation to stop them from using our service?
This is a difficult issue because I have always tried to help everyone and don’t want to hurt anyone. But in this case I’m leaning toward preventing anyone that I know is in the business of buying and selling numbers from getting numbers through me. This would probably only affect a couple people and honestly since they only want the very best numbers that are worth much more than my one time fee, there’s a good chance that someone else might want that number anyway. So this wouldn’t really hurt sales very much and it would put good numbers into the hands of actual end users which I prefer to do anyway.
I believe that there is a place for individuals who know what they’re doing to help companies that need some expertise in this business. A large database system like Monster.com is a great service for a lot of customers but it doesn’t eliminate the need for recruiters. And neither one is really competing or hurting the other’s business. However, in this case since there are regulations that seem to apply to recruiting (in this analogy). And if I run Monster.com and knowingly support recruiters (or brokers), could I be accused of being a broker too or allowing someone to broker numbers.
What does anyone else think about this? I want to do the right thing but the right thing isn’t totally clear in this case. So I really want to get some feedback on this from anyone else that has an opinion. Let’s hear your 2 cents worth…
(2 votes, average: 3 out of 5)
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Bill Quimby (197 comments.) says:
March 18, 2008 at 6:29 pm
One more thing I just thought of; Does this same logic mean I really have to remove the third party numbers. I have been putting the owners of numbers into one of the fields of numbers so I can just forward the emails of interested parties to the owner, if that owner expressed interest in receiving those inquiries.
I don’t charge for passing on these leads, but maybe we have to drop that for the same reason. It is kind of facilitating in a way, although if it’s a regular end user and not someone in the business of buying and selling numbers it’s really not as much of an issue.
I only did this to be a service to everyone involved and because I thought this provided more value to the user of my website.
Maybe the smart thing will be to allow visitors to use the commenting system on their own to do it by listing their email address if they want to. That would be less hands on and require less work on my part anyway. The comments system isn’t ready yet for numbers but we’re working on it.
What do you think?
Paul says:
April 16, 2008 at 1:14 pm
Bill,
My personal opinion is that you provide an excellent service. You do so at price that you have deemed to be fair and reasonable for the service you offer. As long as you make it clear that you are not a party to any transaction after people get a number through you then I think you are fine. I dont believe the FCC would view you as an “accomplise” to those who “grab” numbers and immediately list them for sale on sites like ebay.I dont see any reason for you to block those people from your site.
Bill Quimby (197 comments.) says:
April 16, 2008 at 6:52 pm
Thanks Paul,
I’ve talked with a few people that didn’t want to write anything and ultimately I think the most appropriate course is Bill Clinton’s middle of the road policy of Don’t Ask and Don’t Tell.
I don’t get numbers for people that simply want to flip them. I don’t work with anyone as a wholesaler or supplier, having them go market or retail them.
But at the same time, it’s also not my responsibility to evaluate the intentions of my customers either. However if I see a number being sold or evidence that a customer is doing something that goes against our policy of getting numbers for end users, I have an obligation to say No Thank You. The major exception to this would be other phone companies or Resporgs.
The biggest change may be that I’m discontinuing the 3rd party numbers which we’ve listed in the search results because even if we’re doing it for the benefit of our visitors, it could be taken as a promotion of end user transfers.
So please don’t get numbers here just to resell them. We’re not the phone police but we also can’t allow that if we see it and will take whatever steps seem appropriate on a case by case basis.
This probably deserves another post to complete this but there are so many other things I’m behind on posting on it may be a while.
Bill
John says:
April 23, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Bill,
When packaging a service to a client sometimes it is nice to provide a vanity number option. Many customers desire to outsource the work to search and capture a good vanity number to someone who knows how the toll free system functions. There are a few that decide that they must own the numbers, so the number is transferred to them up front instead of at the end of a business relationship.
Is this brokering or merely selling a value added package? Does the prohibition on brokering intend to stop the practices of many who hoard toll free numbers, in the 1000s, thereby removing useable numbers from active use in the marketplace and exhausting prematurely the toll free numbering space.
Bill Quimby (197 comments.) says:
April 23, 2008 at 9:28 pm
That’s a good point and even more importantly is how it illustrates the difficulty in making specific rules like this. If the “package� is essentially the phone number with a bow on it, then that’s still selling the number even if you include something else, minor with it. If the phone number is just a piece or component of a real package or business, then that works for me. This of course requires some judgment and will be reviewed on a case by case basis.
I think having some experience in this, I can make this work. Let me know if you have any questions or need any help with anything else.
Bill