Yes and no. 855 number reservations are issued by SMS800 database to phone companies on a first come first served basis starting at Noon eastern time, on Saturday October 2nd. Most regular phone companies also put their 855 requests in on a roughly, first come first served basis too. But some phone companies are carrying turkey platters up to the buffet line instead of salad plates and some phone companies have a team of people going up to the buffet and some have just one or two people.

The ones with the turkey platters and the most people aren’t the biggest phone companies either, they’re the vanity number resporgs. That’s because vanity number resporgs get to keep the value of the numbers they get for themselves, so can afford to pay for more access than any regular phone company could possibly justify.

So while the 855 numbers are issued by the national database on a first come first served basis, and phone companies may be putting in the requests in the order they’re received, the vanity number resporgs don’t have to wait for customers to request numbers, they are just going straight for all the shrimp and lobster off the buffet. So be smart about what you request and make sure you pick up a few hamburger numbers too, not just the filet mignon.

Every toll free number tends to get more wrong numbers than local numbers do, especially “800″s. That’s because there are so many of them advertised and used much more heavily than any local area code. There’s also no way to tell ahead of time how many wrong numbers a number will get. We can do some research to find out how long it’s been since a number was in active status for a regular phone company. But since wrong numbers can come from so many different sources, there’s really no way to predict that.

(more…)

When a company goes out of business and stops paying for a toll free number, how long does it usually take before it becomes registerable?

Unfortunately there’s no automatic cleaning process and just because a company goes out of business doesn’t mean that their number will be returned to the spare pool at a specific time, or after a specific amount of time. The aging process is four month from the time that a number is disconnected in the national database but just because a company goes out of business doesn’t mean that the toll free number is actually put into disconnect in the national database. The local number is often disconnected which causes people to think that the toll free number is disconnected.

If it says it’s in disconnect on our website, you can backorder it and we’ll try to grab it for you when it comes out. But first we’ll do the research for you and give you the exact date it comes out, and we’ll try to get it for you too.

I came across a post about toll free numbers yesterday on a blog post from Cloud Contacts that I thought was interesting. It’s a question that I think other people might have and want to read about or comment on, so I thought I’d include it here as well.

As we process more and more business cards, one thing I’ve noticed is that some of them have toll-free numbers listed for phone or fax. Toll-free numbers use the following prefixes: 800,877,866,888 and are typically “free” to call.

Taking a random sample of cards, most of the larger companies (especially banks) have toll-free numbers listed while startups and small businesses list local phone numbers.

I asked my followers on Twitter for their thoughts on toll-free number usage and my favorite reply came from Kathryn Finney of TheBudgetFashionista who noted, “(there’s no need for toll-free numbers) because most people use cell phones as their primary phone”.

While I am not sure if everyone is using cell phones as a primary phone, I wonder how many people aren’t on a flat local- and long-distance calling plan.

You’re assuming that the only reason for a toll free number is to pay for the incoming calls. Although that is the original and most obvious reason, there are certainly a lot more benefits than that, the most obvious of which you illustrated in your own simple observations. Toll free numbers provide greater control, flexibility, and a more customer focused image not to mention a larger company image. And that’s not even getting into the branding value of a more memorable vanity number.

Like you said, larger companies use them, which means both that there are probably reasons why larger companies use them, and that having a toll free number makes you look like a larger company. In fact getting a toll free number is one of the easiest ways to create the image of a larger company, for almost nothing. What else can you do to make your business look bigger for literally just a couple dollars per month?

Read more about the benefits of toll free numbers.

5 comments

Toll free numbers are invisible so it’s easy to understand how they might get lost. And they don’t have to go physically into your home or office to yank it out. It just changes status in the phone company database and shows up in a small note buried inside your bill.

A lot of the time numbers get disconnected or lost when you change phone companies and don’t realize that the toll free number was never changed. It’s easy dto overlook a toll free number, especially when you’re not using it very much.

Toll free numbers are like season tickets to a sporting event. You own it and have the right to keep using it. But if you don’t keep it active, it will be taken away. Nobody debates whether or not you own your season tickets. I guess technically you don’t own that seat, but you have a right to keep sitting there as long as you keep it active. But if you don’t continue to pay for those seats they’re probably going to give them to someone else. You may own your house but if you don’t pay your taxes eventualy they’re still going to take it away from you. So just because you own something doesn’t mean it can never be taken away from you or that you’re going to automatically own it for life.

Someone asked me a question in an email last night that was very simple and straight to the point. Why do I really need you if I can go to any phone company myself?

You’re not using us because you can pick any phone company you want. You could have picked them directly, although they won’t set it up as fast or help you get a good number as much. You’re really going through us because that way you have independent proof of ownership and you’re guaranteed to be able to transfer the 800 number you’ve got in all your advertising, away when you need to. Your ability to transfer the number away is what keeps them honest and insures you’ll always have a competitive rate and good service.

3 comments

If you work for a large company like Google or something that would make the other company see big dollar signs I can understand the need for having someone to contact them for you, to keep the nature of your business from affecting the price. But other than that there’s no reason not to contact them yourself.

There's more but putting one mer person in the process really isn't necessary

No, changing carriers doesn’t usually cause any interruption of service. That doesn’t mean that it can’t, but changing phone companies doesn’t inherently cause any down time. Whenever you change something there’s a chance that something unforeseen can happen. And some companies do tend to shut off the old service before the new service is programmed.

Most of the work is done before the new phone company sends the request to the old phone company so it usually takes from 2 to 8 days for most phone companies to get the request to us from the time you give it to them but it only takes a day or two for them to do the programming after we release it to them. We do several things to speed up the process including emailing the new company to let them know we’ve released it since most phone companies take several days and they won’t usually expect or even check it the same day they send it to us. So we let them know at the same time we email you to let you know we’ve released it.

What to do if your service is interrupted when transferring your 800 service.

We only accept one customer request per number, on a first come first served basis. If you’re the first to request a number, we’ll do the research to get you the exact date it comes out and try to get it for you at that time. If you don’t want us to try to get it for you, you have to let us know before the date it comes out if you’ve backordered it. That’s because it has to be done (or not done) at that specific time it drops and you have to commit to having us try to get it or not ahead of time.

After it comes out you can’t ask us to wind back the clock and try to get it for you and if you have us do the work and get it for you, we can’t wind back the clock and undo that work if you don’t want it. So we’re happy to cancel a backorder any time, up until it comes out and we have to try to do the work.

Someone asked me this in an email this morning so I thought I’d include this on the website because a ‘PLAIN’ 800 number could be used a couple different ways.

Plain might be used more often to describe the type of toll free service where plain service is the opposite of the enhanced voicemail services that often has lots of extra features and things. Any number you find with our look up tool can be activated and transferred to any type of service you want, plain or fancy if that helps.

If you mean a ‘Real’ 8-0-0 number as opposed to an 888, 877 or 866 number, we can get you those too. We have Random800 numbers that you can’t really get from regular phone companies any more. There’s a box of those on the Toll Free Search Results when you use the Toll Free Search Engine.

If you mean you just want any toll free number set up quickly and easily we have that too. Here’s a post about how easy it is to get an 800 number that kind of walks step by step through the process with images, but it’s super easy which is the point of that post. Just use our look up tools and pick the plainest number you want and you can place the order for it right online. They’re up and working ringing to whatever local number you want it to very quickly.

We’re an internet search engine for 800 numbers so you can search and activate whatever numbers you want right online. But it’s also important to know that there are real people that know what they’re doing and are happy to help make sure you get what you wanted.

2 comments

Should you list both your toll free number and your local number?

• If you need callers from outside of North America to be able to call you should definitely include your local number. 

• If it’s an ad where space is tight, I would only include your toll free number. 

• In broadcast advertising or any advertising where you don’t dial with the number in front of you, never list both numbers.

• If you have a really good vanity number, try not to include the local number or the digits unless absolutely necessary because it takes away from the use and memorability of your vanity number.

• If your privacy is important you should definitely only list the toll free number. 

• If you’re main concern is the cost of the incoming calls you can list the local number too and some people will call the local number

• If you want to sound bigger and local all over the country just list your toll free number.

• If you have multiple locations, don’t include local numbers.  Use just the toll free number and set up a routing or extension system for all locations.

To sum it up, I would probably list the local number with the toll free number on the contact us page of your website along with the toll free number. I would list just the toll free number on the rest of the site and most if not all advertising, unless there was a real compelling reason.

The initial local ring to number (RTN) is the phone number you want to ring when people dial your toll free number. It can be any local (non-tollfree) number, including a fax number, cell phone, residential line, voip line or even your grand mother’s phone if you want to. Forwarding a toll free number to it doesn’t affect the local number it points or mean that your grand mother owns the number. The ring to number can also be changed any time you need to. (Hence the word INITIAL.)

So you can forward the toll free calls to any number. It doesn’t effect the local number and you can change it whenever you need to by contacting the company providing the service. You can also pick whatever phone company you want to provide the toll free service. That’s the whole idea of our service. We get you the best 800 numbers but rather than providing the ongoing service (which would mean you would have to use the number with us) we give you the control and independence to select any phone company you want for the service.

So you can get the best number and the best company providing service too. There’s no one company that’s the best for toll free service any more than there is for anything else in life. And your ability to change companies is what keeps them honest and guarantees you’ll have good service and a good price too. So start by entering whatever local number you want and we’ll set it all up, and email you the proof of ownership and documentation that explains the toll free transfer process.

5 comments

That is the default computer date when there is no date and it essentially means that the number is RESERVED, or at least was at the beginning of the month. (more…)

1 comment

If it’s a quick and simple question just email me at billquimby@billquimby.net. Email is good for short answers or questions about the status of your service. But if you have a longer question or need a more thorough answer you’re much better off posting the question on the website. We try to put more time and effort into answering questions posted on the web more thoroughly because that creates a resource for everyone. (more…)

6 comments

It might seem easier if we just sold everyone the ongoing toll free service the way literally hundreds of regular phone companies do.  However in reality, we can’t provide the ongoing service better than everyone else but we can definitely help you find the best number better than anyone else.  (more…)

1 comment

Yes, one of the important benefits of a toll free number is that you can change the ring to number. That’s why our signup form says INITIAL local ring to number. You can certainly change the ring to number. There is also no charge for changing the ring to number at any phone company that I’ve seen either. By the way a toll free number can’t ring to another 800 number (see http://www.tollfreewatch.com/faqs/800-to-an-800.html) (more…)

5 comments

“What is the average price to ‘buy’ a toll free number from an existing customer?” That sounds like simple enough question. Unfortunately it’s not like your house. There is no book value or market rate that you can look up like you can a house or a car. The value of a toll free number is much more subjective, meaning it depends on how it’s used by the current owner as well as how it could be used by the purchaser or other potential purchasers.

(more…)

8 comments

Can I have one 800 number ring to another 800 number?

No you can’t point a toll free number to another toll free number. It’s kind of like dividing by zero. You can point it to the same local number the other toll free number points to, or you can transfer it to the same service that the other number is with and they can point it to the same place (even if they don’t give you a local number). This sometimes comes up in connection to toll free voicemail services, or a call center type service that only issued you a toll free number without a local number.

7 comments

Every couple months I hear someone say they couldn’t get through on our number. That usually means theyre calling from a cell phone. Anything after the first 7 digits is usually ignored. The last R is basically only there to make it easier to remember and it doesn’t matter if you dial it or not. But some cell phones think you must have hit the small buttons wrong and don’t put it through. It’s not network specific, it’s related to the hardware.

Some of the newer phones are even smarter and will put toll free numbers with extra digits through but they’ll block local numbers with additional digits. In any case, most people look at the screen and then drop the last digit. You lose far fewer calls for that than you would for people that don’t remember your phone number, although the people who don’t remember your phone number usually don’t contact you.

Some people don’t want a number that stands out. I usually point out to them that your goal isn’t really to make the most important part of your advertising, the call to action, blend in. Your goal is to really get them to notice it and think about it long enough to get it to stick with them. Some people do really funky things to make their commercials stand out. You don’t have to go crazy but you shouldn’t worry so much about trying to make it blend in or take less thought, if that makes sense. Part of the job of your advertising is to get the visitor to notice you or think about you.

Here’s a real life example of more than 7 digits on a Budget Truck

2 comments

Many phone companies don’t like to provide toll free service to a cell phone for three reasons. It costs them a little more to terminate the calls to a cell phone, they don’t get the outbound long distance which they always want to sell too, and they’re usually smaller accounts too. So most companies just say they can’t or won’t do it. It’s really not that they can’t but they just don’t want to or quite often don’t know how.

Most cell phone companies and voip companies are usually pretty ignorant about toll free service and how to process transfers, not to mention how to help you get a good number. To be fair though, I don’t know how to even use half the features on my own cell phone so I couldn’t begin to do their job. But I really focus on finding valuable vanity numbers and have gotten good numbers for tens of thousands of s over the past 12 years so I’ll be happy to help you. And the bottom line is that you can certainly point any toll free number you find with our site to any cell phone company you want.

Look in the toll free manual that we email you after you activate a number for an explanation of the process of “Picking Your Provider” and some forms. You can of course take your number to any company you want but we also try to make it as easy for you as possible to get not only the best number but the best service for your needs too.

8 comments

This probably seems a little basic, but a toll free number is a telephone number that can be called at no cost to the caller, because the recipient pays for the cost of the call. Also referred to as ‘800’ numbers after the original area code, although toll free numbers today can start with the area codes, 800, 888, 877, and 866.

A toll free number is basically like a remote call forwarded number that can forward to whatever local number you want it to.  You can also change the number if forwards to (the “ring to number”) whenever you need to.  So if you’re starting a small business, you can get your own toll free number and point it to your existing home or cell phone number without any separate line or extra equipment.  You can always add a separate line or change the ring to number as your business grows.

Not having to have a separate line will usually save quite a bit more than the cost of the toll free number in just the first couple months, not to mention making your business look more professional and giving you the flexibility to grow and change things whenever you’re ready.

A toll free number just forwards to or rings to any regular local number, kind of like a remote call forwarded number.  No special equipment or additional line or installation is required.  All the features (ie. Caller ID, Call Forwarding, Voicemail, rollovers etc) on the local line, work the same as if the caller had dialed the local number.
More technical explanation

8 comments

A toll free number just rings to or forwards to a regular local number.  Instead of the caller paying for the call, the receiver pays for the call as if they had initiated it.  (see also Toll Free Guide)

2 comments

No, there is no special equipment necessary.  You can point your toll free number to any local number you want and it doesn’t have to affect the local number it forwards to.

2 comments

We get phone numbers that make money!  We specialize in helping our customers obtain memorable vanity numbers that increase the response rate to your advertising.  (see also My Services)

2 comments

A vanity number is a number that happens to translate with the letters on the keypad into more memorable words or phrases. 

They are helpful because it’s easier for your prospects to remember related words than numbers that aren’t relevant to your business.  The more advertising you do, the more important it is to get a memorable brand name number.  (see also Top 10 Vanity # Benefits)

Yes, any number that says Currently Available when you use the instant lookup is only a one time fee of $49.  The ones in Disconnect are harder to get and are a couple hundred dollars depending on the area code.  (see also Activation)

2 comments

Start by checking a few numbers with our Instant Lookup, and then if you need more help, try or our Power Search.  That’ll email you a whole list of good numbers for almost any keywords.  (see also Vanity Number Lookup)

Most other phone companies take days or weeks but we activate most numbers literally within seconds.  If the activation doesn’t go through online, we do it usually within 1 business day.

Absolutely!!  Nearly everyone else in the vanity number business wants to retain the ownership of your number so they can rent it to you charging thousands of dollars per year.  But we give every client full and complete ownership rights for every number and the best documentation and proof of ownership, including the industry’s only Toll Free Birth Certificates^sm

2 comments

ZERO!  That’s right.  We have NO per minute charge at all!  Our initial service is limited temporarily to your regional area in order to make the number active right away.  It will be useable nationwide as you transfer it over to any carrier you want for the ongoing service.

2 comments

The number is yours nationwide but the initial temporary service is limited to calls from within your lata.  Calls from outside of the lata of the ring to number won’t go through until you transfer it to another carrier for the ongoing service.  (see also Activation)

Because, I think it’s better to be a true consultant rather than just another salesperson.  I’ll give you some good options for the service if you need it, but I focus on getting the best number for each client, instead of selling one product or service like everyone else. 

Yes, you can change the ring to number for virtually any toll free number.  That’s one of the biggest advantages of a toll free number.  That control means you never have to reprint things, and never lose a call if things change in your business as they inevitably seem to. 

Yes!  Some companies don’t let you do that on their service because they don’t get to include the outbound long distance, it costs them more and they tend to be smaller accounts.  We can give you some good options for services that make it easy to go to your cell phone or even enhanced services that forward your calls to multiple different numbers.  (see also Cellular800.com)

4 comments

Not only are you allowed to transfer your number to another carrier but you’re required to.  We give you the free temporary service to get you started but require you to transfer it to another carrier for the ongoing service.  That allows us to be independent and work with everyone in the industry and to really focus on getting you the best possible number for your business.

The transfer process is pretty simple and is fairly similar to that of most other services.  You just fill out a transfer form with the new company you want to transfer to.  They enter it into their system and then send the request through to the old company (us) when they are ready for it to be released.

4 comments

Yes.  It’s especially important for any voicemail customer to get their number from an independent service.  Some voicemail companies use the ownership of the number as a way to hold customers at their service, holding them hostage by your phone number.  (see also Voicemail Guide)

6 comments

Phone companies just don’t have the tools or any incentive to get you the best number.  Their goal is just to get you anything that you’ll take.  They don’t understand marketing or see it from the advertiser’s point of view.  And they certainly don’t realize how valuable or important a good number is to all of your advertising.  I think most of them also tend to sit in a cubicle too long too, but that’s a different issue.

First try dialing the number.  If that doesn’t work, try calling the phone company responsible for the number.  If that doesn’t work try searching on the net at anywho.com, gotollfree.com or even google.com.  If you don’t find anything on those sites, we have a good private investigator that can find the customer information for almost any toll free number.  (see Customer Info)

I do that for large companies but my philosophy for small to medium businesses is not to charge thousands of dollars to do things that they can do themselves.  So I basically provide the information and tools necessary for them to do it themselves and only act as a backup when it’s really necessary.  (see also Consulting)

1. We provide more help finding the best possible number for you.
2. We activate numbers faster than anyone else in the business.
3. We give you better independent proof of ownership.
4. We’re easier to work with than big phone companies and we know the vanity number business better than anyone else anywhere.

Start with the Instant Lookup on the top of the page and if you don’t find anything after a couple searches use our Power Search Lookup to send us some of your keywords and we’ll make some thorough lists of good numbers related to your business.  Then just click on whatever number you want in the email and it’ll bring you to the live search results and give you the links to follow from there.  (see also Vanity Number Lookups)

Consumers like them because they’re free to call. Advertisers like them because customers are more likely to call. Companies also like them because they are portable and they create a more national presence and they have additional capabilities in terms of reporting and routing that local numbers don’t have. Another major reason for their popularity is that they have dropped so dramatically in price and ease of use. When they were first introduced they were expensive and hard to get. But now they are so cheap and so simple to set up that even the smallest part time business or residential user, almost can’t afford not to use one.

4 comments

We’ve all seen vanity numbers, or numbers that spell things in every industry.  Over 90% of the tv commercials during the super bowl that contain a toll free number were vanity numbers because advertising without a vanity number is like running the air conditioning with the window open. You lose a significant amount of your potential responses when you require prospects to remember a series of unrelated mostly random digits in order to be able to reach you. Some will still get through to you of course, but not nearly as many as you’d get with a memorable word or phrase.

The whole purpose of your advertising is to create a lasting connection with prospects and we all know it takes repetition to create that type of connection but it takes less repetition when your ad is more memorable. And the most important part of your advertising you want to be memorable is your call to action which is generally a phone number and/or a domain name. Beyond that you also want the prospect to remember who you are, what you do, how to reach you on the phone and/or the internet and the one which many people often forget, your strongest selling point or value proposition. That is a tall order to come up with in one simple memorable package, but that’s what you’re ultimately after.

If you wouldn’t use 7 random digits as your domain name, (like 723-8945.com)  why would you use random digits as your phone number, other than because that’s easier for the phone company?