This is a lot more common than most people would realize. It can happen in a variety of ways, and unfortunately most people don’t know where to go or who to turn to when they suddenly realize they’re getting screwed and are really stuck.

It happens when you start advertising a toll free number that you got from a company you never heard of through the internet without reading the fine print. Somewhere buried in their fine print they say that the toll free number they are providing you is a part of their service.

That doesn’t sound bad but when you eventually want to transfer to another provider they say that you can cancel their service but you can’t take their number with you if you want to leave. If you don’t have any independent proof of ownership, they’ve GOTCHA!!

Let us help you get a number that you own the rights to so you can't be held hostage again!

When you hear the word “voicemail,” if you’re like me, you thought of basically a clunky automated system that’s basically a computerized answering machine. I guess those original paradigms tend to stick with us. But today’s enhanced voicemail service definitely isn’t your father’s voicemail.

The Enhanced Voicemail Services of today aren’t just for answering the phone when you’re not there any more either. Voicemail services today can be the heart of your business, insuring that every customer is handled professionally and reaches the right person. It can free you from your desk and make your whole business work together more smoothly.

The right voicemail service can definitely make a difference

According to The Australian, (an AU newspaper) Pizza Hut in Australia is switching from one of the most recognized numeric AU numbers 9481 1111 to 1300 PIZZA HUT. (1300 is the Australian version of 1-800) This follows the recent move from Dominos to use 1300 DOMINOS. They’ve spent millions of dollars in advertising the numeric number which is famous as the ‘William Tell’ number, and they are expected to invest two million dollars in the change including reprinting boxes, changing delivery cars and advertising.

The lesson here is that no matter how much has been invested in advertising a numeric number, the right vanity number is always more memorable. For example many people may remember or at least recognize the Geico number, 1-800 947-AUTO. That’s not surprising based on how many millions of dollars they’ve spent on little gecko ads over the past years. But how much more memorable would the number they’re trying to get you to call for 15 minutes be if they had 1-800 GO-GEICO for example. That’s not their number, it’s just an example.

Numeric numbers can become somewhat memorable with enough advertising. But without a connection to the company or service they are for it’s like trying to run on ice or running your AC with the windows open. How much more memorable would the advertising be with the vanity number or how much less advertising would they have to have done to reach the same level of recognition?

You can do enough air conditioning to get a room cold even if the window is open. But eventually it just makes sense to stop and close the window, even if that means you have to shut down the current advertising campaign and start a new one to go along with the more memorable number (which equals closing the window).

Someone on a Wikipedia discussion about the Toll Free page, questioned recently the value of vanity numbers and expressed their personal preference for numeric numbers. This is understandable and I’ve written about people’s personal preference for numeric numbers before. But I figured this was worth including here since it explained it differently.

First of all, numeric numbers ARE better in some situations, specifically if you’re dealing with an elderly audience (where the extra effort might be even more difficult for them), a foreign language speaking audience such as attorney’s specializing in immigration law, or internal or repeat calling situations, like a calling card for example. These situations all do lend themselves to numeric numbers over vanity numbers.

Read more about why what people prefer isn’t what produces the best results?

I just saw a blog posting at Strategic Concepts by Lisa DiCarlo announcing that Register.com was partnering with TeleDomains. I can’t find anything about this or any partners at Register.com but Teledomains is an off shoot of MyTollFreeNumber.com, a shared use organization related to Rolinium. Rolinium is one of the shared use companies we warn people about alot but this is very interesting for two reasons.

Continue reading and let us know if you have any contacts at any large registrars!

A couple months ago a website called smsgov.com with no connection to any government or sms authority was started to promote a fictitious organization they named “The Toll Free Advisory Committee (TAC).” It all looks very authoritative if you don’t look for facts in their news articles or look at the fake contact information.

They describe Smsgov.com as the home of the Toll Free Advisory Committee (TAC), which sounds good but there is no Toll Free Advisory Committee and never has been. They just started claiming it as if it were true. It’s one of the more interesting internet scams. But when you do a search on Google for “Toll Free Advisory Committee,” you’ll find the following results:

See the screen shots of Googling their name – they don’t exist!

SMSGOV.com is using Wikipedia to try and lend credibility to their pretend organization. It is NOT affiliated with any government organization nor is it related to the SMS/800 database. It’s articles are completely made up with just enough truth to sound good. It hides it’s identity claiming to be in the Netherlands to avoid prosecution for what it’s doing. The only phone numbers on the website are 800-X00-0000 for their phone and fax. I’ve written about most of that before, but now they are using Wikipedia to give their fake organization credibility.

I’ve removed their listing under “USA and Canada RespOrg tools” on the “Toll-free telephone number” page repeatedly but they keep putting it back and are even claiming that my removing their fake organization is vandalism. I’ve started a discussion about this in the Wikipedia Discussion section (on the bottom of the page). I wanted to let people know about this because hopefully that will help to keep Wikipedia from assisting in their fraud.

Toll free numbers as we use them in the US are accessible from anywhere that you don’t have to dial a country code to reach the US, specifically from the US and Canada and a few territories (the North American Numbering Plan Administration (NANPA). But how do you reach our toll free numbers from the rest of the world?

A recent article by Krista Giannak on Suite 101 outlined several ways to access North American toll free numbers. You can use voip services such as Sipbroker.com, Voipbuster.com or Skype.com or use a Calling Card to reach them.

Read about several ways to access toll free numbers from abroad

I saw an article today entitled DETROIT MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO USING FAKE 1-800 NUMBERS at fraudbaron.com. Digging into the article though it’s really an example of Directory Assistance and Misdial Marketing Fraud. The toll free numbers weren’t fake. He simply got number listed with Directory Assistance as the numbers for a big company, in this case Black & Decker. And then he answered the phone as if he were customer service for B&D.

Read the rest including what to do if you think this happened to you.

We don’t charge any monthly fee or per minute rate, because we don’t provide the ongoing service. We basically help you get the best number and then help you transfer it to whoever is best for you for the ongoing use.

We’re kind of like a domain name registrar that doesn’t provide the hosting. So the rate for hosting obviously depends on the hosting company and plan you select.

I can give you a good idea of the rates of most companies in general as well as some good options, but the bottom line is that you get to pick the company and therefore the rates. This ability to transfer the number at any time may not seem like much, and the regular phone companies will try to down play it for obvious reasons, but that is what keeps them honest and guarantees you the best rates and service.

Click here for a general idea of competitive industry rates

We work hard to get disconnected numbers for our customers as they come out into the spare or available pool. But the competition is getting extremely fierce to put it mildly. We’re running low on random ‘800’ numbers so we started monitoring them more closely. I wrote about the overall numbers or random 800 numbers coming out on Friday. At 11pm central time on Friday November 21st there were 230 random ‘800′ numbers being released back into the pool. It took 11 seconds for them to come out from 11:00:01 pm till 11:00:12 pm and they lasted an average of 3.04 seconds before being gobbled back up again.

The only really surprising thing to me was the volume of numbers being taken by a very new resporg. I’m not saying that Lynx Communications is hoarding numbers, just because they don’t appear to have any actual presence, or any customers, and nobody has heard of them. But we are definitely going to look into that a little more to find out a little more about who they are, because nobody new just walks out and gets that amount of numbers by accident.

See the actual numbers and the times it took for them to be re-reserved.

I’ve written about Fake Phone Companies where someone makes a credible looking site pretending to be a real phone company. Well someone definitely took that a step further with smsgov.com making a totally fake government site looking site. They actually have no connection to any government agency of any kind, and or the SMS/800, despite making up a fake seal, and the gov name. And everybody knows that the name and address they list on the site and whois, from the Netherlands is totally fake too. They’re obviously trying very hard to fool people and create an aura of credibility and fake authority. Well, we’ve analyzed the site and I believe I know who’s really behind smsgov.com.

Read the full article for the 6 reasons why I believe smsgov.com appears to be owned by Tollfreenumber.org

Sometimes when people set up a new toll free number they hear a confusing message asking them for a password when they first test their toll free number. It gets even more confusing when they call up and tell the phone company that their toll free number isn’t working. Because when the phone company calls it, they don’t aren’t calling from the ring to number, so it seems to work fine.

Dialing your own local phone number is usually how you reach your voicemail on most cell phones or regular phones. And when you dial your toll free number, if it forwards to the number you’re dialing from, the local phone company thinks you dialed your own local number and sends you to your voicemail. So the password isn’t on the toll free number, it’s just your voicemail password.

This pops up every once in a while so I just figured I’d write up a quick explanation here to hopefully avoid a little confusion or embarrassment.

The Negative Search is one of the special functions built into the Keyword Lookup that most people are not aware of and which can come in very handy sometimes. When you are searching for something related to a negative word like DEBT, or CANCER, you really wouldn’t want the typical prefixes and suffixes that we use for most terms. You wouldn’t want things like GET DEBT, go OUR CANCER the way you would GET HOME or OUR HOME.

For negative terms or for terms you’re really looking for the opposite of, put the parameter (559) after it the term like the example below. This tells the computer to try a different list of prefixes like NON, NOT, QUIT, and different suffixes like AWAY, FREE or LESS. In the example below I did both DEBT and DEBT with the negative list. So I’ll get both, just to be thorough.

A woman wrote me earlier today asking for some help finding a toll free number (and a name) for a “rent to own a home” company she was starting. I wrote this to help her but realized it would probably help other people too so I made it a post.

She listed a couple obvious generic terms that she had tried herself. She went on to say she wanted “a number that urges people to call now, and pick up the phone.” She wanted something to “stand out in the business.”

The problem she was having which a lot of people tend to fall into here, is that she was thinking in terms of a generic term for her business or an obvious description. She wanted something that would give them the “urge” to call you but her terms were totally unemotional. The only one that will buy from you because you’re in that business is your mother. Nobody else is going to buy from you just because you’re in that business. You need to give them an emotional reason (an urge)!

Read the rest including some real examples of creativity.

There are 40,767 ‘800’ numbers in disconnect scheduled to drop over the next 100 days between today and March 1st. That means an average of over 400 numbers drop per day, or more accurately per night since they come out at midnight each night. Most of them don’t spell anything, but any ‘800’ number today is in so much demand that they usually last barely a couple seconds before they’re all gone.

Read the full article for a sample list of disconnected '800' numbers

Someone recently asked me if any toll free 7 digit repeaters were available. They gave me examples like 888-111-1111 or 888-333-3333. I responded that numbers like that are basically like two digit domain names. There are actually a lot more two digit domain names like aa.com ab.com than there are 7 digit repeaters. But don’t go asking your favorite domain name registrar if they can get you any two digit domain names.

I guess technically it’s not impossible, but it’s a good example of a snow balls chance in hell. The good news is that you don’t have to have a two digit domain name to have a good domain name or website. And you don’t need to have a 7 digit repeater to get a good toll free number for your business.

We have a section for premium numbers like this that explains how to do queries to find premium numbers or nice repeating numbers. They won’t be 7 digit repeaters but you can find some good numbers. Ultra high end numeric 800 numbers get exponentially more expensive and they aren’t that much more memorable or valuable for your business. So don’t expect to get the perfect 800 numeric number. One trick is to use your company initials or a short word with three or four *s before or afterwards.

When a number is disconnected and in the aging process, it takes a lot more time and effort to get than a regular 800 number in the Available or Spare pool. Sometimes it takes several months. Unfortunately sometimes you just can’t wait that long.

When you have a pressing deadline and you still really want a better number we have a special offer to help in that situation. We call it Have Your Cake and Eat It Too, because it allows you to select a good number that’s available right now and still hold out for that even better number disconnected number down the road.

All you have to do is find the best Currently Available number and use the regular $49 activation process and form, but in the Comments field at the bottom of the activation form, add that you also want to backorder the number in Disconnect with the Cake Special. We will process that as a regular activation AND a backorder. You won’t have to pay the $4.95 backorder fee, and we’ll confirm the number with the lower price.

This is a good way to get a number right away and at the same time, still try for the best number in disconnect which takes a while, without any more cost.

When you activate a toll free number your customer information is kept confidential. There is no national database of 800 customer information like there is for domain names. Phone companies are required to keep their customer information totally confidential. So we can’t give out your customer information to anyone.

Even though most customers get their toll free numbers because they are advertising things, they may not want everyone to know their 800 number. You want the prospects who see your advertising to have the toll free number, but you might not want sales people or job applicants and recruiters, or your relatives to have and use the toll free number that YOU pay for.

Some situations also require a very high level of confidentiality. Toll free numbers are very helpful for Adoptions, or situations where you want to be able to cancel the number afterwards and not have anyone else be able to contact you. Whatever your situation is, you can advertise or list your number anywhere you want, but we aren’t allowed to give out your information to any third party without a court order.

I’ve started using LinkedIn recently as a way to keep in touch with customers. I’m extremely accessible but this gives past customers that have Linked up, a priority way to reach me, ask quick questions or make a recommendation/testimonial. If you make a LinkedIn recommendation I will post your recommendation in our testimonials section and I’ll also add a link to your profile in LinkedIn as well. So get in touch and say hello. If you are LinkedIn and we’ve at least talked or emailed and you would like to make a connection send a request.

I’ve said before that we don’t negotiate with shared use companies for visitors or customers because most of them hate us. I can’t imagine why they would hate us, just because we help people find numbers that they OWN nationwide with no strings for less than the monthly rent for one area code of one of their toll free numbers. It could also be that we point out how tend to act like used car salesman selling things without a book value to people who don’t understand the industry and they get away with an awful lot.

I’m writing more on this though because a customer just wrote out a detailed description of their contact with someone in the industry, I would call a vanity number “squatter”. And when I started to answer them it wound up being something that I thought other people would benefit from so here it is.

Read what this customer found when he contacted the broker who had the number he really wanted.

The new November Database update is finished and the new numbers are online now. There are a LOT of new numbers available now. So let the searching begin!

We’ve just finished writing a new Backorder Report that explains how we can try harder to get numbers for you and how you can try even harder yourself too. We’re sending this out with every backorder, and if you request it, we’ll definitely go the extra mile for you too at NO EXTRA COST.

That’s right, all you have to do is fill out the paperwork and write a letter, and we’ll go the extra mile and try to get the disconnected number for you from the old phone company. It doesn’t cost anything but it’s definitely increasing the odds of getting backorder numbers for you.

We’ve also brought back our private investigator service to help you get the customer information and included the paperwork to get the number from the old customer. That’s the way to get it right away and have it guaranteed too. The competition for disconnected numbers has increased and we’re fighting hard to help you get the best numbers.

This is related to yesterdays post about Why it’s harder to get a good toll free number than a domain name. There are at least four reasons why it’s easier to get a matching domain name if you start with the toll free number.

The first reason is that there is a higher turnover rate in toll free numbers than there is with domain names. That’s because the vast majority of people don’t see toll free numbers as domain names. For 98% of the terms or phrases you would want, the numbers are looked at as just that, numbers. Unless they are extremely obvious and generic, the owners of the numbers probably don’t know what it spells or care very much. It doesn’t take very much creativity to get to the numbers that are just used as numbers. And the people disconnecting numbers usually don’t really care very much whether or not it spells anything special or have any way to reach people that might be interested.

Read the rest of this article with 3 more points about matching domain names and toll free numbers.

A toll free number only has 7 digits that matter while domain names can have any amount but often have two or even three times as many digits. That means the amount of possible domain names is exponentially higher than the possible phone numbers for any area code.

1. There’s no whois lookup for 800 numbers or simple way to track down who owns a toll free number (although we do have a private investigator to get the customer name and address if necessary for you).

2. There’s also no easy way to tell if they would be willing to sell a toll free number to you. There’s no easy way to ask them because they’re usually not used to or considering selling their phone number. The only one that usually has the customer information is the phone company responsible.
There are 3 more reasons why it's harder to get a good numbers than domain names.

There’s no one phone company that’s the best for everyone, no matter what the person trying to sell you their service says. There’s no one car or anything that’s the best for everyone. Our business model is designed to empower you to not only find the best number for your business to take it to whatever company you want or need to use it with, not just now but at any time in the future.

Your ability to transfer the number away is what keeps them honest. And if something better ever comes along you are guaranteed to be able transfer it again. That’s the best guarantee of all because that’s the free market guaranteeing you the best price and service!

So another company may imply that they give you the same thing, but taking the word of someone trying to keep you there that you’ll be able to leave isn’t the same thing as an independent organization guaranteeing you that right. It may sound like it’s almost the same thing, but that’s kind of like almost getting a guarantee.

We can’t see the future but we can make sure you have the most choice and the best information too. (That’s why we’re working so hard on the new Providers Directory too!)

Putting the kids who want to eat the cookies in charge of guarding the cookies is probably a recipe for disaster. And putting the phone company that wants to keep you there in charge of your ability to transfer your number away is just as bad!

How do you avoid this paradox of conflicting incentives and responsibilities? Get your toll free number from someone independent and transfer it into the organization you want to use it with. That way they can’t say that they provided that number for you as part of their service, so you can cancel the service but you can’t take their number with you if you want to leave. Basically they can’t hold you hostage by your 800 number that way.

Don't make the people who want to keep you there in charge of protecting your ability to transfer away.

Whenever a toll free number is disconnected it goes through a four month disconnect process. There are several reasons for this. It allows the old customer to reactivate it if they just discover that it was disconnected. It minimizes the amount of wrong numbers or misdials from previous advertising. It is the safety net that prevents mistakes from turning into major problems. It is possible for a resporg to intentionally push a number out of this 4 month aging process. We call this “Dumping” a number, but it is extremely rare because it takes extra work and it creates a potential liability for the company with virtually no benefit or reason other than perhaps saving 80 cents worth of sms charges.

The only reason that phone companies sometimes dump numbers this is to transfer a number to another company without them having to give it directly to the other company. This is sometimes done so that they can say that they just released it and so the other company picking it up can say that they just picked it up out of the spare pool so that they don’t have any obligation and didn’t have to send any paperwork to the previous phone company. This is not a safe or appropriate way to transfer a number and it is only done in questionable circumstances to say the least.

You can tell when this attempt to “clean” it is done by looking at the date and times of the release and the pickup. If a number is picked up almost instantly there is usually some communication there and that doesn’t happen by accident. The extra steps required to bypass the four month aging process also mean that it can’t be done by accident.

The only organization that dumps numbers regularly is Signal One. They do this because they pick up and drop huge volumes of numbers per month and saving the 20 cents per month carrying costs while a number is in disconnect saves them a significant amount of expense. But they don’t have regular customers in the traditional sense, so there is no real danger of releasing someone else’s number by mistake in that case and the volume makes even the minor carrying costs worth the extra effort.

How would you like to be able to program your phone number right into your prospects and clients heads? That’s what the right vanity number can do! It programs your number right into their head so when they think of your name or the phrase you’re associated to with the number, they automatically just know the number so they don’t have to go searching for it on the internet where all of your competitors come up too.

If you are advertising for computers or robots, use numbers. Numbers are the language of computers. If you’re advertising to reach People, use the words and phrases they recognize and remember. If you think it’s important to have a catchy easy to remember domain name, it’s equally important to have a catchy easy to remember toll free number.

Vanity 800 numbers work great for spur of the moment needs, like flowers or collect calls. They also work well for sales that require credibility because a good ‘800’ number increases the credibility and image of your business. Lets face it, your prospects have too many things to remember today. We are constantly bombarded with media and advertising. A vanity number makes you stand out and be the first one they think of, so they don’t have to search for you. It helps you program your address right into the top of your prospects brains.

I had pointed this out before (TollFreeNumber.org is Lying Again) but for some reason that just posted something with the old fake statistics again yesterday. You can see it on their blog site. Maybe they think if they repeat it a few more times, people will believe it.

I want to say that toll free numbers are beneficial as much as the next Marketer, but how can anyone say with a straight face that customers will receive 6 times more results with a toll free number. It’s reasonable to suggest that adverisers with toll free numbers will get a 10 to 30% improvement if they do it right. But TollFreeNumber.org is inflating the benefit by about 3000%. And they throw out this kind of made up statistics without even pretending to offer any proof or reference to it.

There are a few more examples of why you have to be careful who writes for your website.