Toll free number FAQs and 1-800 Answers
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…)
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…)
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…)
“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.
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.
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
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.
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
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)
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.
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)
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)
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 Certificatessm
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.
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)
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.
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)
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)
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.
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?
