- Your Search is being processed
- Resporg List
- Resporg Locked? Forgetaboutit!
- Fake phone companies
- 888 HUG STACY added a human touch to a very personal campaign
- Resporg Descriptions & Websites
- How to ask a question on our site
- How to ask a question on our site
- Questions filling out resporg change forms
- Questions filling out resporg change forms
Quick Sale on Backorders
11/17/2008
We have a sale on Backorders but only for people who are QUICK. We just sent out the updated 800watch emails with the numbers available or going to be available with the keywords related to your business. We are lowering the price of all backorders by $50 but only for numbers backordered by Wednesday 11/19. We have also lowered the backorder request fee from $4.95 to $0.99 but only for a couple days until 11:45pm (est) on November 19th. This is a good sale but only for the people that are quick and place their backorder right away!Your information is safe with us
11/18/2008
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.
Do you use LinkedIn?
11/18/2008
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.
Negotiating with Shared Use companies
11/16/2008
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.
NEW NUMBERS Online Now!
11/15/2008
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!
Trying Harder for your Backorders
11/14/2008
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.
Matching Domain Names continued
11/13/2008
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.
5 reasons why it’s Harder to get a good Toll Free Number than a good Domain Name.
11/12/2008
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.
Because you can’t tell who’s really the Best, or what will happen in the Future…
11/11/2008
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!)
Don’t put your kids in charge of guarding the cookie Jar
11/10/2008
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.
When a phone company intentionally Dumps a number
11/07/2008
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.
