I'm looking into getting one of these new fangled 1-800 things for the hosting business I'm working on. Does anybody have any recommendations for phone companies offering particularly good pricing? I'm new to the U.S remember, so be gentle with me. I'm used to the UK phone system which, as you probably know, is practically a monopoly. Having choices confuses my fragile little mind.

:cartman:

Best wishes,
Speedie.

1-800-More-Tea-Vicar

Well for $5-$0/mo you can have it mapped a number you choose. I am with Sprint, which I have found better for biz (cost for the 1-800 is $3/mo usually, but they were running some promotion and I don't think they are charging me for it).

Excellent, thanks for the info Chicken. I think our long distance is with Sprint so I'll look into it.

Speedie.

Try these guys http://erbia.com/ they are only 6.7 cents a min, and if no one calls, there is no bill. They are with Qwest, and you can point your toll free number at any other number, like you can with DNS.

http://jrc-hosting.com
1-877-429-8867

That looks pretty good Dave, you use 'em? My plan costs a penny more a minute, but heck I am always interested in killing off those monthly fees which add up. If I could only replace my PacHell, which no matter how little I use the phone, seems to charge me at least $20/mo.

Think of it, everyone in America paying $20/mo. We are in the wrong biz.

Ohhh, and they don't mention much about the toll free. I wonder what the charge is for more than 1 number, if they can do different rings, and if they can do the Canada thing. Gonna call them tomorrow if I remember it. Head cold, makes me forget just about everything I have to do.

One thing I can tell you, is that it is MUCH more of a pain to switch carriers once you get that toll free. Have to fax a form and wait. Not always the quickest process.

I have been using them for about 6 months and now have all my business phone lines running through them, and I am not sure about the Canada issue. But the toll free number is billed to the second or 3 seconds I can not remember, and you right there is not much on there page about it. Some one told me about it and I called them and signed up that day, what I like is you can point the number to any phone and it only takes about a hour to update.

You might want to try ATN (http://www.callatn.com). That is who I use for 800 service and it is similar to the Quest offer. The ATN number is 6.9/min billed in 6 second increments with no monthly fees and can be pointed to ring and any local phone that you wish. They will bill you and you can pay be check if you prefer.

Marty

I have seen all these sites (or ones like it before), but it helps to know that someone is actually using the services they are reselling. Funny, when AT&T calls begging you to switch, just mention that your current toll-free inbound rate is 7 cents/minute (which mine is). They don't have a plan to match/beat it.

I will now ask them to beat 6.2 cents billed by the second, MUH-HAHAHAHAHAHA.

Good one, Chicken! Let's keep chipping away at them! ;-)

Marty, I looked at ATN's site and it looks good. My only question while I searched for the fine print: Does this mean you have to switch long distance carriers? Or is completely separate, like a kind of call forwarding service?

That's what I love about this forum - so much experience to draw from. Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to reply, I genuinely appreciate it.

Speedie.

Alchiba- yep, you'd have to switch long distance carriers.

I'm with Sprint (In Canada) and I pay no monthly fee and 10 cents / minute on incoming calls (Which is around 6.5 cents in US dollars). I also have it set up with "Identaring". The 800 number rings differently than my regular line so I know what type of call is coming in.

If someone would leave a message through my toll free number, will I get billed for it?

I'm just curious.

Thanks.

Yup.

Thanks :)

Just be carefull with your 1-800, make it your sales phone, and give the regular phone as your support number, I don't know about you guys, but most of the calls I get have absolutely anything to do with hosting, people call because they don't know how to work with frontpage, or they got a Dr. Watson in Dreamweaver ... heck, one of my customers even con me to build his site for free .. so when you are taking those calls (and belive me, you have to be patient and actually answer question that should be asked to macromedia and not you), and you are paying the call, that can be frustrating .. but hey, it is part of the business :/

I have seen hosts that state that their 800# is for pre-sales questions only and that support calls made to the toll-free # will be billed to the client at a charge of $2/minute. I am sure they don't do this, but it might deter people from using it.

What is annoying, is that I have CHEAP friends who use it from payphones when their car breaks down, and from other states because they can't afford to pay long distance, etc.

Really, it is hard to support phone calls 24/7 and if there is something wrong with a server and you have 500 clients on it, you will surely see your name on the boards. People will complain that they only get a machine, etc. I think it is only good to offer something that you can truly support. Doing some thing 1/2-donkey'd only gets you complaints.

LOL, i'm doing the exact opposite.

I give out the normal phone number to search engines, etc, for the sales, because i used to get alot of spam, people trying to sell me e-commerce solutions, etc, instead of people looking for hosting.


Now I put my 1-800 in the control panel, so you only get the 1-800 once you open an account, and it is for anything, like upgrades, billing, cancelations, support.

Hello,

The best provider for toll free numbers is:
http://www.myown888.com/

5.5cents/min
no setup
can point to any number
no monthly setup
can get as many numbers as you want
6sec billing increments
best part is you actually get assigned a rep!
not sure if it works with candada etc. you can ask

this is really cool for a small business, like me ;)

I haven't seen anything better yet ... and believe me I have looked ;)

hope this helps

David

David,

How long have you used http://www.myown888.com/
? Did you have to switch your long distance service?

Howdy,

I have used it for a about 6 months. And have had no problems with it. ie the 800 number goes to my phone of choice, and no problems with the billing.

I did not have to change anything with my long distance etc.

The analogy on how it works is like a domain name. You can point it at any web site you choose.

In this case once you get assigned an 800 number you can always change it to point to any number you want. (like I mentioned you get "assigned" a rep. and you can contact your rep to change the destination number anytime, or get a new one)

I got three
the first points to my main business line
the second points to my cell phone
the third points to my fax line

Note: I actually got all 800 numbers (not 877, or 888) but unfortunately they don't spell anything cool. But hey, you can't win every battle ;)

later

David

(sidenote: I am not endorsing the company, I am just giving my personal experience with them)

Thanks David, that sounds like a good deal.

No problem!

David

If you look hard enough, you can find many companies offering toll free numbers for 4.9c/min. In fact, there is one place that even charges 3.9c/min, you should look in to that.

dang, you just revived a 4 year old thread :)

Originally posted by CRego3D
dang, you just revived a 4 year old thread :) Yeah, look at all you old members from 4 years ago :D I think we better lock this. If anyone wishes to discuss this topic though, please feel free to start a new thread - this one is a bit old though :)