I have two questions.

1. This is for all of you web site customers. When you look for a host and get the impression that the company is pretty large without having an 800 number, just a long distance number, do you even consider that host? I have always been afraid that people will get the idea with the size of the host that they wont even think of calling long distance, not knowing the wait time, how long to get someone, on their nickel. They don't know that they will get someone right when they call, not 20 minutes on hold and through a huge voice system. Do you think an 800 really makes a decision for you? What are your thoughts and opinions. Do you consider when looking at a host and you see an 800 number that generally it is a bigger company (for the expense involved, but no guarantee). Does an 800 number give you a better impress, assurance that if you have problems that you can get answers for free or ????

2. This one is for you hosts. Has getting an 800 number helped over a long distance number, sales wise?? Please share me your experience and thoughts. Forgetting about WorldCom's problems, I see they have an offer you can't beat:

Long distance for 4.9 cents a minute (Texas instate is 6.4 cents) with no contract and no monthly fee, just straight cheap rates with 6 second billing (this saves a ton!). AND you can get your own 800 for the same rates, no monthly fees, just pay the long distance rate. I haven't found anything near this price, and it is coming from WorldCom??

Thoughts?

Thanks!

I been looking for a good provider. I was dealing with a local one and they told me to shut my local business lines off. So I call and cancel them and then the local provider tells me they can't assist us. So now we have no business lines. We're looking for a new 800 provider ASAP.

As an overseas web host customer, the 800-number does not actually mean anything to me as there is no way I could take advantage of it.

I think what is important is good and responsive technical support, either via email or virtual helpdesk. Online chat and so on would probably be useful too.

A 800-number may be useful provided that there is someone behind the line who would answer the queries anytime of the day and probably a team of tech support. Phone-in support would probably allow only a single customer assistance at each time. Email support takes a lot less time I guess.

So to me, responsive and good tech support accessible by anyone worldwide is best.

I think that for US based companies with mostly US based or Canadian based clients, a 800 number adds to their credibility of being a company who will be there for the long term. Once we released our 800 number to clients, we had many of them e-mail us thanking us for getting that 800 number because it gave them more of a sense of security, knowing that if they had problems, that they could pick up the phone and call someone.

Sales have also picked up, but it is too early for us to detect whether it can be attributed to the phone number at this time. We just have had a recent increase in customer referrals ;) Check out this company for great 800 number pricing and service. http://www.kall8.com

-Steven

http://www.kall8.com looks very nice.

Thanks for that link as we have been wrestling with a local provider in Michigan to get a toll-free number without success.

I'm no sure if this is a help to you or not, but for those who can't afford business lines are those who are having trouble, a temporary solution would be using http://www.ureach.com

The number just gets forwarded to your local number. Good Luck

As a user I don't find it necessary for the provider to have a toll free number. The only time I really have the thought of wishing a provider had one was when I would need support. And for the most part if they were consistently available via web contact (ICQ, AIM, email, etc) I wouldn't care if they had a phone at all.

While I think an 800 number does add to credibility I can tell you since the beginnning of the year I have had less than 20 calls at that #'s as most people user email but I think it gives the customers a peice of satisfaction. If you are looking for a provider RSLCOM is pretty good no monthly and I think 6 cents a min. They just forward it to whatever # you want.. Good luck

I wasn't thinking about offering it for support, but for sales only.

Curtis

Be convinced you will also receive support calls as well. Even if it's advertised as 'Sales Only Please'.

As ccreighton said, you could post the number in bold and in huge type saying it's for sales only, but rest assured you will be inundated with support calls using that same #. 800's are nice, but weighing it's advantages vs. disadvantages can be tricky, especially when you're going to get calls on it that aren't just the sales calls that you'd like.

Best of luck,

David

I've used Kall8 (http://www.kall8.com) and Accessline (http://www.accessline.com).

Kall8 is very inexpensive ($1/month and $0.069/minute) and forwards to any phone number. You can change the forward number as many times as you like. I have it forward to our office during the day and to my cell phone at night. Nice feature.

Accessline has a much more advanced feature. It's a call answering service... you can record a message like "Thank you for calling Acme, Inc. Press 1 for sales, 2 for customer service." You get the picture. It also has faxing and voicemail capabilites built in and can forward to any number. You can even forward a call from one number to another number in mid call! It's slightly more expensive though... about $18/month plus the per-minute charges.

Me being the past customer I was, when looking for a host, I soley went with reputation. Phone numbers did not make any type of difference in my decision. Better yet I would go with a smaller company, just for the fact I try to steer away from large companies.

well i am in the UK and i can't say i ever think about it, national rate calls are cheap enought (free for some people after 6pm) and most people around seem to use mobiles anyway and 0800 numbers are not free from them.

Originally posted by vigor
Better yet I would go with a smaller company, just for the fact I try to steer away from large companies.

I guess businesses act the other-way round ;)

We've been waiting over 2 weeks past Sprint Canada's deadline for our 1800 number. Kinda hard to believe for me personally, i mean Sprint is definatly not the cheapest out there for the majority of services, but are supposed to be the most reliable, and they can't even be bothered to finish setting up a new account, personally i find it offensive to have some lady telemarket to me (thats how it all got started), get me interested in a product, hand me off to sales, and then have sales do follow up calls but never actually finish the transaction (on time, or at all at this point).

1800 numbers IMHO don't give you any credability nowdays IMHO because they can be purchased for next to nothing, it's probably easier to get a 1800 nowdays then it is to get a paypal if you know where to look (as long as you dont try to get it from sprint i guess :laugh: ).

I have a toll free nationwide number for my business and are moving towards having international options soon. While i would not say it is absolutely value for money financially, it does add value to the extent that I am putting myself out there and "accessible", opposed to being contactable by e-mail only.

I am actually going to follow a new policy myself now for any online trade which will mean not dealing with any other entity if i cannot pick up the phone and call them. The toll free's are good but are the added extension of being accessible.

I prefer an 800 number, but if they don't have one it's OK just as long as they have a US phone number.