The Good And Bad Of Toll Free 1 800 Numbers

Getting toll free 1 800 numbers can be beneficial to your business. It can make a great difference depending on what kind of business you own. If you own a restaurant, or a coffee shop, you will not need a 1 800 number because local customers can call you toll free anyway. Not many people would call you from another state or another country. But if you own a business that does international shipping, or provides communication services, a 1 800 number is definitely essential.
There are many different companies that offer toll free 1 800 numbers to businesses. They are usually priced by the number of minutes per month they afford. If you are only going to be using the phone for 100 minutes or less each month, you can pay as little as ten dollars monthly, but if you own a large business with lots of phone lines, you'll have to likely pay more in the range of $100 a month. It all depends on what kind of service you need.
If you want to be available internationally, you have to pay more. Fortunately, international 1 800 numbers are rarely needed by most businesses. It just isn't practical. Even if you are a large shipping company, you will only have to talk to people in large companies a moderate amount, and they will gladly pay the cost to call you internationally as part of the cost of doing business. It is in the end much better to let them foot the bill than paying the high and often extreme rates for international toll free numbers.
As a consumer, be wary of 1 800 numbers. I remember when I was growing up, they were all free - that was what "1 800" meant. And most of them are still free. Many people are still not warned of this, sometimes people will get a number that starts with those numbers, but charge a high toll to call it. They may even tell you somewhere that there is a toll usually - at least they are supposed to, but even if they do, they will try to hide it, in small print at the end of a commercial or something like that so it is hard for you to notice.
Before you know it, you may be paying as high as $2 per minute when you thought you were actually calling for free. This tricky scheme is especially common overseas where the telecommunication regulations controlling the phones and the phone companies are not as tight as they are in the US.

By Joshua Poyoh | Posted on 2009-03-09 04:16:58

About The Author:

Joshua Poyoh is the creator of http://www.business.resources-to.com . For more independent information on Business Resources, visit http://www.business.resources-to.com

Definition:

A toll-free, Freecall, Freephone, or 800 number is a special telephone number, in that the called party is charged the cost of the calls by the telephone carrier, instead of the calling party. The cost of the call to the called party is usually based on factors such as the amount of usage the number experiences, the cost of the trunk lines to the facility, and possibly a monthly flat rate service charge. The called party may use a Freephone number because:
they charge the calling party in another way, such as for technical support calls. they make a sale following the call to the toll-free number. previous sales were enhanced with the inclusion of toll-free support. it improves customer satisfaction by providing free after-sales support in certain products/services.

More Articles for "800 Number":

• How Can an 800 Number System Give Me Free Time?
  I know there is no such thing as "free time" especially if you are in business for yourself. The phone calls run your life everyday and that is not good. T...