How do I get a business 800 number? no idea where to look

[ppppparker]

I m hoping someone on here has small biz and knows about the best 800 number or 866 or whatever it is now. I thought landlines were extinct now? so if they are, who sells 800 numbers and how do you get one? i want one that I can just route to my phone, receive and make calls with it, but I don't mind if my real number shows up on caller ID when i make calls.
ALso I use to use google voice and magic jack a while back for personal numbers but they both kinda sucked because there was always this latency during calls, so i don't want to use those.
Anyway any ideas would be really really appreciated. Thanks in advance for any info

 

[Evo]

You get an "800" (or any toll free number) from your local phone company/long distance carrier. These are for inbound calls only, you cannot use the toll free number for outbound calls, although the local phone number it's pointed to can be used for making long distance calls, but the long distance charges will be billed seperately. Why do you want a toll free number, they can be quite expensive, based on usage.

 

[Psinter]

I thought landlines were extinct now? so if they are, who sells 800 numbers and how do you get one?

They are not extinct. Every company has a different process for selling those numbers. Some are pay and get served immediately, others deeply verify your profile before giving you a number and that verification can take anything from 24 hours to weeks.

i want one that I can just route to my phone, receive and make calls with it, but I don't mind if my real number shows up on caller ID when i make calls.

Some of them offer you to hide your real number and have the business one appear. You call to a number they give you and they start the call with the business number to the destination.

Some online services do what you want. I wouldn't know what to recommend you, but I do have something I can tell you based on personal experience. It may be tempting to choose one of those provided online that you find by googling, but I must tell you that not all of them are as nice as one would want them to be. Precisely because of the latency you mention.

Some of them which I have tried have a delay which makes conversation very hard if not impossible. What they make is forward the call to your chosen cellphone or landline. Like in the post above, it's better to get it with your local phone company (the same you are going to redirect calls to) to prevent delays.

Those that you get online, you usually pay monthly for minutes.

Either way, local or online, they are all expensive.

So, wrapping up:

How do I get a business 800 number?

Online is an option, but be aware that some (can't say for all) may or may not have delays like mentioned above.

 

[StevieTNZ]

Note that if you create a toll free number, it could be subjected to abuse. This will increase the amount you have to pay for the duration of every call. I know someone in NZ who made an 0800 (toll free) number, and was billed $40,000 because people rang it "for fun".

An 0900 number in NZ is where the customer pays for the duration of each call they make to that number.

What do you hope to achieve gaining an 800 number?

 

[Evo]

They are not extinct. Every company has a different process for selling those numbers. Some are pay and get served immediately, others deeply verify your profile before giving you a number and that verification can take anything from 24 hours to weeks.Some of them offer you to hide your real number and have the business one appear. You call to a number they give you and they start the call with the business number to the destination.

Some online services do what you want. I wouldn't know what to recommend you, but I do have something I can tell you based on personal experience. It may be tempting to choose one of those provided online that you find by googling, but I must tell you that not all of them are as nice as one would want them to be. Precisely because of the latency you mention.

Some of them which I have tried have a delay which makes conversation very hard if not impossible. What they make is forward the call to your chosen cellphone or landline. Like in the post above, it's better to get it with your local phone company (the same you are going to redirect calls to) to prevent delays.

Those that you get online, you usually pay monthly for minutes.

Either way, local or online, they are all expensive.

So, wrapping up:

Online is an option, but be aware that some (can't say for all) may or may not have delays like mentioned above.

I would not deal with a "reseller", you should go with an actual long distance company, otherwise you will get poor service.

The way that a toll free number appears as your number when you dial out is a feature of phone equipment that is programmable for this, back in the old days, it was a PBX.

I was not a customer, I worked for the local Bell companies and AT&T and another top 3 long distance/data company I sold 800 service for a number of years before switching solely over to the data networking side.

 

[Psinter]

I would not deal with a "reseller", you should go with an actual long distance company, otherwise you will get poor service.

You are telling me. That was exactly my experience. The delay was horrible and when I called to ask to see if they could fix the problem, they didn't fix anything.

 

[ppppparker]

... I must tell you that not all of them are as nice as one would want them to be. Precisely because of the latency you mention.

.

thats the exact problem that I am constantly wondering about.. I am using this for b2b cold calling , (or b2b "warm' calling as i like to call it) --a latency issue would be irritating as f*** and actually would ruin every call. I am now thinking of just going with my cell carrier , they would charge $50 for biz line , or $30 for a 2nd line (still trying to figure out why I couldn't just use a 2nd line ($30) rather than getting a $50 "business" line) Thats not an 800 number but i need something rock solid reliable to make/receieve calls with, but also a number i can advertise on website... I still want 800 number but maybe more as a legitimizing thing rather than actually needing one. idk, i might be overthinking it though.
thanks for the answers , any more info or advice is really appreciated, thanks

 

[DrClaude]

I was not a customer, I worked for the local Bell companies and AT&T and another top 3 long distance/data company I sold 800 service for a number of years before switching solely over to the data networking side.

I am always amazed by the breadth of knowledge and experience on PF!