My Rant about Toll-free Numbers
August 05th, 2007
A quick little rant about the toll-free number.
Freelancer Panel has had a sales toll-free line for a few months now. Originally I had it forwarding to a Skype setup that I had set up for business use.
Without getting into a big fiasco about the software I was using with Skype, but they began to charge a ridiculous sum of money for the little use of the addon that it added. So I started looking into alternatives.
So after much researching and playing, I went with an Asterisk base system. It cost a bit of money to get it up and running, but I was able to do it with a bit of help. I had already chosen an Asterisk provider for my calls. I had originally signed up with a non-tollfree number to keep my previous number forwarding, just change it to the new number. But after a month, I realized it was cheaper both in the short term and long term, and would provide better quality.
I tried to port the number over, but since I was only "using" it and didn't technically own it, that was not an option. So not that big of a deal, I went ahead and got a new number and updated the website to reflect that. All was fine up until about two months ago...
My toll-free number got ported over to a different provider. I had the option to wait (and the number was not available while waiting), get a new number or a new provider. I might as well wait, how long could it take, right?
The answer is 2+ months, my inbound calls not working at all. Apparently the transfer had hit a bureaucratic wall, just great. I had the same options, a new number, or a new provider. Seeing how I did not know of many providers that would work for my situtation, I went ahead and got another new number...for quite a bit more than I was originally paying. I was not too happy about that, at all.
Overall, I just wish numbers could be a bit more universial, like domain names for an example. But one can only dream.
Long story short, the new number is: 1-800-655-8805
The versioning system in Freelancer Panel has been updated to reflect 1.5.0 is stable. I'll blog about that shortly, once I prepare the email about the update, so stay tuned...
Comments
There are 0 responses to My Rant about Toll-free Numbers so far.There are no comments associated with this article. Be the first to comment!
Leave Your Thoughts
Commenting is currently disabled.
Blog Categories
Beta Testing Form
If you are interested in beta testing Freelancer Panel, please complete this form.
Useful Links
If you wish to be notified via email when a new entry is posted, use the form below.