Can you trust this broker?

Most vanity number companies are small and can honestly get away with a lot of crap. The Vanity Number business is a small niche that most people don’t even know exists and the people that do, don’t pay very much attention. So how do you know who you can trust?

You can ask how long they’ve been in business, but you can’t even trust that sometimes. Some people in the vanity business say they’ve been in business longer than they really have. I remember confronting someone about this and they justified it by saying they were “in business” that long, but it was just an advertising and printing business for most of that. They worked with vanity numbers a little bit during that time, so they count that time too.

That’s why I link to Archive.org for some of the resporgs. It’s very interesting to be able look back at the real history of a business. And if they claim they were in business before they had a website, they’re full of crap and will lie about other things too. I count the age of my business from when I registered TollFreeNumbers.com in 1995. I've done this for over 25 years because I love helping customers get great vanity numbers. That’s when I got serious and if they didn’t have a website, they weren’t serious either.

Another great way to tell if a vanity number business is legitimate, is do they have upfront pricing? Or is the price based on how deep they think your pockets are? It’s also interesting to see if they stick to that. I recently asked a vendor how much they wanted for a number and they said $10,000 and gave a story as to why it wasn’t just a random number. Then I thought to look on their website and wouldn’t you know, it was just $20 a month!

Another way to tell if the people you’re dealing with are honest and trustworthy, after you negotiate a price, right before you send the payment, ask for a W9 form. If they resist or don’t give it to you right away, (if you’re paying over $600), then you know they’re not honest.

Some people may be disappointed that my prices aren’t as flexible as some others. But that’s because this is a real business and our prices are based on the time, effort and costs to provide the toll free services, not how bad you need it or how deep your pockets are. To me the flexibility of a businesses prices, in the long run is more of a negative than a positive thing. I want to deal with someone that is consistent and up front, and knows what they’re doing. There can be discounts but a real business doesn’t charge drastically different amounts for the same thing, based on who’s asking.