TEM TIPS: Toll Free Number Features?

Is your telecom provider currently charging you for toll free number features?

Caller identification, dialed number identification, call allocation, overflow, and online control route are some of the features regularly billed on toll free numbers. But, do you actually require these features? The answer is: on some numbers yes, but on the majority of numbers no.

Considering toll free features can add $25.00 to $200.00+ per TF number to your monthly charges, you could be (and likely have been) overpaying your vendor a substantial amount for unnecessary features.

Determining, which if any, features you should be paying for requires specific information, documentation, and records from your vendor. Following which a detailed review of call usage charges over multiple months must be completed.

We recently completed a review of toll free billing for a large organization with 1800 numbers. mainly associated with their call centers, and the majority of TFN's were billed one or more of the above features. After a lengthy review, and many disagreements with the vendor, we determined our client was overpaying $90,000 per month for unnecessary TF features (over $1,000,000,00 per year). The features and charges were removed with no disruption to service or calls. In addition to the monthly savings, we were also able to recover a substantial refund for our client.

If your organization uses toll free numbers, and your vendor bills TF features on those numbers, your invoices should be reviewed.

Don Wright, President, ERORS Inc.