Get a toll-free number

I thought it might be nice for people to be able to call me.  I surely didn’t want to post my home or mobile phone online, so I searched around for a toll-free number which would just record voice mail or something.  I didn’t really realize the great options there are for this type of product.  You can buy a toll-free number and record your own greeting, let it save voice mail, have it forward to different phones at different times of the day, get multiple mailbox extensions, save faxes, make outgoing calls… There are just a ton of features.

The company I settled on is Ring Central, since they seemed to have a really good web interface for managing all this stuff, and it only cost $10-$15/month for their basic plan which includes about 100 minutes (1 minute charged per 1 minute of talking… I guess that some companies charge 2 minutes for each minute talking since they are really connecting 2 long distance calls to make it all work).  My number is 888-636-2305, in case you want to call.

After 2 weeks of using their service, I can say that I have been very impressed.  Firstly, I am surprised at how many people want to call and talk to me instead of just sending an email.  I personally prefer to send email when contacting someone, but I guess I do feel better when I see a toll-free number listed for somebody.  It does kind of make me want to call them.  But, their service is very nice and fast and seemingly reliable.  I can customize the greetings and call forwarding in almost any imaginable way.

I’m sure the technology itself isn’t too amazing, but I’m glad that they have been able to bring it to the masses for such a reasonable price.