In the not so old days having a toll free phone number meant going with a bunch of sophisticated machinery, signing a long-term contract, and paying a lot of money, but in today’s tech-friendly world there exists companies like Grasshopper that offer virtual 800 numbers. Virtual 800 numbers turn your small company into a large multi-national level company; at least that is what it will seem like to the customer who is calling.
With a virtual 800 number you can have someone call your designated 800 number and that call will get routed to your phone, a phone at your office, or any other phone you choose. This gives the person calling the feeling that they are dealing with a huge corporate giant even if you do run your business out of your garage.
While there are a number of these virtual 800 number companies out there today, there are few that can match the services and features of Grasshopper at the low price the company has. Grasshopper’s services start at just $26. For this price you’ll get unlimited minutes and these features:
• Support of any Number: With Grasshopper phone service you can get service for any local number as well as any 800 number. They also offer the ability to ‘port’ over your existing 800 number allowing you to switch and still save.
• No Contracts: With Grasshopper there is no long-term commitment that needs to be made. You simply pay by the month and that is it. They even offer you a 30-day money back guarantee so that you can be sure you are happy with their services.
• Professional Feel: If you have more than just yourself working for your business Grasshopper makes it easy to get that professional feel. When someone calls your 800 number they will hear a custom greeting that you design. They offer unlimited extensions that will ring the phones you designate and also have little features such as on-hold music that will play. A customer that is being routed to the department of their choice will have no clue as to how small your company may be and will think that they are calling corporate leader.
• Connectivity: Grasshopper offers a wide variety of services all geared towards helping you stay connected with your company and your customers. Each extension will have a voicemail set up for it and the voice message can be delivered to your e-mail, fax, or even iPhone or BlackBerry. There are also features such as call forwarding that allow you to stay connected without being chained to your desk and you can also set up things such as conference calling in a snap. They also offer a way to get your faxes without a fax machine via their virtual fax service.
In business these days you almost have to have an 800 number. Obtaining one will take you from being just a local business to being a national business in a snap. Thanks to the ease of use and the low cost of companies like Grasshopper, staying connected and coming off like a Fortune 500 company is a piece of cake.
Read the following customer reviews of Grasshopper.com to help you decide if their 800 number service is right for you or your business.
Grasshopper has all the features I need to run my small business. I’m always on the go and I can get my messages easily on my cell or online. I’ve used other 800 services and I get a lot more features with Grasshopper for the same price. Highly recommended.
Not ready for primetime. I’m a new Grasshopper user and their site DOES NOT WORK. It is FULL of bugs. Today, I wanted to record my default greeting, but their site is full of bugs and wouldn’t work. I recorded a 12 second message again and again but their site only captures 4 seconds of it. A call to their customer service only told me that there IS a bug, and they HOPE to have it resolved in a couple days. This company does NOT know what they’re doing – I recommend staying away from Grasshopper completely. Don’t waste your money!
I would give Grasshopper a NEGATIVE 5 stars if I could. In 2006 I transferred an 800 number from Grasshopper (formerly Gotvmail) to another carrier. They continued to charge my credit card until May of this year (2010) to the tune of over $900 for a number that they did not hold or service. I reported my dismay with this billing scam to a customer service representative. They said that “all they could do” was refund 6 months of “service” for bogus charges on a nonexistent virtual phone line (approx $120). I asked to speak to a supervisor, who parroted the same line adding that it was an “Executive” decision. I then asked to speak to the executive who made the decision and was told “that is not possible”. When I insisted on speaking to someone higher in authority, the supervisor hung up! Evidently Grasshopper’s interest in satisfied customers is as virtual as their phone services. STAY AWAY FROM THEM!!
I do not recommend this company. Comments below say their system is full of bugs and it is. It was such a hassle setting up.
My biggest issue though, is that every two months they kept charging me more and more, even though I wasn’t even using the phone line. The monthly charge just kept going up and up and up for no reason! In their contract they say they reserve the right at any time to change their prices- and they do! Almost all companies have clauses like this in their contracts, but no respectable companies just change their fees every other month and charge their customers more and more.
Grasshopper states that their base plan is $9.99 per month- this is the plan I had and within a few months it went up to $18!!! So it basically doubled and I never even used the phone line!
I don’t agree with the other Grasshopper reviews. The phone service works fine for me. I use it for my home-based business and it works great. It took me a while to configure it just the way I want, but now I receive business calls on my cell phone so I never miss an important call when I’m out. It’s a fine service for people in my situation and I’ve already recommended it to others.
this company is the worst… customer service wise as well as service… dont buy!!!
I’ve tried 3 virtual 800 providers now – ringcentral, phone.com, and kall8. Each time the service looked great going in, and I only found out later that something was deceptive in their marketing. There were hidden costs, bad customer support, or confusing website interfaces. But I’m happy with grasshopper I’ve finally found a provider that is what it says it is – a professional, affordable, easy virtual toll free number.