November 2010 Update: Still mostly happy with the service, and still using it, as is my brother.
With a toll-free forwarding number, any calls to my number get forwarded to another number of my choosing
Why I decided to get a personal toll-free telephone number.
As a person that moves between school and home in different area codes every 4-8 months, and not really knowing where I'll be in the coming years, I figured getting a number that I could have forever would be a great idea. Heck, I even got my brother and one of his friends onto it. Using a cell phone as my primary phone, I did not want to stick with one "regular" number all the time, and force one group of friends to always pay long distance, and pay Fido's 30cents/min LD charges when I received calls outside of my home area. Rogers Pay As You Go , Telus PAY & TALK & Bell Mobility have similar (or worse) long distance pricing. Despite the free outgoing LD on US cell phones on providers like T-Mobile, Cingular & Verizon, keep in mind those landline users that have to pay to call you.
I just change my cell phone number (or better yet, buy new SIM cards on new prepaid accounts...) to my new home area when I move, and instantly change where my toll-free number points to. I purchased a T-Mobile 2 Go account with the 1-year expiry for my infrequent US travelling. I also plan on buying a SIM card for my unlocked GSM phone when I travel overseas this summer, and then pointing my number to that. Now I'm more accessible than just about anyone else, and it is all through 1 phone number that will work forever, with the costs going lower and lower.
Why I went with the Telcan/Callture Service
After doing loads of research, Telcan's rates seemed to be the best (for my needs anyway). USD$2/month for the number, and 6.5 US cents/minute for toll free calls received in Canada. Other companies would have better plans for high volume users. Their rates are truly excellent for US users, only 4.5 cents/minute. I may at some point "roll my own" on a dedicated server that I have access to with an incoming and outgoing VoIP provider to help cut down on costs, and so I can answer calls through my PC when I'm around.
Telcan's service has been incredibly reliable, quick to setup and they have a very functional, yet lightweight online interface.
As far as their features through their online panel go, I could examine all calls that I have received (along with their length, time, rate and total cost), block area codes or specific numbers, require a PIN number for incoming calls, specify credit limits to protect myself against excessive usage and of course or change the number that your calls get forwarded to.
They also have numbers around the world in which you can call in order to access an administrative menu, for when you don't have access to a computer.
They also offer the ability to trigger callbacks via calling, SMS, or the web, which is desirable for account with free incoming, saving you potentially large amounts of money.
Three Important Toll-Free Thoughts
One important aspect about toll-free numbers is that one cannot block their number from showing up on your caller-id. This is because toll-free numbers actually use a different system of caller identification called "ANI" . This can help protect you and provide an avenue for blocking calls, since you will know which number (or area) to block through the online menu.
As for choosing a toll free number, numbers are available with the 800, 888, 866 and 877 prefix. Obviously, those are in order of decreasing desirability. This means that the pool of 800 and 888 numbers is rather sparse. Telcan does have a large pool of numbers available, with most being in the 866 and 877 pool. Keep in mind that 800 and 888 numbers become available all the time, so they can be had, even a catchy one like I have :). One suggestion when searching through numbers is to put them through phonespell.org , which tells you what words exist in a given phone number, a lot faster than the old fashioned way. Telcan can also acquire a number from other providers. Numbers that are obviously catchy or "lucky" are usually held by the providers so they can charge you more for them :). Another suggestion is to search any prospective number through Google to see if it shows up, so you can get an idea of how popular it might have been before. You will likely get calls for the prior owners of the number, but they should die down over the months (mine did), and you can always block "problem" area codes and exchange codes easily.
One final detail about toll free numbers is that YOU own the phone number . Unlike landline or wireless numbers, you can buy/sell/trade/transfer your number without any hassles. It is very much like domain names. This means that if you don't like your provider, you can seamlessly (ie: no downtime in theory) move to another provider without expense as you please. Pretty nifty huh?
Callture is the worst company in the world
I used this 800 number service for a grueling 2 years just hanging in there and hoping it would get better. Mainly I stayed with them as I had boxes of business cards with that number on it, websites, flyers, and more with that number on it and had no desire to start the long road to changing them all to a new number with a new company, so I just let the sloppy, or rather non-existent service slide.
I put in a total of 33 trouble tickets over the 2 years of service and not a single one of them was ever answered properly or a problem fixed. They would most of the time just close the ticket and never get in touch with me at all. On the few occasions that they did write back with an answer, it was always days later and the questions I asked or the specific problem I presented was never addressed. I would get the most inane answers about things that had nothing to do with the problem and the problem was never fixed.
I finally sent a question 2 weeks ago about how to cancel my account, what was the process, how long it took, what was the billing cycle, etc...as I had finally decided to look into another service and change my number. The email I sent was answered 4 days later without ever addressing my questions. I wrote back again, making the list of questions even more clear; now in bullet-ed form so they could not be mistaken. 3 days later came a response that had nothing to do with the questions and no questions were answered. Again, I wrote back trying to be as clear as ever. No further answers were given but my account was closed Friday without my permission or consent.
At first I was of course very angry as had not requested it to be closed at all, just requested information about closing it so I could think about my options and decide how to best deal with all the number changes I would have to face before the next billing cycle. Then I realized that I was finally free and that this outcome, though unexpected and abrupt as it was, would allow me to move on and do what needed to be done.
I have now signed up for a new service with Toll Free Forwarding that is even better and the service is amazing. They are fast and efficient and everything was sorted out so quickly.
My best advice to anyone looking into possibly working with Telcan Callture is to run. Just run away and never look back. The people who sell you the service are nice and they get it done, but the customer service once you have the number is atrocious. Just beyond bad. It is simply non-existent. Run away...run far away!
Callture is the worst company in the world
I used this 800 number service for a grueling 2 years just hanging in there and hoping it would get better. Mainly I stayed with them as I had boxes of business cards with that number on it, websites, flyers, and more with that number on it and had no desire to start the long road to changing them all to a new number with a new company, so I just let the sloppy, or rather non-existent service slide.
I put in a total of 33 trouble tickets over the 2 years of service and not a single one of them was ever answered properly or a problem fixed. They would most of the time just close the ticket and never get in touch with me at all. On the few occasions that they did write back with an answer, it was always days later and the questions I asked or the specific problem I presented was never addressed. I would get the most inane answers about things that had nothing to do with the problem and the problem was never fixed.
I finally sent a question 2 weeks ago about how to cancel my account, what was the process, how long it took, what was the billing cycle, etc...as I had finally decided to look into another service and change my number. The email I sent was answered 4 days later without ever addressing my questions. I wrote back again, making the list of questions even more clear; now in bullet-ed form so they could not be mistaken. 3 days later came a response that had nothing to do with the questions and no questions were answered. Again, I wrote back trying to be as clear as ever. No further answers were given but my account was closed Friday without my permission or consent.
At first I was of course very angry as had not requested it to be closed at all, just requested information about closing it so I could think about my options and decide how to best deal with all the number changes I would have to face before the next billing cycle. Then I realized that I was finally free and that this outcome, though unexpected and abrupt as it was, would allow me to move on and do what needed to be done.
I have now signed up for a new service with Toll Free Forwarding that is even better and the service is amazing. They are fast and efficient and everything was sorted out so quickly.
My best advice to anyone looking into possibly working with Telcan Callture is to run. Just run away and never look back. The people who sell you the service are nice and they get it done, but the customer service once you have the number is atrocious. Just beyond bad. It is simply non-existent. Run away...run far away!
Telcan Pathetic service
Hi All,
I started using Telcan in the month of september. It worked fine for a while, then I started facing issues regularly. I had my setup to ring sequentially from virtual PBX as I dont have a server. I wanted one ring on each extension and then moved on the next one. Sometimes the call would come sequentially and mostly it wont. It became my daily routine to call tech support for fixing my issues. Sometimes twice a day. To add to my my woes, the so called 24x7 support doesnot exist so had to wait till they opened up.
Couple of days later I started facing issues with voice. there was no voice either side on pickin the call. sometimes I could hear the caller but caller couldnot hear me. I was using X-lite and tried few other softphones as well. Finally bought eyebeam softphone so see if it worked, but still faced same issue. Telcan/callture was completely clueless. Finally decided to quit Telcan/ Callture and moved to Downetwork on 20th sept. Dow works fine till now and hopefully work fine in future.
On 4th Oct I was shocked when Telcan billed me $200 for some phoney subscription. They had already been charging their on weekly basis.
It took me almost a week to get my money back
Had to pay currency conversion charges as I am non US.
Pathetic customer service
I am not receiving calls on my any of xlite connections. Once a day i always face thsi kind of issue that calls automatically stops ringing in between. I called so many times no one is talking properly they disconnect the calls in between the conversation cannot provide any kind of solution. your services are really pathetical and not at all professional. Neither any of our executive has a way to talk to your customers. I think we pay you the money and from our money you pay the salaries. Jenny was the last executive i talked to and she was happy in cancelling my account. Its better you should hire new and good employees. I want my problem to be fixed. Either you do not have good employees or your services are really really very poor.
Callture has scammed me out of money
I live in the US and have been trying to get my prepaid account closed for the last 6 months, and my money sent to me. I've been told that "the check is in the mail" many times but they're just blowing smoke you know where. They have no intention of sending my money to me. Callture.com is a thieving scamming company and I'd love to file charges against them but they're in Canada.
Run away
I have been using Telcan's toll free number service for less than two weeks now, and have already had major problems. For reasons unknown to God or man, callers suddenly started getting a "This is a non-working number" message when calling me. After spending well over an hour with the Indian tech support, that problem was fixed... only to, inexplicably, the next day transfer all calls immediately to voice mail with literally no way to change that setting. I have currently spent two hours dealing with Indian tech support again, and they still can't figure out how to turn that setting off.
Did I mention that I had just spent a thousand dollars in advertising my new number?
Run away if it's not too late for you.
Everyone - please check my
Everyone - please check my post, to see how stupid I was when I signed up with Callture, and not will have to spend more time and power to switch to a normal company.
I thought, that the price is the important think - hell no.
The promised service works only few days a month. There is always trouble with their service. I opened 27 trouble tickets in 5 month. Here is how they close my tickets: They just close it. They never notified me about working on my tickets, they never asked me if I agree to have the ticked closed - they just close them. I am not a native English speaker, but I can say - those people at customer support - are from India, and not the brightest ones. Apparently they are idiots that ignore my questions. Couple of times I got really made, and my tickets were like: "you f_cking idiots fix the problem!" - they do not care. Well, here is my message to you people - screw the Callture.com and Telcan.com - the most stupid toll free phone companies in the world!
the idiots at Callture make me sick!
Everyone - please check my post, to see how stupid I was when I signed up with Callture, and not will have to spend more time and power to switch to a normal company.
I thought, that the price is the important think - hell no.
The promised service works only few days a month. There is always trouble with their service. I opened 27 trouble tickets in 5 month. Here is how they close my tickets: They just close it. They never notified me about working on my tickets, they never asked me if I agree to have the ticked closed - they just close them. I am not a native English speaker, but I can say - those people at customer support - are from India, and not the brightest ones. Apparently they are idiots that ignore my questions. Couple of times I got really made, and my tickets were like: "you f_cking idiots fix the problem!" - they do not care. Well, here is my message to you people - screw the Callture.com and Telcan.com - the most stupid toll free phone companies in the world!
Telcan is a terrible company
Telcan is a terrible company with a terrible service.
Here is how their ticket system works:
1. you have a problem and open a trouble ticket.
2. they close it without confirming with you, that they fixed the original problem.
But the problem is still there.
3. you open a new trouble ticket, stating there that they should fix a problem,
and confirm that is had been fixed with you, before closing it...
4. they close your trouble ticket without asking your opinion.
Because they use VOIP, which is not reliable and constantly has to be "fixed",
you are in trouble and constant headaches with their support system guaranteed.
Because everyone knew how terrible is telcan, they came up with a "mirror" company - Callture -
which is exactly the same company with exactly the same terrible service.
And sure their phone customer support is far overseas.
Cheapest in/out VOIP = Magicjack
Being that you can get a year of service for $39.....and that includes long distance - its pretty hard to beat. Renewal is a paltry $20 a YEAR. For perfect quality long distance (so you don't have to use VOIP) forward your VOIP line to the destination #, then call your VOIP number with your POTS (plain old telephone system) line for perfect quality phone service. Now you have the quality of POTS with the flexibility and features of VOIP. You can use a POTS line with 1 feature (call forward busy) so you can be on the POTS phone almost all the time, pay for no features besides call forwarding busy, and never miss a call. When its busy, it will route to your VOIP line. When you're on that as well, call waiting will kick in so now you have a 3 line deep answering system. Very flexible. For an incoming number that never changes: Google Voice.
Phonetic.com is way better than Phonespell.com
Phonetic gives far more search options that result in far better word combinations. http://phonetic.com
fraud
they have shittiest service they gave u some local number that doesnt work when u need it or the reception quality is so poor that u need to keep dialing again and again
plz dont buy it u will realize its not worth it
I have been using Telcan
I have been using Telcan toll free service for about 4 years now and I am very satisfied with their service. The only thing I changed to lower my cost is to cancel the voice mail services. Instead I use my built in Skype voice mail. I redirect the toll free Telcan number to a a Skype in number which is great since I can be anywhere in the world and nobody would know I am not sitting at my desk.
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