Need a toll free number but I'm not US/Canada based.

[esllou]

I'm biting the bullet and I've decided that I want to put a 1-800 number on my site. I suppose that would only be useful for US/Canadian visitors, right?

I am currently living in Europe. Would I set up the number to ring my cell phone/home phone in Europe and would that cost premium rates? Or can I just leave everything to go to voicemail and collect messages later?

How would I stop everyone ringing the number? What would happen if someone in Spain tried to ring a 1-800 number?

[TXGodzilla]

You have inexpensive options for regional or international toll-free numbers. If you don't want to pay the extra per minute charges to talk to people just utilize a voicemail service. Most of the extremely inexpensive toll-free number services have a voicemail option. I use a toll-free number for domain registrations. It works wonders against marketers calling me. All incoming phone numbers are tracked when calling a toll-free number. Search the web for "toll free forwarding" for a few ideas about what is available.

[vivalasvegas]

If most your visitors are in the US/Canada you can use a US toll free number and block calls originating in other countries. You can have a second number for people calling from outside North America. Having a toll free number for many countries is complicated and expensive.

[MrHard]

Anyone can call the toll free number, if someone is calling from another country they simply enter whatever the country codes and international dialing like they would for any number first then the 800 number.

It's not free for them but is a long distance international call.

If the 800 calls are being forwarded to you in another country, then that's the same as a long distance call each time from wherever location center the calls are being forwarded from. You pay for the international call each time, not the customer, because you are having it forwarded to an international number, not them

Hope that makes sense.

[esllou]

So if a UK user wanted to ring the number, then they'd just ring 00 1 800 .....?

I think at the beginning, I would have all calls just go through to a customised message (which I believe comes as part of the packages I've looked into) and I'd get an e-mail for each message left.

On that point...is it really worth it to have only voicemail? I'd have the number across the site which gives the site a look of reliability, authority, etc.

But what are people's experiences of using voicemail like this? Don't you get garbled e-mail addresses or no e-mail addresses and then lose contact with a potential sale?