Toll-Free Misprint Wreaks Havoc On Charitable Intentions

Toll-Free Misprint Wreaks

Further evidence that the term “toll-free number” and the prefix 800 are synonymous in the minds of many comes from this story out of Cincinnati.  As WCPO Channel 9 reports, Bengals receiver Chad Ochocinco recently introduced a new breakfast cereal to the marketplace, OchocincO’s.  Seems the pro ball player wanted to have the charity Feed the Children benefit by including a plea to give to the non-profit on the cereal box.

Unfortunately, according to the report, an error was made by the representative for the charity who provided the telephone number 1-800-HELP-FTC and which wound up printed on the box.  The correct number should have been 1-888-HELP FTC.  The 800 number that appeared on the box belonged to a sex line, something Ochocinco was ironically unaware of when he tweeted his 1.3 million followers with the message, “Start your day with a lil suga!!!”

While anecdotal, this regrettable mishap illustrates the fact that so often when people hear “toll-free” their brains go on autopilot and they assume “eight-zero-zero”.  At Dial 800, evidence of this phenomenon is experienced daily because we bear witness to the hundreds and sometimes thousands of misdials that occur against the 800-prefix versions of numbers that are in our bank of memorable Rapid Recall toll-free numbers.

Simply put, when direct response advertisers use anything other than 800-prefix toll-free numbers, such as 888 or 877, they are potentially missing the boat on countless inbound calls due to misdialing.