TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: How to Dial US Toll Free from Toronto

How to Dial US Toll Free from Toronto

Can someone tell me how to dial 800 and 888 numbers in the US from
Toronto?

[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: A good question. This is mostly up to
the recipient of the call, if he wants to receive a call from an
international point or not. Since Toronto is part of the same dialing
plan as here in USA, the call completes if the owner of the number
wants to recieve it. If not, then the call bounces somewhere along the
way with a message saying "call not permitted from your area code", or
words to that effect. You can get around that by asking the owner if
he wishes to accept international calls to his toll-free number and if
so, to ask his telco to arrange it, or ask him what is his 'regular'
number. Some companies publish their regular number and tell
international callers to call them on it collect. The other thing you
can do is use the 'USA Direct' number from the country you are in, and
on that, _you_ pay for a call to the USA border and then the 800 owner
pays for a call from there to his point. There are also 'privately
maintained gateways' doing the same thing. Dial direct into them then
on fresh dialtone dial the USA toll-free number. You cannot force
someone to pay for a collect call (automated, via 800 or otherwise)
unless they wish to do so.

I admit this can be a problem when so many USA-based advertisements
appear in Canadian (or European) media. They give as the only way to
contact them a USA-based 800 number; its almost as if they are saying
there is no where else in the world besides the USA, so live with it.
Some companies have an 'international-style 800 number' as opposed to
a purely 'domestic 800 number', but those are not in common useage. PAT]

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