I’m perplexed. I was looking at a retailer’s web page, considering a purchase and decided to look first to see what state they were located in.
On the “CONTACT US” page, their phone number is listed as (877) 511-8918. When I Google the number, dozens of retailers pop up all over the United States. There are stores for baby furniture, scuba gear, camping equipment… you name it… and they all have the same toll free number (877) 511-8918.
I don’t understand. How can all these stores share a single phone number? Is this a hoax?
Well, I took the plunge and called (from a phone number I don’t ever use to avoid telemarketing). It goes to voicemail that says to leave your name and number and the website you are inquiring about. It doesn’t ever say what it is you’re calling.
First of all, an 877 number is a toll-free one for the customer.
Second, it’s entirely possible that hundreds of small companies share it. It may be nothing more than an order desk, or a shipping source. Drop-shipping is common in many industries; you contract with an operation that has a warehouse and an automated system for order-taking and shipment. Amazon will do this for small book publishers; they take a pretty big cut, but think of the resources you DON’T have to supply as a publisher – warehouse space, order entry, shipping, returns, etc.
Most of the sites are hosted by storesonline.com. That’s not their phone number.
Educated guess: it’s a marketing/SEO company.
I take that back - I misinterpreted a key piece of info that led me to that guess.