Telemarketers contend with new number woes.

New toll-free 888 prefix confuses numerous callers

LOS ANGELES - Last month's rollout of a new toll-free telephone prefix is taking an emotional toll on some marketers, as consumers remain largely in the dark about the new prefix and the Clinton administration ponders an auction that could force businesses to buy back their own vanity numbers.

Phone companies began offering the new "888" number to customers starting March 1, a response to the near exhaustion of available "800" numbers.

The Federal Communications Commission predicts that the entire pool of 7.8 million "800" numbers will be depleted by the end of June, after which toll-free customers will be forced to accept the "888" prefix; until then, new customers can request either an "800" or an "888" prefix.

The rollout is considered problematic to many businesses that rely on toll-free numbers to sell products to consumers. An AT&T Corp. survey performed in February showed that only 19 percent of Americans were aware that a phone number starting with "888" signifies a toll-free call.

Thus, many marketers, such as producers of infomercials and other electronic retailers, fear that people will think they have to pay toll charges when ordering a product.

"This is a real numbers-oriented business," said Steven Dworman, West L.A.-based publisher of a newsletter for the infomercial industry called the Infomercial Marketing Report. "If you had just a 2 or 3 percent dropoff in calls because people were confused about the phone number, over the course of the (infomercial) campaign that could be significant."

'Vanity' numbers concern

Of even greater concern to some businesses is the fate of "vanity" toll-free numbers, in which a specially requested phone number spells out a company's name or function through the letters corresponding to each number - for example, (800) CALL-ATT or (800) FLOWERS.

Because competing companies could potentially reap great profits by obtaining the "888" number that corresponds to a well-known "800" vanity number, businesses were allowed to remove their vanity numbers from the pool of available "888" numbers in advance of the March launch.

After several companies complained to federal officials that they were given insufficient notice and time to reserve their numbers, the FCC granted a new window for setting these numbers aside from March 1 to March 15.

According to AT&T spokeswoman Karen Way, 375,000 vanity numbers have been removed from the "888" pool. In total, there are nearly 8 million "888" numbers available, but they are going fast.

Way said they are being distributed at a rate of between 105,000 and 115,000 per week, meaning the supply will be exhausted by March 1997. At that point, a toll-free "877" number will be launched, to be followed by "866," "855," and so on down to "822."

Auction sparks flap

Meanwhile, marketers are up in arms over a call by the Clinton administration to auction off individual numbers in the pool of reserved "888" vanity numbers to the highest bidders. The plan was part of President Clinton's recent budget proposal, and federal officials say the government could raise up to $700 million by selling the reserved numbers.

Perhaps the most vocal opponent of the Clinton plan is Chris McCann, vice president of 1-800-FLOWERS Inc. based in Westbury, N.Y., a chain of franchised and company-owned flower stores concentrated in Southern California (38 of the company's 130 stores are in Los Angeles County).

McCann's company has a marketing budget of $25 million a year which is largely spent promoting use of the company's toll-free number as a quick and easy way to order flowers.

"The only reason a number like '888-FLOWERS' has any value at all is because of the fact that we have created value for the related '800' number," McCann said. "The government is asking me to pay a ransom for something it doesn't own."