Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!texbell!chinacat!telecom-gateway From: bm24+@andrew.cmu.edu (Berlin S. Moore) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: AT&T Operator Handling of International D.A. Message-ID: Date: 30 Nov 89 20:56:34 GMT Sender: news@chinacat.Lonestar.ORG Lines: 31 Approved: telecom-request@chinacat.lonestar.org X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 543, message 6 of 7 As a former AT&T International Operator, I would like to respond to your article. One reason that the operators here take the caller's information and pass it to the foreign operator is that frustrated American customers have a tendency to be abusive to the foreign operators. Once you get them mad, they become very uncooperative to all Americans. Given that, then, it makes sense to take all the details before trying to establish the connection with directory assistance. You can't hold up an international circuit while an American operator gets the details from the local customer. If you have been having a particularly hard time obtaining a number, ask your operator for the service assistant. Sometimes they can expedite things for you. Also ask for the service assistant when you have a particularly incompetent operator on the line. That operator can be singled out for special training. On the other hand, don't forget to ask for the service assistant to commend an operator when you get particularly good service. Pittsburgh International Operating Center is still alive & well, but they mainly only handle difficult calls now that the local operators can't handle, such as High Seas calls, & calls to hard-to-reach places like Afghanistan. Berlin (Bonnie) Moore PPP RRR EEEE PPP User Consultant P P R R E P P PREPnet NIC PPP RRR EEE PPP 530 N Neville ST P RR E P Pgh, Pa. 15213 P R R E P 412-268-7873 P R R EEEE P net bm24@andrew.cmu.edu Pennsylvania Research & Economic Partnership Network