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From: hpubvwa!ssc!tad@beaver.cs.washington.edu (Tad Cook)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Automated Salesmen
Message-ID: <11538@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 29 Aug 90 16:25:19 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 609, Message 10 of 11



In article <11213@accuvax.nwu.edu>, cirian@einstein.eds.com (Steve
Cirian) writes:

> After listening for a few moments, I lost interest, and
> hung up.  I tried to call a friend a minute or two later.  To my
> surprise, the recording was still going, and there was nothing I could
> do to break the connection.  A thought occurred to me: what if I had
> an emergency, needed to call 911, and couldn't because Kodak had tied
> my phone up (for at least 5 minutes)?  Is this legal?  Shouldn't
> companies that use this sales strategy be required to have a system
> that would recognize a hangup, and break the connection?

I had the same problem one time.  I called US West, my local phone
company, and they said that their switches were programmed to drop an
incoming call no later than 22 seconds after the called party hangs
up, assuming that the calling party stays off hook.

The problem for the telemarketers is that there is no way to detect
hookswitch status from the far end ... this is the same problem that
private payphones have.

But maybe they could listen for dialtone?

The problem for emergency callers is that I am unlikely to wait for 22
seconds when I hang up and attempt to call 9-1-1 again.  If I keep
coming off hook every 10 seconds, which is an agonizing amount of time
in an emergency, I will never lose the obnoxious sales call.


Tad Cook    Seattle, WA   Packet: KT7H @ N7HFZ.WA.USA.NA  Phone: 206/527-4089 
MCI Mail: 3288544    Telex: 6503288544 MCI UW  
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