Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request
From: hrmso!psp@research.att.com
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Autodialer Ruining My Life!
Message-ID: <12105@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 13 Sep 90 17:36:00 GMT
Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu
Organization: TELECOM Digest
Lines: 40
Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 642, Message 1 of 10


Greetings, net.denizens ... I've been having a problem with getting
hangups. I get them about ten times a week, both when I answer in
person and when I let my phone machine catch the message. There's
never any background noise to it, so I suspect this is an autodialer
I'm dealing with.

So I called up NJ Bell to complain, and they wanted to sell me
Caller*ID, Call*Tracing, and a bunch of other silly things that I
Don't*Need and Don't*Want. I understood those services to be
"convenience" services, rather than replacements for the Operating
Company's annoyance call bureau; and I certainly don't understand why
*I* should have to shell out money to debug someone else's UUCP file!

So ... exactly what are NJ Bell's obligations to me here? Anybody else
here deal with this? What happened?


Polly Powledge
P.S.Powledge@ATT.COM


[Moderator's Note: NJ Bell's obligations to you are to provide you
with usable, *non-annoying* phone service. Call back and ask to speak
with the Annoyance Call Bureau. If the service rep answering your call
will not give you the number or put you through, then speak with the
manager of the office. If the Annoyance Call Bureau there operates
like Illinois Bell's, they will put a trap on the line and try (no
guarentees) to capture the number of the calling phone. They will only
do this if you are willing to press charges against the person causing
the annoyance if s/he is caught. They will not release the number of
the caller to you, but they will give it to the police as part of any
investigation going on. It may be someone's UUCP file or it may be a
FIDO site trying to send mail, etc. It may be a FAX machine in an
office set to send something during the night, or it may just be a
phreak who has a grudge against you.  But yes, NJB has to help.  An
easier, less formal self-help approach might be to go with Caller*ID,
then when the goofus has been identified, sue him for the expense you
had to go to in order to find him. PAT]