Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: Dave Levenson Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Answering Machine OGM = Telco Message? Message-ID: <12455@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 21 Sep 90 15:06:36 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Organization: Westmark, Inc., Warren, NJ, USA Lines: 29 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 668, Message 5 of 9 A friend in Morristown, NJ went away for a couple of weeks. His number was 267-1234 (actual number changed to protect...). He didn't want a ring-no-answer situation for two weeks, and didn't happen to have an answering machine at the time. He used call- forwarding. He forwarded his calls to 263-1234 (note the similarity to his own number) in nearby Boonton, NJ. That number was not in service at the time. Callers who dialed 267-1234 got a SIT followed by "The number you have dialed, 263-1234, is not in service." This probably gave many callers the impression that they had mis-dialed the third digit. Someone called NJ Bell repair service. They investigated, and then canceled call-forwarding on my friend's line. When he returned home and found that callers were reaching ring-no-answer, he complained to NJ Bell. In the end, they wrote him a letter appologizing for having cancelled his call-forwarding, and promising never to do it again! They never claimed that he was not within his rights in forwarding his calls to a non-working number. He has since forwarded his calls to permanently-busy test numbers on such occasions. Dave Levenson Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857 Westmark, Inc. UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave Warren, NJ, USA Internet: dave@westmark.com AT&T Mail: !westmark!dave