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From: dattier@ddsw1.mcs.com (David Tamkin)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Wrong Number Suggestions Needed
Message-ID: <14374@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 5 Nov 90 06:53:31 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 793, Message 2 of 11


In volume 10, issue 780, Craig Watkins wrote:

| Dave, a friend of mine, has a primary number XYB-5600.  The local
| Sears' published number is XYB-2451.  However, Sears recently switched
| their phone number to XYA-5600.  The problem is that two or three
| people per day match the old exchange and the new number and dial
| XYB-5600 and get Dave.

| It's no problem to answer the phone and tell people what number they
| really wanted unless you are sleeping/showering/busy/etc. or if the
| people don't catch on and continue to call you back, or they want to
| argue with you about what you are telling them.  We also really wonder
| about the people that leave messages for Sears on a machine that
| starts out "Hi, Dave and Dan aren't available...."

| This has been going on for months and we are hoping it will let up in
| February when the new directory comes out.

It may subside slightly; it's amazing how people marry old directories.

| The usual Bell response is often "We'll be VERY nice and change the
| number for free."  Of course that doesn't work here as Dave will no
| longer get phone calls from anyone that knows his number.  If Bell
| puts an intercept on XYB-5600 with the new number, we suspect the
| Sears calls will simply follow him to his new number.

That they will; suddenly people will get the number in the second
intercept right, even if Dave and Dan's new number is on a different
prefix from either XYA or XYB (if possible; I don't know how many
prefixes serve their area).

| Any other ideas?  

This is no 100% cure-all solution, but it may help: as long as Dave
and Dan have an answering machine, they should start their OGM with,
"Sears Roebuck & Co.'s telephone number has been changed to XYA-5600;
that's XY_*A*_-5600 [much, much emphasis on the A digit].  If you want
Sears, you must hang up and dial XYA-5600.  If you want Dan or Dave,
please leave a message."

If they have a machine that allows interrupting the OGM, they should
tell their friends how to do it.  This method will catch a fair number
of the doofi who currently listen to "This is Dan and Dave" but still
leave messages for Sears.  It will also put off most of the people who
want to argue with them that yes, they are Sears, stop lying; after
all, individual Sears employees can play games with you on the phone
but the person at Sears in charge of the answering machine would never
record a lie on its OGM, right?  Of course it's silly, fellow readers,
but consider the mentality we're dealing with here.  When such dolts
get an intercept, they don't yell at it that it is lying: that which
comes from a machine is beyond question.  Garbage in, gospel out.


David Tamkin  Box 7002  Des Plaines IL  60018-7002  708 518 6769  312 693 0591
MCI Mail: 426-1818  GEnie: D.W.TAMKIN  CIS: 73720,1570   dattier@ddsw1.mcs.com
[Note: my answering machine is not the fax of Fran Dyra at Children's Press.]