Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!hayes.ims.alaska.edu!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: jr@inset.com (Jim R Oldroyd) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: British Telecom Special Service Codes Message-ID: <14614@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 13 Nov 90 02:45:27 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Reply-To: "Jim R Oldroyd" Organization: The Instruction Set, Waltham, MA Lines: 61 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 813, Message 7 of 8 Recently, olapw@olgb1.oliv.co.uk wrote: > clive@x.co.uk (Clive Feather) writes (various bits deleted): > How on earth did you get hold of this? It took me about three weeks > to convince my local BT "service" centre that my local exchange (081 > 446) had become digital. A couple of weeks later they (grudgingly) let > me have a leaflet which mentioned "Charge Advice" and "Reminder Calls" > as being "free" (ie no extra rental). It did not, however, give > details of the codes needed to access these services. > Has anybody any idea why BT seem so loath to release any information > about the services which they offer? As I recall their leaflet made > [Moderator's Note: Is BT a lot like the American telcos in this > respect, that they try to keep their customers from speaking directly > with anyone who actually knows anything? Here in the States, it is a > very fortunate subscriber indeed who can get past the several layers > of supervision in the Business Office and speak with an actual > technician or central office person. PAT] This reminds me of my own experiences with BT, when I lived in London several years back... Now, I used to work at Philips TMC - now AT&T/Philips Telecoms (who make central office switches), so I had access to lots of info about what switches BT had installed all over the country, and what features they offered. I later moved to London, to the (then) 01-386 exchange. Needing tone dialling, I looked in my (now out-of-date) book, and discovered that 368 did, indeed, support this option. Well, it took me about nine weeks and 30 or 40 calls to convince the BT customer service staff that this service really did exist. In the end, it was a Senior Supervisor (not just any old Supervisor) who was able to look up in her manuals the fact that 368 really did support tone dialling. And it took her about three minutes (while I waited on the phone) to enable the service. With delightful grace, she then waived the #10 change of service fee which would have been applicable! I did learn one thing from all this. If you want any real help from your local BT office (in London, anyway), call the 100 operator and ask for "XXX Engineering" (where XXX is your exhange). The operator will put you straight through, without question. Once there, ask for the Senior Technial Engineer - this may take a bit more effort if you don't know his/her name. Once you're through, the world's your oyster! Enjoy, Jim [Moderator's Note: I'm *still* trying to convince repair service attendants and Business Office people at IBT that I have Call Screening (*60) on my line. It works fine, usually, but there are a couple bugs that need attention. But they still insist that I don't have it on my line. One person today even offered to have it removed from my bill and credit issued (they do see it on the billing record) since " ... it is not a service we are offering yet ... and you should not be paying for something you are not getting ..." Sigh. PAT]