Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: Sun, 26 May 1991 04:14:25 GMT From: Jonathan Dwyer Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Calling US 800-Numbers From New Zealand Message-ID: Organization: Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 398, Message 4 of 10 Lines: 27 In article , btree!hale@ucsd.edu (Bob Hale) writes: > The 800 number that the IRS gives you does not work from New Zealand. > The normal phone number that we finally extracted from the IRS > connects the caller to a recording telling the caller to use the 800 > number. Catch 22. This is a real problem outside the US. More than once I've had the problem whereby I call an 800 number from Australia or Japan, and am unable to get through. It's generally a TelCo recording saying that the service is unavailable. Then if I call the non-800 number I am greeted by a message saying that the company wants my business, and has installed an 800 number ... etc. There's only *one* catch ... and it's the best catch of all! In most cases I've just called another company who does *not* have the 800 service. If I need that particular company, as I have once or twice, I've had a friend in the US phone the 800 number for me, asking that they call me abroad. Funny, only once was there no call! Jonathan Dwyer (+61(07) 3656207) - University of Queensland Psychology | jonathan@psych.psy.uq.oz.au St. Lucia, Brisbane, Queensland, AUSTRALIA|