Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: 27 May 91 17:57:59 From: philip@beeblebrox.dle.dg.com (Philip Gladstone) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: International Calling to 800 Numbers Message-ID: Organization: Data General, Development Lab Europe 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 402, Message 2 of 9 Lines: 33 > [Moderator's Note: I believe the way this is handled by AT&T in their > 'USA Direct' program is you pay for a call to the International > Operating Center in Pennsylvania, then an 800 call is dialed out from > a line there. PAT] Around a year ago, I had to help an American friend who had her credit cards stolen while visiting here. Happily she had a copy of her most recent bill -- this listed the 800 number to call to report a loss. No amount of calling AT&T via their direct dial number in the UK would persuade them to connect us to an 800 number. They tried to be helpful and called the 800 number on our behalf to try and find 'the real number'. Unfortunately, it was late at night on a weekend and the operators at the credit card company didn't seem too helpful -- the AT&T operator was unable to get a real phone number out of them. Eventually we started calling friends in the US and persuaded one of them to call the 800 number. By the end of this hassle, I'd have been happy to pay operator- assisted transatlantic charges to get through! Come on British Telecom, there is money to made here. Philip Gladstone Dev Lab Europe, Data General, Cambridge, UK [Moderator's Note: Well, what I have heard lately is that if you are willing to pay for a call to the IOC, they will put it through to that point then it'll be dialed back out from there to the destination. PAT]