Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!killer!vector!nobody From: telecom@bu-cs.BU.EDU (TELECOM Moderator) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Victims of Wrong Numbers Message-ID: Date: 22 Jan 89 05:27:38 GMT Sender: chip@vector.UUCP Lines: 65 Approved: telecom-request@vector.uucp X-Submissions-To: telecom@bu-cs.bu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.uucp X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 24, message 1 Pat Zsetenyi operates an interior design business in one of the south suburbs of Chicago. On the day she opened her business, she thought she had hit upon a gold mine. After going out for a few hours, she returned to her office to find the answering machine on her new number loaded with calls. "I was thrilled," said Zsetenyi. "It was my first day in business and I had all these messages on my answering machine already." Then she realized no one could be calling her yet, since no one knew the new number. Well then, whose calls *did* she have? When she played back the messages, there were dozens of calls for United Airlines, which has a reservations number that is almost the same as hers -- just two digits are transposed. At the time she did not know it, but she had joined an elite group of people, who through no fault of their own, have phone numbers easily mistaken for frequently dialed numbers. She says she gets anywhere from ten to dozens of wrong numbers per day. If the weather is bad or there is some incident at the airport, then the calls really start pouring in. She pointed out the most amazing part of the whole thing are the people who call and get her answering machine. They hear the whole outgoing message "Thank you for calling Zsetenyi's Decorating Den" and then they still proceed to leaving a message for United Airlines, asking to be "....called back when the reservations office is open...." "...one lady called back three days in a row, saying , 'Why won't you return my call? I need my tickets!'....I finally called her and told her she was never going to hear from United at the rate she she was going..." Area Code 312 is very rapidly filling up, which increases the odds that misdials will reach a working number. Because of the growing scarcity of numbers until 708 kicks in later this year, the period of time a disconnected number is held before being reassigned has been reduced from several months to a few weeks at most. In years past, 'notorious' numbers -- such as those belonging to call girls -- would be retired from service for YEARS after being disconnected. This is a luxury no longer available here. Hillary Anderson, a spokeswoman for Illinois Bell Telephone said she has the same problem with her home phone which happens to be very similar to the main switchboard number for W. W. Grainger Company. Ms. Anderson said that anyone can have their number changed if it bothers them, "...but yet, most people with easily mistaken phone numbers do not want to change them. It is not a matter of the fee involved. IBT charges $33 to change someone's phone number, but as a matter of good relations with our customers, we will waive the fee whenever someone is receiving an 'annoying amount' of wrong numbers. I can write off that charge from a customer's bill, but it seems like instead of being annoyed, those people seem to relish their odd distinction." About fifteen years ago, I had an office in downtown Chicago on one of the first ESS exchanges to open up here in the Chicago-Wabash office. My number was WEbster 9-4600. At the time, Sears Roebuck's national credit card office was also downtown. Unlike me with two lines on a desk phone, Sears then had a big old fashioned *five position* cord board with the lead number in their hunt group being WAbash 2-4600. Now 939 and 922 are not that similar, but one day a new AT&T toll switcher opened on Canal Street. In a simple accident, 922 was incorrectly translated by that office to 939....need I say more? For two days straight, I was flooded with calls for Sears' credit department. It was fun while it lasted. On complaining I was told I should change my number. I told them that number had been in service for 13 years and would not get changed. "So what," said the service rep. "Sears has had WAbash 2-4600 for *sixty five years* and they probably won't change theirs either!" Patrick Townson