Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!lll-winken!netsys!vector!telecom-gateway From: wmartin@st-louis-emh2.army.mil (Will Martin -- AMXAL-RI) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: How to use Caller*Id? Message-ID: Date: 3 Apr 89 21:20:26 GMT Sender: news@vector.UUCP Lines: 54 Approved: telecom-request@vector.uucp X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.uucp X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 123, message 4 of 5 There are several possible explanations for the repeated mistaken calls to your phone from the same calling number always wanting the racketball court. (I suppose I am assuming that the caller is not intending to harass you, and that it is as much of an annoyance to him to get the wrong destination repeatedly as it is to you to get the wrong-number calls. Maybe I'm wrong in trying to look for the reasonable interpretation, though -- in that case, my advice would be to take revenge...:-) Possible causes: 1) Defective phone at the caller's site. Does the intended number differ from yours by some regular error, such as having "3"'s where your number has "2"s? If so, the phone the caller is using may be intermittently broken, so that pressing or dialling "3" generates a "2" instead. Maybe it generates the wrong number if the touch is light, and when he tries again after reaching you, he presses buttons more firmly, or dials more slowly, and gets the right number then. 2) Position of the phone and the caller at their site. Right now, for example, the phone by my desk is sitting on an equipment cabinet at above my seated eye-level. I often hit incorrect buttons because of the angle at which I am viewing the face of the phone. If the phone being called from is on the wall in dim light, say, the caller may just not be seeing it well enough to hit it right. 3) Handicap of the caller -- maybe he has bad vision, or hand spasms, or some other reason that he hits incorrect numbers in a consistent fashion, so that he gets your number repeatedly instead of the desired one. (Admittedly far-fetched if he is athletic enough to be calling for a racketball court.) 4) Mysterious gremlins in the phone-switching circuits. Some similar-sounding things have been in Telecom in the past, so it isn't impossible that the caller is dialling the correct number, yet some percentage of the time, and only on the linkage from his line or CO to the racketball-court's number, your phone gets rung instead. 5) Bad posted information -- maybe this is a public place, like another sports-oriented site, and they have a chart on the wall with your number shown by the name of the racketball court. A simple explanation, but, after all, human stupidity can take infinite forms! :-) Is it always the same individual calling? If so, that sort of rules out 5 but makes 1 thru 4 more likely. Does he seem honestly puzzled as to why he reaches you instead of the court? That would indicate a hardware bug. If he is apologetic or defensive, maybe that indicates personal or known handicap problems. Have you tried calling the number back? You might be able to guess something from how it is answered, if it is a home or business... Just some things that came to mind as I read your posting... Regards, Will Martin