bmontgom@hvtvm4.vnet.ibm.com (05/23/91)
Hello there, A quickie: Whilst I was driving home last night, this talk about giving PIN's over the phone with account numbers, what do you do if you are making a calling card call from a rotary dial or overseas ? Anyway, I was really posting regards 800 numbers from abroad, I have only really found two ways around the problem, neither really all that user friendly: 1) To call a switchboard, company, university, etc and ask them to dial for you - you can get some strange responses from the other end, but it does work occasionally! 2) You can use ATT/MCI Call America type schemes but you need an account with them and I'm not sure what they charge for this service. I think it is the same as calling a regular US number with their respective schemes. Whilst I'm here a quick plug, is there anyone out there looking for an English Electrical & Electronic degree Engineer for employment / sponsorship from Summer '92. I'll be happy for any leads or to supply further details. Cheers, Bryan Montgomery [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]
philip@beeblebrox.dle.dg.com (Philip Gladstone) (05/28/91)
> [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]
Jim Gottlieb <jimmy@denwa.info.com> (05/28/91)
In article <telecom11.402.2@eecs.nwu.edu> the Moderator Noted: > [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] But only to AT&T 800 numbers. If it's another carrier's you're out of luck. Or use CCCS. They will connect you to any 800 number they can call from New Jersey. I have posted on these folks before. Jim Gottlieb E-Mail: <jimmy@denwa.info.com> or <attmail!denwa!jimmy> V-Mail: +1 213 551 7702 Fax: 478-3060 Voice: 824-5454