FREE0612@uiucvmd (David Lemson) (10/12/90)
People have been talking recently about strange answering machine messages appearing mysteriously. This reminds me of something that has happened a lot on my parents' answering machine (a Phone-Mate two-line model). It hasn't happened in the past few months, I don't really know why. My dad's office has a voice mail system, and when you ring my father's phone and he doesn't get it within three rings, it switches over to the voice mail message. Also, we have SpeedDial from the phone company (SWBT). (I think we have a 5ESS switch, if that makes any difference) On Speed Dial number 2, we have my dad's work number programmed. Well, the strange occurence is that sometimes we'd find a message on the answering machine consisting of a ring or so and my dad's voice mail message. Then, the standard "If you'd like to leave a message, press one ..." message and the answering machine timed out on the silence from the other end. Pretty weird, huh? It seems like the answering machine picked up the phone and dialed "2", even by pulse. But why would it do this, and why would it only happen every so often. I know some reader of the Digest has to have heard of something like this! (HA!)
boomer@athena.princeton.edu (Don Alvarez) (10/13/90)
In article <13271@accuvax.nwu.edu> FREE0612@uiucvmd (David Lemson) writes: >the strange occurence is that sometimes we'd find a message on >the answering machine consisting of a ring or so and my dad's voice >mail message. Then, the standard "If you'd like to leave a message, >press one ..." message and the answering machine timed out on the >silence from the other end. Pretty weird, huh? What's happening is: Someone (probably from your dad's office) tries to reach him at his office. Your dad's voice mail picks up. The person says "drat... maybe he's at home", and tries your dad's house. The answering machine picks up at the house, and the caller says "double drat." and decides to talk to your dad tomorrow, never having actually spoken to either machine ("drat" is a non-verbal expression). Why do you get the weird recordings? The person calling your dad has a phone system which supports call forwarding. Call forwarding on this system is activated by calling a number, "flashing" the switch hook (ie hanging up briefly), calling a second number, and either "flashing" the hook a second time for three-way calling or hanging up permanently to perform a call transfer. The person making the calls obviously doesn't understand how their phone works, and is unknowingly transferring calls right and left (and probably doing accidental threeway calls on a regular basis as well). don alvarez
ckp@cup.portal.com (10/14/90)
On the subject of peculiar responses by telephones and voice-mail services, I have an ongoing situation with my office audix mailbox and my home phone. Whenever I call into my audix from home to check messages, it calls me back after I hang up. Never says a thing - dead air - but the phone will ring (you can bet on it) as soon as I hang up the receiver. *WHAT* makes this happen? Christine K. Paustian ckp@cup.portal.com Los Numeros On-Line sun!portal!cup.portal.com!ckp PO Box 149 1:272/39 FidoNet Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510 Where Radio Is Fun Again
del47618@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (David E Lemson) (10/15/90)
ckp@cup.portal.com writes: >Whenever I call into my audix from home to check messages, it calls me >back after I hang up. Never says a thing - dead air - but the phone >will ring (you can bet on it) as soon as I hang up the receiver. >*WHAT* makes this happen? Funny you should talk about this. We have this problem, too. That same voice mail system that has left funny messages on our home answering machine almost ALWAYS causes the phone to ring right after you hang up on it, but only when checking messages. But, it doesn't always happen, and I suspect the ringback has to do with the fact that we have three-way calling, and that's what's causing it. I don't know. It's really weird. David Lemson, UIUC d-lemson@uiuc.edu
William.Degnan@f39.n382.z1.fidonet.org (William Degnan) (10/15/90)
On <Oct 11 20:28> David Lemson (FREE0612@uiucvmd ) writes:
DL>...we'd find a message
DL>on the answering machine consisting of a ring or so and my dad's
DL>voice mail message. Then, the standard "If you'd like to leave a
DL>message, press one ..." message and the answering machine timed out on the
DL>silence from the other end. Pretty weird, huh?
How about the possibility that your dad called home, hit your
answering machine, flashed for new dial tone and made another call.
The switch at your dad's office tried to ring the held call back to
him, saw that his phone was in use and sent it to his voice mail.
"Have your machine call my machine...we'll do lunch."
Disclaimer: Contents do not constitute "advice" unless we are on the clock.
William Degnan | wdegnan@mcimail.com
Communications Network Solutions | !wdegnan@at&tmail.com
-Independent Consultants | William.Degnan@telemail.com
in Telecommunications | UUCP: ...!natinst!tqc!39!William.Degnan
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Austin, TX 78766-9530 | Voice +1 512 323 9383boomer@athena.princeton.edu (Don Alvarez) (10/15/90)
In article <13541@accuvax.nwu.edu> (David E Lemson) writes that they
have also had problems with their voice mail ringing them back when
they call in to check messages.
He points out that this doesn't happen all the time.
If your system is anything like the one we had at MIT, then the
problem is that you are hanging up too quickly. The machine is
probably programmed (for better or for worse) to call you back and
continue the call if the connection is 'accidentally' disconnected. I
suspect that there is some point in the mail-check process before
which hanging up will cause a ring-back and after which it will not.
don alvarezjpederse@encad.wichita.ncr.com (John.Pedersen) (10/24/90)
del47618@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (David E Lemson) writes: >ckp@cup.portal.com writes: >>Whenever I call into my audix from home to check messages, it calls me >>back after I hang up. Never says a thing - dead air - but the phone >>will ring (you can bet on it) as soon as I hang up the receiver. >Funny you should talk about this. We have this problem, too. That I get it too when my wife calls from Boeing (their building is not on the Boeing campus thus not supplied service directly from the BTN (Boeing Telephone Network)) and gets our Audix off of our Sys 85. She decides not to leave me a message and hangs up. A few seconds later her phone rings and she hears nothing. I get an Audix message of her answering the phone. Now there is a powerful Audix feature: if you don't leave a message it calls you back and forces you to talk to it! John Pedersen N5DKQ NCR Peripheral Products Division Engineering Computer Systems Support 3718 N. Rock Road John.Pedersen@Wichita.NCR.Com Wichita KS 67226-1397 316-636-8837 VPlus 654-8837 FAX 316-636-8889