[comp.dcom.telecom] Rude Directory Assistance

klb@lzaz.att.com (Kevin Blatter) (02/21/90)

In article <4108@accuvax.nwu.edu>, HAMER@ruby.vcu.edu (ROBERT M. HAMER) writes:

> My questions are, do you think they really can figure out who it was,
> and will they really fire her?

My wife had a somewhat similar experience a few months ago.  MCI was
telephone soliciting to get people to sign up for their Primetime
service.  They called my house and at first she did not hear the phone
ring and the answering machine picked up the call.  She then picked up
the phone and he started into his dialogue.  The answering machine was
recording the call and the solicitor knew it.

When he explained that he was from MCI and what he wanted, she
politely stopped him short and explained that her husband worked for
AT&T and therefore she would not be interested.  When she finished
explaining, he retorted, "Well then, hey ma'am how's your bladder?"
and then started snickering....making reference to my last name, which
incidentally rhymes with water, not bladder.  It really pissed her off
and having recorded the whole conversation on tape, she called
customer service number for MCI.  They were very apologetic and gave
her another number to call.  She called the other number and she
played the tape for them.  They took down all of the information about
the call, ie. number, time, date, etc.

They told her that it would be very easy to track down the offender
and that he would definitely be fired.

She started feeling guilty about it afterwards, making the guy lose
his job and such.  (She gets pissed off when people innocently
mis-pronounce her last name!)  I told her that as much as I hated MCI,
you were probably doing them a favor.


Kevin L. Blatter
AT&T - Bell Labs
Lincroft, NJ

HUFF@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu (Steve Huff, U. of Kansas, Lawrence) (02/21/90)

In article <4108@accuvax.nwu.edu>, HAMER@ruby.vcu.edu (ROBERT M. HAMER) writes:

> My questions are, do you think they really can figure out who it was,
> and will they really fire her?

How's this for an answer: It depends on their technology.  At the
customer service center I work at, using ACD/Teknekron equipment, we
can determine who was using the phone at what time.  Although we can't
tell what number they were talking to when the call is inbound, we
look at all transactions from the terminals of the operators at that
time.  This identifies the operator almost every time, and also
provides information indicating who was performing what transaction.
Talk about Big Brother!


Steve Huff

Internet:  HUFF@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu
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