larry@uunet.uu.net (Larry Lippman) (09/11/89)
Re: the request for "telephone humor", the following is a true
story told to me some years ago by one of the people involved, a Western
Electric installer.
Two WECO installers were completing an expansion to a New York
Telephone SxS CO located in a small community. Part of the expansion
effort including the installation of a vacant level intercept recorder
to replace the previous use of reorder tone. Since the intercept recorders
do not come with any pre-recorded messages, which are usually added by
telephone company personnel after installation, one of the WECO installers
recorded a messsage for test purposes which went something like:
"Your call cannot be completed as dialed, #$%&*#. If you are so
*&#$%@ stupid that you cannot dial correctly, then you should not use the
telephone."
Bear in mind that this message was only used to test the operation
of the recorders and the associated intercept trunks, and there was
allegedly no intention of ever having the public hear the message. The
intercept recorder and trunk wiring was completed and tested on a Friday.
Accidentally or "otherwise", one of the WECO installers failed
to busy out the the new intercept trunks and unbusy the old tone trunks,
thereby leaving the recording available for the public to hear.
On the following Monday morning the situation was discovered when
the WECO installers returned to the CO. They quickly busied out the new
trunks and "erased the evidence".
According to a TUR (Traffic Usage Recorder) which was temporarily
installed in the CO, several hundred calls had been made over the weekend
that resulted in the intercept recording. This was probably 10 times the
expected vacant level intercept traffic, so it was obvious that a number of
people had "discovered" the recording and wanted to hear it for themselves.
While the recording was the talk of the community for several days,
neither the rather nervous WECO installers nor the local New York Telephone
switchman ever heard a word about it from their respective supervisors.
Perhaps no telephone subscriber ever complained...
<> Larry Lippman @ Recognition Research Corp. - Uniquex Corp. - Viatran Corp.
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