Kenneth_R_Jongsma@cup.portal.com (02/03/89)
Recently, a company competing with our local operating company published a phone book. As an inducement to use the directory, they created a "free" service, similar to 976 service. That is, you dial a local number, wait for an answer, then dial any one of 1000 different codes to get a short recording with movie schedules, nationwide weather, tv schedules, etc. Today, the local paper reported that people are skipping the middle digits. Instead of 957-4468 <wait> 1000, they dial 957-1000. This of course is driving the people with the more popular numbers (such as Joke of the Day and All My Children Update) up the wall. We are talking over 50 wrong numbers a day! Of course, the company has volunteered to pay the costs of changing the person's number, but noone wants to do that. I expect things will die down as people learn how this works, but for the time being, it's a real hassle. It's also funny, if you aren't on the receiving end: "A local casket company, for instance, has been getting errant calls from users looking for updates on "All My Childre." I talked to a man at the casket company, who didn't want himself or the business identified. But he told me, in so many words, that when he answers the phone, the line goes dead. I'm sorry. That's not funny."