Patrick_A_Townson@cup.portal.COM (05/18/88)
Here is a good one someone well versed in ESS might be able to explain to me -- I have one line here I rarely use for anything but outgoing modem calls. The number used to belong to a restaurant -- one that did not pay its bills -- and I was forever getting alot of wrong numbers. Not wanting to bother, I wanted to call forward it to someplace where an intercept would head off any further calls. Obviously, not just any old intercept would work, since most read back the number 'dialed', and call forwarding to something like that would only confuse the caller worse, thinking the wires were crossed, etc. So I had to find a nice, generic, all purpose 'number is not in service' message without any specific reference to *what number* was being challenged. I found it in our local 950 exchange. 312-950-0000 returned a nice plain message, 'the number you dialed is not in service, please check the number and dial again, or ask your operator for assistance.' Best of all, a call to 950 was free! No unit charges for calls forwarded, etc. This very convincing recording helped me get rid of nuisance voice calls to my computer line for nearly a year..... Then one day....I tested it myself to be sure it was still working, and got a new recording, "the number you dialed (m-y--n-u-m-b-e-r) is being tested for trouble! Please try your call again later." Hmmmm... A call to 950-0000 brought a recording that 950-0000 was being tested for trouble, and to try again later. Repeat test dialing via my number, and again I was told *my number* -- not 950 -- was the one being tested for trouble. As soon as I got home, naturally I pulled off the call forwarding right away after making a couple more test calls first. When actually dialing the seven digit number of my computer line from another line, I got the recorded message reading back my number with the report. When I used my STARLINE/CENTREX feature to dial it as an intercom call, I instead got a live operator asking what number I dialed. When I gave her my number, she insisted the call should go through, and to try it again. When I gave her 950-0000 she seemed to think that was rather odd, but found it being tested for trouble. After taking call forwarding off, naturally any calls to my number rang through normally. The STARLINE intercom function worked normally. I tried to re-establish call forwarding to 950-0000 and it would not be accepted. Apparently the central offices are programmed to disallow call forwarding to certain numbers like 976, 1-900, 950, etc...but I assume our office here (Chicago-Rogers Park) had not previously been thus programmed, at least where 950 was concerned. It apparently got programmed one night while I was forwarded already, and once I was off I could not get back on it. Not to worry, I have since found a whole bunch of *bizzarre* intercept messages -- all generic, no reference to number dialed -- and am using them to stall bill collectors -- oops, I mean to avoid 'annoying wrong numbers'. My question to the ESS whiz kids out there is, during the interim while I was forwarded to 950-0000 *after* the office was reprogrammed and before I took it off on my end, HOW did the system manage to transpose 950-0000 into my totally unrelated number and come up with the 'testing for trouble' message on MY number? Illinois Bell has a few seven digit numbers used for testing purposes; they each have a different generic intercept message on them; each accepts call forwarding to them; each is a free call. Some of the oddest recordings are -- "Due to equipment trouble, your call has been blocked. Please dial again." "Due to equipment trouble, your number was not captured for billing purposes. Please hang up and redial your call." "The call you have dialed is considered a local call. To place a local call, you must first dial 9, then the desired seven digit number." "The number you have dialed is not in your calling permission area. Please dial your attendant for assistance." "The number you dialed cannot be reached from outside the customer's premises." And this truly strange one -- "The voting has been concluded. There is no charge for this call." Those would probably just prompt the caller to keep dialing me over and over, hoping to get through, so I use a plain old 'not in service at this time' I found in the batch of numbers. If you are curious, try a few for yourself: 312-856-1521 1522 1523 1524 But I do want to know how my number got twisted up in the ESS to get intercepted and 'tested for trouble' when it was the end number that was actually in that status. Pat T. [It is possible that someone called telephone repair, explaining that your line was out and asked them to fix it. --jsol]
@ats.ucla.EDU@seismo.CSS.GOV (Bob Felderman) (05/26/88)
In article <8805182031.1.137@cup.portal.com> Patrick_A_Townson@cup.portal.COM writes: > >And this truly strange one -- > >"The voting has been concluded. There is no charge for this call." This is probably where calls get forwarded from 900-xxx-xxxx numbers during one of those times when you can call a number to vote on who won a debate, or who's going to win the super bowl. After the end of the vote tallying, people may still call. The calls generally cost $0.50. Bob Felderman feldy@cs.ucla.edu UCLA Computer Science ...!{rutgers,ucbvax}!ucla-cs!feldy