Patrick_A_Townson@cup.portal.COM (05/18/88)
Doug Rueben at Wesllean asks why sometimes a live intercept operator cannot
hear you --
If calling via AT&T she *can* hear you. But when using some of the OCC's,
those companies do not open the mouthpiece on your phone until they detect
a connection has been established on the other end. Since an operator is
never treated as an answer *for billing purposes*, your mouthpiece never
comes open and you are talking to no one when you try to respond to the
intercept operator.
The suggested recording they are supposed to use in these circumstances
goes like this --
DAH DAH DEE! Under some circumtances, you may not be able to talk to an AT&T
operator when using the services of other long distance companies. Please call
your long distance company for assistance. This is a recording [switch number].
They do not all bother with the same recording. Since the vast majority
of intercepted calls are handled by a recorded announcement -- a one way
call requiring no response from yourself -- its becoming increasingly a
moot point.
There are a few different approaches. Most seem to simply take what you
have entered and read back a response.
In a few cases, a live operator questions you, then bubbles it in and the
equipment responds. In these cases, one additional message has to be
available, not needed on the completely automated systems --
"The number you have dialed, xxx-xxxx *IS* a working number. Please
try your call again."
Obviously the all automated version would announce the *wrong* number you
had dialed (if that was the case), and what was wrong with it. If you
had dialed the right number you would have gotten your party.
Another version -- used by a small company in Florida I connect through
now and then -- answers "GTE Operator, what number did you dial?" You tell
her, and she recites it back to you *an actual human but using the identical
message of the computer* "the number you dialed, xxx-xxxx etc.."
Another odd one is a live two way conversation for the whole thing. We have
a couple prefixes here in Chicago which for some reason I don't know are
answered "Chicago Special Operator, what number did you dial?". They look it
up and give a manual reply. These are few and far between now days.
Patrick T.