If you are still using your telco's Directory Assistance Bureau at
$1.25 or more per call, you may wish to investigate the less
expensive *real time* DA service offered by
http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest where DA calls are just 65
cents. Andrew Pasetti of their staff sent me some email today with
details on improvments they are working on now:
----- Original Message -----
From: Andrew Pasetti
To: ptownson@massis.csail.mit.edu
Sent: Friday, November 12, 2004 9:16 AM
Subject: Enhanced Easy411 Invitation
Enhanced Easy411
We at Easy411 want to take a moment to thank you for using our service
and for your tolerance in our inability to automatically connect you
to the listing you requested.
Like the Red Sox finally winning the World Series, call completion has
finally arrived. We will now begin offering call completion and other
advanced options such as:
Enhanced Call Completion Easy411 will allow the user to setup their
account for call completion automatically on every call, automatically
on no calls, or via a prompt on a call-by-call basis.
Last Number Redial
Just press *69 while the greeting ("Thank you for using Easy411") is
played and Easy411 will either repeat via voice prompt or reconnect
you to the last listing requested, for a cost of only 15 cents (plus
3.9 cents per minute).
SMS Text Messaging
Easy411 will send an SMS text message of the listing requested to your
cell phone.
Email Messaging
Easy411 will send an email of the listing requested to your email
address or PDA.
Call Warning
Easy411 will play a warning message and allow the call to go through
when the number of calls per month you have set is reached.
Call Limit
Easy411 will play a message notifying the caller that they have
reached their monthly limit of calls that you have set. The caller
will then no longer have access to Easy411's operators.
Company/Personal Billing
Easy411 will allow users to flag their directory assistance calls as
business-related or personal. These calls will then be categorized
separately on your monthly statement.
To be certain that this technological advance is robust and reliable
we would like to offer to you the opportunity to act as a Tester for a
week or so to work out any bugs that may be hiding beneath the
surface. During this testing period, your calls will be completed at
no charge. (Call completion will be offered at 3.9 cents per minute
after this testing period.)
We've set up a temporary number (866.528.9720) during this trial
period. Only calls to this number will have access to the new
enhancements before being publicly released.
To participate in this test period, simply login to your account and
enable the features that you find useful. Then call 866.528.9720 to
try out the new features.
Of course, your feedback is very important to us. So please send us
feedback about these new enhancements.
Thank you for using Easy411.
The Easy411 Customer Support Team
http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: So you may be asking how to become an
Easy411 subscriber. You login to the above URL to set up an account.
At http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest you will supply up to five
telephone numbers you normally use for making calls to DA. You also
will supply them with a credit card you wish to pay for your inquiries
at 65 cents each. Your telephone number supplies them with the ANI
needed for billing; your credit card is charged at intervals when the
balance becomes feasable to charge you. This is *realtime, live* DA,
not the stuff you find on the net which may or may not be up to date.
Then, you set a speed dial button on your phone to punch out the 800
number to be called for inquiries. *DO NOT* just dial 411; that
defaults to whomever your telco uses as a provider, at telco's price
on your next phone bill. It is not that well known, but just like your
one-plus dialing on long distance calls where the call defaults to
whichever carrier you have chosen, your calls via 411 could be the
same way, with '411' aliased to your carrier of choice, but good luck
getting telco to go along with your wishes. If someone -- Mike Sandman
for example at http://sandman.com -- were to built a '411 interceptor'
to sit on your line and re-route your 411 calls, I think that person
would have a winning product. But for the meantime, you have to dial
the 800 number you are given to use the service. It is much less
expensive than any other directory assistance bureau, and no charge to
sign up. I am pleased to be the paid spokesperson for Easy411, and
I hope you will enjoy using it. PAT]
Patrick Townson (ptownson@telecom-digest.org)