TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Last Laugh! You Got the Wrong Number

Last Laugh! You Got the Wrong Number

Patrick Townson (ptownson@cableone.net)
Sat, 25 Jun 2005 02:26:18 -0500

Some 'Dancing' Voters Call Wrong Number

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - An apparent phone number mix-up has voters for
an ABC reality show calling a central Michigan answering service
instead. Fans of "Dancing with the Stars" were mistakenly calling a
toll-free 888 number to vote for the dance team lead by actor John
O'Hurley, known for his role as J. Peterman on the sitcom "Seinfeld."

The phone number to vote for his team was an 866 number, according to
ABC's Web site.

"People are saying that they are getting the number off the screen," phone
operator Alannah Turnwald told the Morning Sun for a recent story.

Kathy Klein, owner of Mt. Pleasant Answering Service, said she was
getting 200 to 300 mistaken calls on Wednesdays, when the show airs.

"You can tell when the show ends at every time zone because the phones
ring off the hook at the top of every hour," she said.

Calls cost Klein's answering service 6 cents per minute, plus the cost
of an extra employee she has been forced to hire to weed them out. She
said she wants ABC to reimburse her for the calls.

The network learned of the mix-up Thursday and is investigating, said
Lauren Tobin, a spokeswoman for ABC.

"It's clearly a case of people misreading the number on the screen,"
Tobin said.

Information from: Morning Sun, http://www.themorningsun.com/

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press.

NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the
daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new
articles daily.

Post Followup Article Use your browser's quoting feature to quote article into reply
Go to Previous message: Tim@Backhome.org: "Re: Dial/Touch Tone Speeds (was Re: Bell Divestiture)"
TELECOM Digest: Home Page