Michael Quinn Michael wrote:
> Verizon called my house several times today concerning a fiber
> installation scheduled for tomorrow. Interestingly enough, the numbers
> from which they called:
> (757) 896-6330, and
> (888) 223-2355
> delivered the numbers but not the caller name (they each showed as
> "out of area") to my caller ID boxes and phones. This from a company
> that I pay for caller ID service. When I or my wife call from our
> office or cell phones, name is always delivered. Strikes me as
> curious at best, and hypocritical at less than best; Verizon can't
> deliver caller name??. Anyone with similar experiences? No one at
> (so-called) "Customer Service" was able to explain why. One
> trying-to-be-helpful supervisor suggested the phenomenon would go away
> when my fiber service was activated. Jeez.
> Regards,
> Mike
> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It _probably_ has to do with the type
> of switch or PBX that Verizon is using in that office. Telco also uses
> switching gear in their own business office for their own incoming and
> outgoing calls, in addition to the central office stuff everyone else
> (including Verizon) uses. Some phone setups (like Direct Inward
> Dialing for example and some flavors of Centrex) do not do very well
> on delivering caller ID period, let alone name with the ID. If every
> single employee of Verizon had a phone connected direct to the central
> office (with no in-between switches or systems) then chances are
> likely your caller ID box would deliver the number and the _name_ of
> the person or the department, etc. But every single employee/department
> of telco does not have that individual line -- well they do, but they
> are routed through concentrators, switches, etc.
> Its those inbetween devices or switches or PBXs, etc which are either
> misprogrammed (or most likely not capable of correctly rendering the
> _name ID_) that are guilty. Since you are purchasing caller/name ID
> service, whenever the central office is unable to deliver same, the
> 'default' is to tell you it is 'out of area' or 'unavailable' or
> whatever.
> I'll now tell you (and other interested readers) a story about me in
> Chicago calling '611' one day: I have forgotten what the problem was
> but I called '611' to report it. Thirty minutes or an hour later I got
> a call back from some repair tech to say the problem was cured. The
> tech's call came in per _my_ caller ID from 312-525-something, but I
> was out and missed the call. I returned as the phone quit ringing and
> went to check my caller ID box. I noted the number, and returned the
> call only to be greeted by a voice saying 'Ameritech Repair Service,
> how may I help you? When I gave my name and number, the tech knew
> what it was about and told me what corrections had been made. So far,
> so good. Then about 10-15 minutes later, I received a very angry call
> from a _supervisor_ in repair who bawled me out good for 'calling in
> on our direct line rather than dialing 611'. She told me I was 'never
> again to call in to a given tech person on their direct line, I was
> only to use the main number of '611'. I told her all I had done was
> returned a call showing on my caller ID. "oh ... well ... I will have
> to think about that ..." was her reply. Later, she called back to
> apologize for her angry call, saying she was unaware that caller ID
> boxes were giving out the 'direct numbers' of their employees, rather
> than the general incoming number of '611'. So many people at telco
> do not know, nor have any real reason to know, how _their own_ phone
> system works, nor anything much about the company they work for other
> than their own job function. I reported this in this Digest at the
> time it happened (early 1990's) and remember someone responding by
> saying "Bell got hoisted on their own petard". PAT]
They are behind a large PBX which may not be passing the data to the SS7
switching equipment.
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