One of those Quizcall lines
Last August there I was "volunteered" (ie do it or walk) to help out in a telephone repair department for a certain big UK residential company. We were very undertrained, but managed to pick up the role as we progressed. One issue that did crop up alot however, was this after-midnight Premium Line phone-in line called "Quizcall". Now at the time, this used the same Premium number as "Richard and Judy" did in the day. But what it also did was that it would randomly remember a number which dialled this (either Quizcall or Rich and Jude) and then repeatedly say that they called them about 100+ times and bill them about £60-£70 a night. This obviously didn't discriminate, and caused shedloads of elderly people who had called that twat couple to receive phonebills in excess of £300-£400 a time. A quick look on google and I was able to see that other companies were starting to get the same issue too. It took 3 to 4 months of sorting this out, partly by me nagging every one of them to contact ICSTIS (a Telephony governing body) and report the Quizcall cockup. What was bad though was that because it wasn't our company's cockup, alot of customers ended up paying the bill. Telling a granny that she has to pay a £100+ bill when she gets £40 pension a week is not nice (I managed to get most of the bills down for them though with some manager victimisation skills).

PS Medibot - thought so :) I spoke to a guy who worked for Brit Gas who rang in to fix his Broadband; he lived in a one bedroomer and only used a calor gas heater; got whacked himself for £450. Apparently he stood in the centre screaming at one of the managers who wouldn't initially take his word for it and continued until they adjusted it lol. If it takes that much effort for staff to sort out if it is a genuine fault, we (as in the public) are in the deep shit :(

PPS Legless; see? It changed the polarity of the telephone exchange :p
( Jeccius Steam Borderlands 2 junkie, Fri 16 Feb 2007, 19:09, Reply)