What’s the 411?

We have a handful of storage facilities in our local area. It is always difficult to get these stores because they have caller ID. Normally, when calling long distance our call routes through Sprint T1 lines, and so any caller ID just get “Out of Area” or something to that affect. But locally our calls show the corporate number. We use the *67 technique, but the stores avoid “Blocked ID” and let them roll over to the self-storage call center.

So, today, being near the end of the month, Natalie and I thought we’d outsmart them by calling the operator and being directed through them.

I called 411, gave the city and state. When the operator picked up I gave her the location I was looking for. I was in the middle of asking her to direct me to that number when I heard a click. She didn’t even seem to notice that I was talking, as she just kept on with her spiel. The automated voice came on gave the numbers in robotic tone and then hung up.

I was a little put off, but I thought I’d call back. I did the same thing again. Except that this time instead of giving the location I wanted right away I told the operator that I wanted to be transferred to this number. She politely said, “Ok, I can do that.” Then, CLICK, the same robotic voice giving the numbers as slow as possible and once again I was hung up on.

Now I was just upset. I’m sure I was being charged for those two calls. I called a third time; this time I did not give even the city and state to the automated voice. I was quickly transferred to an operator. She asked me what city and state and I didn’t even give those, instead I explained that I had just called twice and been hung up on both times, and then I explained what I wanted.

She let me know that when calling from a landline calls cannot be transferred and that I’d have to dial the number myself.

Well, I would have liked to know that the first time! I find it ironic that a phone directory has such horrible phone etiquette!