After playing a few rounds of telephone tag, you come to realize that the Western Union leaders were entirely correct in their 1880 assessment -- telephones are worthless.
jhhaynes at earthlink dot net
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: For a really good time, combine telephone tag with references to numbers not in service. Here is an example: The bank which holds my mother's mortgage called me today about something. Before I could reach the phone, voice mail came on and took the lady's message, to call 800-something and at the prompt enter extension-something. I did that (checked it twice to be certain) and after entering the extension an _intercept_ recording came on, which stated 'the number you dialed, area code 270 something has been changed, the new number is area code 270 something else.' So I tried calling 'something else' on my nickle and got another voice mail saying the person was not at her desk and leave a message or press zero to be transferred to someone who could help. On my first try, I did the 'press zero option' and reached something called the 'general voicemail in-box'. I called back via the 800 number to assure I was hearing it all correctly, got intercepted again to hang up and redial the area 270 number, dialed it, got the voicemail again, and left a message, yet to be returned. But then, I have not yet taken a break to go sit in the bathroom or otherwise get tied up on an important phone call; I am certain when one of those conditions apply, the lady will probably call back for another round of phone tag.Then I got still another call this morning from 866-660-6940 which I answered before they had a chance to hang up this time; but I just got dead air. I dialed it back, got a recorded announcement so weak I could not understand any of it, except the final two lines which were a bit louder, asking me to 'input your telephone number'; so I just input some bogus number (enough to satisfy their system) and waited again. After about a minute, their system responded and said 'someone will be with you shortly ... please wait' but I just hung up. WUTCO was correct: these damn devices are mostly useless. PAT]