So Did the Hordes Really Skip out for Episode 2?

gabec asks: "A few days ago Slashdot reported that thousands of people were going to call in sick so they could go check out the new Star Wars movie. Virtually the entirety of the computer services department at my university is taking the day off in unison to go see the show. I expect the whole school to implode that day. So my question is, how many Slashdot readers really did skip out of work for Star Wars Episode 2?" Those wacky geeks over at General Protection Fault probably said it the best. I think a high truancy rate was only to be expected. Funny thing to note: timothy and I went to see Spider-Man, yesterday and we were the only two people in that theatre. Three guesses where everyone else went, and the first two don't count.

Comments

Idiot-Calling Your Own Customers

[markwelch]

A couple of years ago, I received one of those "automated telemarketing" calls (the legal term is that the call came from an "automated dialing-announcing device" or ADAD), from AT&T.

The call sought to entice me to subscribe to AT&T's cable modem service. I was already a customer, so I was baffled as to why they didn't have a cross-check system to prevent calling their own customers. But more importantly, their use of an ADAD was illegal in California, if they were calling non-customers.

I made a lot of phone calls and eventually spoke with AT&T Broadband's in-house legal counsel in Colorado. To his credit, he immediately recognized the legal issue and promptly ordered that the campaign be suspended pending his investigation.

In the end, his investigation determined that the ONLY people being called with the sales pitch for AT&T Cable Modem service were existing customers of AT&T's cable modem service. While this meant that the calls were technically not illegal (since it is legal to use ADADs to call your own customers), it was obviously a colossal waste of time and effort, which could only serve to annoy existing customers.

Naturally, the intent of the marketing team at AT&T Broadband was to call their cable-TV customers who did NOT already have cable-modem service. However, it turned out that the company had internal "checks and balances" that prevented the "cable modem" people from getting access to the "non-modem cable" customers.

Later, AT&T used the same ADAD technology to call its customers on Saturday, December 5 to inform them that the @home service ended on December 4 (as if they didn't already know) and several days later, the ADADs were used to notify cable modem customers that service had been restored through AT&T Broadband's own network. Now there is a valid use of ADAD technology.

Note that currently, since the switch from @home and until the Comcast merger closes, AT&T Broadband Internet is essentially a completely independent and unrelated entity, with no connection except name and ownership (and wires) with AT&T Broadband (cable TV).

The only other ADAD call I've ever received that made sense was the medical-appointment reminder call I get from UCSF several days before each doctor visit.

At least once a month, I get an ADAD call, always in violation of California or federal law, but the calls are always Caller-ID blocked and don't identify the caller, so I haven't been able to do anything about them.