Strange telephone call

[Owain]

Then you can give them a bypass code which if they key it in right gets them past the message and makes the phones ring.

[Skipweasel]

they've got your loved one on the slab will do that?

[Nick Odell]

In my experience, the only people who ring up saying they have got your loved one on the slab in hospital then go on to say that they need $10,000 to pay for life-saving treatment and a 'courier' will collect it from you immediately. But then my experience has only been in Latin America so YMMV. In Britain they send a policeman to your door, don't they?

Nick

[Owain]

... if they can't get through on the phone.

Owain

[Tim Streater]

We have only Macs here. Perhaps I should let the guy run on and try to download some software. He'll probably claim he succeeded in running it ...

[Adrian Simpson]

In article , Tim writes

Several years ago I had a phone call from a mate of mine which had a caller id of "overseas call" (or words to that effect). Knowing that he did quite a bit of travelling for work, I asked him where he was. "Home" came the reply (home being Cheshire). It seems he had a deal with his phone company, so I don't think you could rely on not getting legitimate overseas calls.

Adrian

[Skipweasel]

Dunno - but there are occasions where you might welcome a phonecall from the dibbles or the hospital - both of which frequently withold their number.

[Tim]

Our local hospital used to but has stopped witholding. Too many people have anonymous caller rejection for them to reliably contact patients. All these organisation can temporaily stop withholding their number if they need to get yoou.

Tim

[Alan]

In message , Skipweasel wrote

Their problem not mine. Any withheld number is a cold call spammer and if the NHS is withholding their number and cannot get through then just take legal action and get millions in compensation.

[Skipweasel]

Can - but perhaps won't.

[Skipweasel]

That might be cold comfort after the event.

[Dave Liquorice]

Or better still set up their systems to only present the switch board number or if the call is coming from a department or ward the DDI to the reception for that department/ward irrespective of the instrument used to make the call.

[Tim Downie]

That's what happens with our local hospital. All outgoing calls from any exension appear with the same 0800 number.

Tim

[Theo Markettos]

I managed to waste 3 hours of their time by them trying to connect to my Linux machine. Strangely it never did work. But then my imaginary credit card number didn't work either. Funny that.

Theo

[The Other Mike]

It's not that straightforward. If a client openly discloses to their barrister or other legal professional that they actually committed an offence but they still want to plead not guilty then the legal bod is no longer permitted to represent that client.

But you are probably right, all lawyers are scum.

[The Other Mike]

My variation is along the lines of

"Armed Response Unit, what is the deployment location?"