"Suz" wrote | > Surprisingly, some local govt officers also seem to hide behind | > number witheld. | As a Local Govt Officer (cough), I thought I should tell you why. | My section has it's own operator and she handles calls for 120 | people. The switchboard automatically puts 141 in front of our | dialled numbers. I remember the week 1471 came in, the operator | was getting about 1 call every five minutes along the lines of | "Some-one rang me from this number earlier, what was that about?". | It's standard practice for large businesses to withhold their | number for this very reason. | Our City Hall operators handles calls for 2000 people so you can imagine | what a nightmare it was them....
But there are several resolutions to the problem:
- Have the switcboard send each extension's DDI number as a presentation number. Calls come back to the people who made them.
- Give the switchboard operator a screen linked into the call logger system and incoming caller display, so the operator can see the last extension(s) that made an outgoing call to the number phoning in.
Or, the one that has least least adverse impact on the confidentiality aspect of releasing calling line identity:
- Use a presentation number that isn't the switchboard's incoming number, but connects to an answering machine with a message saying "You have probably reached this number by returning a call made by a user on the Borsetshire Council telephone system to your number. Unfortunately we cannot re-connect you to the person who tried to call you."
Owain who's worked as a switchboard operator for a council