154 Fucking with the Operator

Published in

· 28 Dec 2019

  

Fucking with the Operator                    courtesy of the Jolly Roger 

           Ever get an operator who gave you a hard time, and you didn't know 
what to do? Well if the operator hears you use a little Bell jargon, she might 
wise up. Here is a little diagram (excuse the artwork) of the structure of 
operators 

/--------\     /------\     /-----\ 
!Operator!-- > ! S.A. ! --->! BOS ! 
\--------/     \------/     \-----/ 
   ! 
   ! 
   V 
/-------------\ 
! Group Chief ! 
\-------------/ 

    Now most of the operators are not bugged, so they can curse at you, if they 
do ask INSTANTLY for the "S.A." or the Service Assistant. The operator does not 
report to her (95% of them are hers) but they will solve most of your problems. 
She MUST give you her name as she connects & all of these calls are bugged. If 
the SA gives you a rough time get her BOS (Business Office Supervisor) on the 
line. S/He will almost always back her girls up, but sometimes the SA will get 
tarred and feathered. The operator reports to the Group Chief, and S/He will 
solve 100% of your problems, but the chances of getting S/He on the line are 
nill. 
    If a lineman (the guy who works out on the poles) or an installation man 
gives you the works ask to speak to the Installation Foreman, that works 
wonders. 
    Here is some other bell jargon, that might come in handy if you are having 
trouble with the line. Or they can be used to lie your way out of 
situations.... 

     An Erling is a line busy for 1 hour, used mostly in traffic studies A 
Permanent Signal is that terrible howling you get if you disconnect, but don't 
hang up. 
     Everyone knows what a busy signal is, but some idiots think that is the 
*Actual* ringing of the phone, when it just is a tone "beeps" when the phone is 
ringing, wouldn't bet on this though, it can (and does) get out of sync. 
     When you get a busy signal that is 2 times as fast as the normal one, the 
person you are trying to reach isn't really on the phone, (he might be), it is 
actually the signal that a trunk line somewhere is busy and they haven't or 
can't reroute your call. Sometimes you will get a Recording, or if you get 
nothing at all (Left High & Dry in fone terms) all the recordings are being 
used and the system is really overused, will probably go down in a little 
while. This happened when Kennedy was shot, the system just couldn't handle the 
calls. By the way this is called the "reorder signal" and the trunk line is 
"blocked". 
     One more thing, if an overseas call isn't completed and doesn't generate 
any money for AT&T, is is called an "Air & Water Call".