atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information Hosted system snafu...maybe?

Names have been changed in this true story to avoid embarrassment and lawsuits:

In my role of ordinance investigator (second career forced upon me and my bank account due to erosion of my real passion of telephony) I occasionally have the opportunity to speak on the phone to defendants, lawyers, other law-enforcement types, etc.

The other day, I needed to verify the mailing address of an LLC and the only phone number I had for them was the law firm "Able Baker Charlie Delta and Associates" in Nassau county (NY) who had handled the closing of the property. I sat down and dialed the law firm. It was around 8:20 am and they weren't open yet so I was sent to their auto-attendant.The voice gave me several options, for pressing single digits to reach the various partners of the firm. The best choice was "...or just hold on or press 'zero' to reach our operator." I pressed "zero" and it rang 4 times and answered as follows:

"Hi, this is Marcia Smith of Johnson-Feldman. Please leave a message and I will return your call as soon as possible."

Having dialed what I thought was the correct number for Able Baker, et al, and having heard the main menu confirm that, I was a tad bewildered. I hung up and tried again. Same result: Right law firm, wrong gal. Hmmm.

I finally reached them after 9:00 am and discussed my business with them. Then I asked the lawyer to whom I was speaking if "Marcia Smith" still worked for them. He stated that he had never had an employee by that name. I asked him if he had just had a new phone system installed. He admitted that they had just gotten "one of those systems that works from the cloud."

I then Googled the name where Marcia Smith works (Johnson-Feldman) and found that they are a diamond dealer in Manhattan (NYC). I called them and asked for Marcia Smith. "She's on vacation" said the boss. I asked him if he had recently had a new phone system installed and replied that he had. "One of the new systems that uses the internet."

So, how did Marcia Smith's VM announcement get on the law firm's menu?

Arthur, wrong AA for customer. Easy fix, probably the end user caused this with his Web Portal. Not uncommon if end user does not pay attention to training.

Sadly there are no on site techs for most Hosted providers, and the end users don't want to pay for one.