Free Phone Call Trouble

[samo]

Today I tried to get a free phone call by calling a 1-800 number, telling them I was "Bill Zwensky" from shipping, and that I have been transfered to the wrong place and I asked to be transfered to collections. They would try to find the number or something, and I would tell them that I had the number. So i gave them the number for a gamestop near where i live, which happened to be the only number I knew that didn't belong to anyone I wouldn't want to involve in illiegal activity, but they were expecting an extension apparently. Overall, my method didn't work, but I heard about it in a pla radio episode. Any suggestions?

[MattGSX]

Some call centers are only able to transfer to other internal extensions. I know that's the way it is where I work. We are able to do US outbound calls, and we COULD technically conference in a caller to one of such outbound calls, but it's not easy to do for someone as determined as I am. Also, conference calling DOES cost money, and any good bean counters will keep track of any conference call that is made.

Also, many businesses will have phone displays that show what the incoming call is. The trick is to get transferred between departments (legitimate ones) until someone directly transfers you without talking to the next agent first. That way, their phone display will show another internal extension and they won't be as suspicious as they would be otherwise.

Also, for must companies, right now is going to be a bad time. Most call centers hire seasonal employees, and since the company knows the people won't stick around longer than a couple of months, they don't train them on how to transfer to an outbound line, how to conference, etc. Best bet is to call during the off-peak season when people are bored and careless.

[I-baLL]

The PLA radio episode was refering to the operator that you reach by dialing 0 from a BOCOT. Telco ops won't usually stay on the line to verify the connection.

[samo]

Well, I tried this method again yesterday, and I thought that I would just post here instead of making a new post. I tried several times, but the method never worked. I called numerous toll free numbers (in this case -800 and -888, if that changes anything) from a payphone at a Barnes and Noble store (I'm not exactly sure what 'COT that is considered). I always got the "I'm not able to do that, sir" reply when I gave them the number that I wanted to call, claiming that it was the shipping department. So here's my final question: What number(s) would be good to call and try this method on? Dialing 0 on a BOCOT was mentioned, but I don't know exactly how to identify a BOCOT, although I think it stands for Business Owned Coin Operated Telephone. Also, apparently there is a season to do this method. What season would that be?

Also, this is completely unrelated, but I have another noobish question. I was reading a .txt file that was a list of interesting phone numbers to call, and there was a PBX section. In this section, there were some numbers that were able to produce a dial tone when you called them. I tried afew, and they actually worked. Isn't this a way to get free phone calls? I've never tried this on a payphone, but I know that getting dialtone through a toll free number=free phone calls. I'm guessing that this method doesn't work, because it's too simple. I'm just asking for some clarification on this one.

[rbcp]

I-ball is on crack.  The PLA Radio episode was referring to calling any customer service department of any phone company.  Try these numbers:

1-800-244-1111 Qwest
1-800-660-3000 AT&T Illinois
1-800-753-0115 AT&T Florida
1-800-310-2355 AT&T California
1-800-483-4600 Verizon (all ex GTE areas)

[samo]

Thanks alot RBCP.