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Sharky

Shark Tank

This lesson is cheap at $3.99 a minute

This IT guy who works for a county government is tasked with setting up a conference call and WebEx session for the county executive and council members, reports a pilot fish who works there too.

"When everyone had gathered, he started the WebEx session, put the phone on speaker and dialed the conference number," fish says. "The only problem is that he had transposed a couple digits."

After a few rings, everyone in the room hears a sultry female voice coming from the phone: "Hi there. You've reached the Hot Girls Phone Chat Line. What can I do for--"

Fish's co-worker quickly cuts off the call. His face is red as he begins to apologize.

Fortunately, the people attending the meeting are amused, not offended. One council member jokingly asks, "Now, what was that number?" The county executive chuckles, "Let's try that number again and see if we get the right place this time."

Says fish, "The second time, my co-worker reached the correct party. Needless to say, he has received some kidding every once in a while when he is dialing in to a conference call.

"But we all learned to make the conference call with the speaker phone off. Once the correct connection is made, then we put the call onto the speaker."

Speak to Sharky. Send me your true tale of IT life at sharky@computerworld.com. You'll score a sharp Shark shirt if I use it. Add your comments below, and read some great old tales in the Sharkives.

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What People Are Saying

Just a little off

IBM's internal help line is 1-888-IBM-HELP. But those of us from the old school keep dialing 1-800... and getting offers for more than just help.

Capcha "1 1/4 warden" - 25% more jailer, free!

No longer True. IBM owns that # now.

No longer True. IBM owns that # now.

F L U F

I constantly get calls from people claiming my number was listing a free big screen TV. I assure them they got the wrong number but for some reason they keep calling me. This is a regular occurrence.

Meanwhile, I fired 3 more employees this morning (all mothers who thought they could take yesterday off) and forcibly chucked them out the front door, bouncer in a bar style. I wonder if its related.

1-0000-FLUFF for a real good time

wasn't that on the walls, lamp posts and craigslist

Mom

How odd. I had this happen to me yesterday. I called my mom to wish her a Happy Mother's Day, but instead I dialed "1-YOU-RUINED-MY-LIFE!" She answered anyway.

CAPTCHA: Quantum dogs My favorite limbic group.

Mother's Day wishes

"Rahm Emmanuel has great difficulty saying 'day' after 'mother'." -- The Prez, Barak Obama

CAPTCHA: mainte- khyber == truncated maintenance in Afghanistan? budget cuts, perhaps?

Apple's help number

Some years back, Apple had an 800 number for free technical support, 800-SOS-APPL. That's SOS as in the distress call, but some people thought it was s-zero-s, not s-oh-s, and when dialing that number instead, they got a sex line.

Captcha: 13,863,000,000 sermoned -- none converted.

none converted

That's because they're all too busy talking on those sex lines.

CAPTCHA: alibiing Emily - that's what must be done if Emily's parents find out Emily's working the other end of one of those phone lines.

Back about 9 years ago, I

Back about 9 years ago, I was troubleshooting a Proliant server with a bad disk. At the time, Compaq's phone support number was 1-800-OK COMPA(Q). By mistake I tried to dial 1-800-GO COMPA(Q).

The sultry request I heard for a credit card told me that this was not the correct number.

BTdub... best "Hot chat" phone number I ever saw... 1-800-976-DUCK. (Note the other letters on the key with D.)

1-800-976-EUCK sounds like

1-800-976-EUCK sounds like my reaction if I dialed that number.