It’s happened more than once that I called my bank’s automated account information service, then hung up and called someone else. After I hang up from the second call,
the phone rings…and there’s my first call again, with
my bank still rattling off my account history! The same thing
happens with my voicemail service.
It seems like my outgoing calls are stacked somehow in the system. How and why is it designed this way?
You probably have three-way calling. Try hanging up for a good 5-7 seconds before making another call.
The same thing happened to me recently (but on an INCOMING call) and I was getting ready to post a question about it.
My local telephone service provider (Verizon) called me to try to sell me DSL internet service. I said I wasn’t interested, then they kept yammering, so I said I was going to hang up. Since I had to make another call, I just held down the little button for a second (at least one second, probably more like two seconds). To my surprise, the Verizon guy was still talking when I released the button. So I did it again, for maybe 2 or 3 seconds. The Verizon guy was STILL there. I spoke into the phone. “WHY CAN’T I HANG UP ON YOU?!!” The guy talked for a few more seconds, and then hung up. Only after HE ended the call could I hang up and get a dial tone.
Is it possible for one party in a two-way call to “hold open” a phone line? Since the party that called me was my phone company, I wonder if they have this ability even if others do not. But javaman’s bank seems to do the same thing.
If this is indeed possible, it really bugs me. Imagine not being able to hang up on a telemarketer!! :eek:
Anyone have the Straight Dope on this?
(FYI, Cisco, I do not have three-way calling.)
On closer inspection of the original post, I see my experience isn’t that similar after all (I don’t get a ring and callback.) Apologies to javaman for the hijack.
I belive that its 12 seconds that you have to wait for the call to be disconnected if they haven’t disconnected on the other side.
My automated teller tells me to hit the star button when I’m through instead of just hanging up. I assume that’s so their system knows I’m really done and not just being incredibly slow about answering. You might solve your problem by finding out if your bank’s system has an “exit” button or code.
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Is it possible for one party in a two-way call to "hold open" a phone line?]
in short, yes. but I find it very unlikely that verizion would do it to sell you something (you know at 1st I didn’t want it but since you won’t let me make another call i’ll take it)
it could be 3 way calling, or you might not have hung up long enough, aND sometimes there is a equipmant malfunction that doesn’t drop the call right away
Early in my career I did PBX development with Bell Labs (before divestiture - Lucent does this stuff nowdays, I think). The Dimension PBX once had a bug which would cause the fancy electronic phones to lock up in a ringing state - you would pick up the damn thing, and it would keep right on ringing. Eastern Airlines was the very irate multi-million-dollar customer that got hit by this. Since I didn’t have anything to do with either creating or fixing the bug, I found the ensuing firefight amusing. Turned out to be a classic load problem - under the right load conditions, the queue of ringing phones never got completely serviced. Somehow, load testing before the PBX’s hit the field never turned it up.
While is is possible for the phone company to hold open your line it is absolutley impossible for the telemarketing branch of the phone company to do this. It is possible to have a person in the central office hold it open and it is possible for someone to stand at the cross box (the interface between you and the central office) and hold your line open. In these examples it is more akin to them essentially now being an extension of your line than someone actually holding your line open. More than once we’d be doing repair work on a cable only to have someone pick up their phone in the house saying “hello? who are you and how’d you get on my line?” It used to really freak people out. If you have call waiting or 3-way calling and have only depressed the hang up button for a few seconds you have basically put your bank on hold while you either take or make another call. When you hang up again it rings back to remind you that you put the first party (who happens to be your bank) on hold and they are still there.
Just to clarify I worked for the phone company while most of what was out there was copper and quit just as fibre was making its way in so I could be way off on why its doing what it is.