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New UK Competitive Directory Services Give You Wrong Number 40% Of The Time
from the not-so-good... dept
Directory assistance services are pretty straightforward. Someone asks for the phone number of a person or business they're trying to reach, and the service gives them the phone number. There certainly is a lot of data to manage, and working through similar names is definitely an issue - but you'd still think, on the whole, that if you call a directory service system you're more likely than not to get the right number. It turns out in the UK, where they've just deregulated their directory service system it's true that you'll get the right number more often than not - but just barely. In a large test of the various directory services providers, 38% of callers were not given the right number. Ouch. And 20% of those not served properly couldn't get a refund. Of course, in a competitive situation, you would think that the services that can't get the job done would get weeded out pretty quickly by word of mouth.
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The article doesn't say whether the services were using incorrect information or had the right numbers but somehow gave them out wrong. Some directory service operations get their information from sources other than phone company records, and this information may be out of date.
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America
I'd be interested in knowing what the percentages are here in America ... From my own personal experiences I would imagine I only get the requested information about half the time.
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