Trying to Get Info From 604-555-1212 British Colombia, No Go

[Robert Casey]

I needed to find out the phone number of some company in British
Columbia, "Softlanding Software". Dialed 604-555-1212 and got a
robotic voice asking what city, then a pause which I said a
puzzled hello (hoping it really was human), then it asks for the
"listing". I said Softlanding Software. Machine hands me off to
an actual human, who demands "what city".

I don't know what town this company is in I explain. "Can't you just
do a search for "Softlanding Software". "No, sorry, that's
impossible", "What do you mean impossible, how many "Softlanding
Software"'s are there in your province?! She says "probably only one,
but I need the city for it". I'd have to search the entire province."

I say, well do it. "The system doesn't permit that. She compares it
to searching the entire state of Washington. I didn't (and still
don't ) see what the problem is, other than poor software. A database
program should let one hunt down info by various different incomplete
inputs. What this Canadian phone company (is it some sort of
government agency up there? THAT would explain it!) seems to have is
an exact equivalent of a physical card file (like what libraries used
to do) indexed by city. I could understand them not being able to
find an entry in an unknown city if it meant searching thru thousands
of paper cards, but a computer should be able to handle this no
problem.

[Dan Fandrich]

In article <telecom...@massis.lcs.mit.edu> wa2...@netcom.com writes:

> I don't know what town this company is in I explain. "Can't you just
> do a search for "Softlanding Software". "No, sorry, that's
> impossible", "What do you mean impossible, how many "Softlanding
> Software"'s are there in your province?! She says "probably only one,
> but I need the city for it". I'd have to search the entire province."

Well, it is a big province. ;) I don't have any details about their
directory database, but this is a problem to me on occasion as well (it
probably comes as no surprise that BC Telecom is majority owned by GTE).

It is useful to realize that their system can check cities which are in
the same local calling area or nearby the one you ask for. Just say
"Vancouver" and you've covered close to half the province, population-wise;
if the listing wasn't found, say "Victoria" and you've probably covered 2/3.
Since you're not looking for a forestry or mining company, it's almost a
sure thing you'll get the listing.

Dan d...@fch.wimsey.bc.ca / MIME email ok
finger da...@wimsey.com for pgp key

[jim cobban]

In article <telecom...@massis.lcs.mit.edu>, Robert Casey <wa2ise@
netcom.com> wrote:

> ... What this Canadian phone company (is it some sort of government
> agency up there? THAT would explain it!) ...

The phone company in British Columbia is BCTel and it is a wholly
owned subsiduary of GTE. Although some of the local phone companies
in Canada used to be either government departments or crown
corporations, that is wholly owned by the provincial government, that
was never true in BC and is no longer true in any other jurisdiction.

Jim Cobban cob...@bnr.ca Phone: (613) 763-8013
BNR Ltd. bnrgate.bnr.ca!bcars153!jcobban FAX: (613) 763-5199