[Electronics-Talk] free 411

Sat Jan 9 16:07:57 UTC 2021

I tried 800-FREE-411 myself, but after a 30 second commercial, you are 
prompted to say which type of listing you are requesting, business, 
government or residential.  But after you speak one of these three 
choices, there is nothing but silence, which means that for all intents 
and purposes, this service is dead. I also tried traditional 411 on my 
Verizon land line phone to find the number of a friend who had switched 
from Verizon to Spectrum VOIP land line service, and sure enough, they 
had no listing.  Most infuriating of all is that when you dial 411, you 
are greeted by automated prompts, not a helpful and courteous human 
operator like in the good old days.

Gerald

On 1/9/2021 10:55 AM, Steve Jacobson via Electronics-Talk wrote:
> I suspect that the exemption for blind people will gradually disappear as well.  The main reason we got an exemption on directory assistance services originally is because we did not have access to the information that others got free of charge through the printed phone directories made available by telephone companies.  Since such books are becoming less and less common, and when they do appear they are often produced by somebody other than the phone company, it is harder to say we don't get access to that information.  As has already been stated, to some degree, nobody really has access to the information any more.  <smile>
>
> Best regards,
>
> Steve Jacobson
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Electronics-Talk <electronics-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of cheez via Electronics-Talk
> Sent: Saturday, January 9, 2021 7:13 AM
> To: 'Discussion of accessible home electronics and appliances' <electronics-talk at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: cheez at cox.net
> Subject: Re: [Electronics-Talk] free 411
>
> Thanks for the confirmation.  Nice to know that's still offered.
>
> Vince
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Electronics-Talk <electronics-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Gerald Levy via Electronics-Talk
> Sent: Saturday, January 9, 2021 6:03 AM
> To: cheez via Electronics-Talk <electronics-talk at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: Gerald Levy <bwaylimited at verizon.net>
> Subject: Re: [Electronics-Talk] free 411
>
>
> Yes, Verizon still offers free directory assistance to blind customers. But as I mentioned previously, it has become almost totally useless, because thanks to deregulation and the proliferation of independent phone companies, Verizon is no longer an absolute monopoly, and therefore, the chances that they will still have a phone number listed for the party you want to contact are probably slim to none, unless that party is still a Verizon customer.
>
>
> Gerald
>
>
>
> On 1/9/2021 7:33 AM, cheez via Electronics-Talk wrote:
>> I haven't checked in some time, but Verizon used to have an exemption for Information when it came to blind customers.  Or, at the least, such customers were granted, [I think] 100 free calls per month.
>> Nonetheless, you would have to go to a brick and mortar in order to sign up for the free service.
>> But I'll check to verify this when Verizon opens later today and will report my findings.
>>
>> Vince
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Electronics-Talk <electronics-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf
>> Of Gerald Levy via Electronics-Talk
>> Sent: Saturday, January 9, 2021 5:10 AM
>> To: Rob Kaiser via Electronics-Talk <electronics-talk at nfbnet.org>
>> Cc: Gerald Levy <bwaylimited at verizon.net>
>> Subject: Re: [Electronics-Talk] free 411
>>
>>
>> Here's the problem with directory assistance services, whether it's
>> 800-FREE-411 or the traditional 411.   In the good old days, when big bad Ma Bell, aaka the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, actually a collection of separate wholly-owned regional operating companies under the so-called Bell unbrella, was the only provider of phone service,all companies and individuals were listed in their database, so when you dialed 411, an operator could look up the number for you, and there was a better than 90% chance that she could find it.  For instance, before 1982, when Ma Bell was broken up into 7 separate, independent regional Bell operating companies, New York Telephone was a wholly owned subsidaiary of AT&T, so if you dialed 411 in New York City, you could get the phone number for a company located in Los Angeles, because the phone company there, Pacific Bell, was also a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T.  But today, thanks to deregulation, there is no single phone company or service provider that maintains a centralized list of all phone numbers for every company and individual in the US, so 411 and free 411 services have become essentially useless.  So if your land-line or cell phone carrier is Verizon, which became the successor to New York Telephone through a series of mergers and consolidations since 1982, , for instance, and you dial 411 you will only have access to phone numbers for companies and individuals who are registered with Verizon. If their primary carrier is another phone company such as AT&T or T-Mobile or Consumer Cellular, then you will be out of luck.  Welcome to the new and chaotic wild, wild west of totally unregulated and fragmented telephone service. What a mess!!!  When you dial 411 on your Consumer Cellular cell phone, they will probably only have access to phone numbers for companies and individuals registered with Consumer Cellular, which is a relatively small number, because most listings are still registered with Verizon, which is the largest phone service provider and the only one which still has a historical connection to the old Ma Bell/American Telephone & Telegraph company.  Don't confuse Verizon with today's AT&T, which has no connection to the original company of the same name and is actually the successor to MCI, which was one of the 7 original RBOC's created in 1982. If all this sounds confusing, you're right.  You need a Philadelphia lawyer to figure all this out.
>>
>>
>> Gerald
>>
>>
>>
>> On 1/8/2021 11:50 PM, Rob Kaiser via Electronics-Talk wrote:
>>> I don't know what list to send this to, so, I'll try this 1. I'm with
>>> consumer Cellular. My internet was down a few days agao & I needed to
>>> look up a phone number. The only way I could get free directory
>>> assistance was to use free 411. This is what consumer cellular told
>>> me. If I used their 411 there was going to be a fee. When I called
>>> free 411, I wasn't even able to give them a name of the business I
>>> wanted to look up. Now, I've had problems with free 411 before, but
>>> this was the worst. Is free 411 not working any more? If this is so,
>>> do we have any platforms where we can get free directory assistance
>>> if our internet is down? Or, are we doomed to having to either wait
>>> until our internet comes up or pay a fee to call Directory Assistance?
>>>
>>>     
>>>
>>>     
>>>
>>> Rob Kaiser Email;
>>>
>>> rcubfank at sbcglobal.net
>>>
>>>     
>>>
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>>> ted%40verizon.net
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>> ted%40verizon.net
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