Comments on: I’m a Corporate Mercenary® http://www.yaleman.org/2006/01/20/im-a-corporate-mercenary/ a blog by James Hodgkinson Thu, 29 Dec 2011 14:38:15 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 By: Ricetek » Blog Archive » Ghost in the machine, or something less mythical? http://www.yaleman.org/2006/01/20/im-a-corporate-mercenary/comment-page-1/#comment-65 Ricetek » Blog Archive » Ghost in the machine, or something less mythical? Fri, 20 Jan 2006 09:44:59 +0000 http://www.ricetek.net/2006/01/20/im-a-corporate-mercenary/#comment-65 [...] Ok, so in my Corporate Mercenary rant, I wrote about a handset that makes phantom calls. There’s lots of explanations for it, could be bad programming, could be someone with remote access to the handset or the network (authorised or not), all sorts of things. But what is the explanation for all these examples, over quite a few years? If you haven’t read it, there’s one particular handset model that in a lot of cases will make calls all by itself. There’s no explanation for it, there will be no investigation on why it happens since the handset is outdated, and I’ve never heard of it happening to a customer inquisitive or technically minded enough to try and work out what’s going on. Recently I’ve heard of another newer model of flip handset from another company doing the same thing - according to the customer, it was sitting in his pocket in the car, closed. They were driving along and suddenly the phone of his son (who was sitting in the passenger seat) started ringing, showing the caller as being his father’s handset. [...] [...] Ok, so in my Corporate Mercenary rant, I wrote about a handset that makes phantom calls. There’s lots of explanations for it, could be bad programming, could be someone with remote access to the handset or the network (authorised or not), all sorts of things. But what is the explanation for all these examples, over quite a few years? If you haven’t read it, there’s one particular handset model that in a lot of cases will make calls all by itself. There’s no explanation for it, there will be no investigation on why it happens since the handset is outdated, and I’ve never heard of it happening to a customer inquisitive or technically minded enough to try and work out what’s going on. Recently I’ve heard of another newer model of flip handset from another company doing the same thing – according to the customer, it was sitting in his pocket in the car, closed. They were driving along and suddenly the phone of his son (who was sitting in the passenger seat) started ringing, showing the caller as being his father’s handset. [...]

]]> By: kiki http://www.yaleman.org/2006/01/20/im-a-corporate-mercenary/comment-page-1/#comment-64 kiki Thu, 19 Jan 2006 16:26:54 +0000 http://www.ricetek.net/2006/01/20/im-a-corporate-mercenary/#comment-64 Oh wasn't he fun. If he'd been nicer, and not so rude and condescending, I may have *thought* about crediting *some* of it, as a goodwill gesture, coz we know about those phone issues...but because he kept talking over me, bitching at me because I kept repeating myself and telling me I was obviously incompetent, because I believed the trained tech guys over this random nutbag...that thought went out the window before it really started. If he had mentioned his phone doing stuff like this at other times...may have offered it. But it's apparently the first. He kept telling me that HE had the phone all night...and if it's his wife's phone, why was that? I also phrased things very carefully, very similar to how you said it. I made sure to stress to him that I did NOT say that *he* had made the call, but that the call originated from the handset. He was still a complete and utter wanker. Oh wasn’t he fun. If he’d been nicer, and not so rude and condescending, I may have *thought* about crediting *some* of it, as a goodwill gesture, coz we know about those phone issues…but because he kept talking over me, bitching at me because I kept repeating myself and telling me I was obviously incompetent, because I believed the trained tech guys over this random nutbag…that thought went out the window before it really started.

If he had mentioned his phone doing stuff like this at other times…may have offered it. But it’s apparently the first. He kept telling me that HE had the phone all night…and if it’s his wife’s phone, why was that?

I also phrased things very carefully, very similar to how you said it. I made sure to stress to him that I did NOT say that *he* had made the call, but that the call originated from the handset.

He was still a complete and utter wanker.

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