Mark wrote
Rod Speed wrote
Mark wrote
Bill wrote
Bob Eager wrote
tony sayer wrote
Owain wrote
Bob Eager wrote

Which is a pain for real callers from behind switchboards like myself.

Reputable companies and organisations don't hide phone numbers.

I just wonder what mechanism you would employ to *not* hide numbers..

Some form of "presentation number"

which might be the DDI of the council switchboard extension or a
general number. There's unlikely to be a problem presenting a
BCO number, but in some cases the council would not want to
reveal that eg social work had phoned, if they couldn't speak
to the person they wanted.

It isn't really a problem they can preset a CLI of their
switchboard reception number like they do here in Cambridge.

01223 457000

And in a big organisation, the switchboard wouldn't have a clue
who to put them through to.

Sorry Tony,
I agree with Bob on this one. Not only do the switchboard get
inundated with calls that they don't know how to route, because the
caller doesn't know who called them, but also imagine that you have
just been to the STD clinic, ( to get it back on topic for phone
systems!!) and they call you at home, your wife comes in, does a
1471 and then how do you explain the hospital calling you? Fast
thinking is not always easy!!

If you want to keep such secrets from your wife then you could give
the STD clinic a mobile number ;-)

I spend a fair bit of time in a hospital, as you know Tony, and the
above are the 2 main reasons why they do not show CLI, we have
discussed it a few times when I've been in the switchboard.

Thankfully I haven't had to spend much time in hospital but, if they
have a reason to call me, I would want to see a valid number
otherwise it would be likely that I would not answer it.

You might regret that approach when someone you care about
has just been runover and you refusing to answer the call means
that they die without being able to say goodbye etc.

They wont necessarily send the cops around until
after they have died if you dont answer the call.

That's a bit of an extreme example.

Sure, but its also one you might well regret if it happens.

Since about 99.9% of anonymous calls are cold callers I generally ignore it.

And that can bite you on the bum sometime.

Legitimate businesses/organisations/people should
*not* withhold or otherwise hide their CLID.

Thats just plain wrong. Plenty of places like the
cops and hospitals etc do that for a good reason.

I actually had someone call me from inside the loony bin, quite literally.
Turned out that he just wanted to know which DVD player he should get
his wife to buy for him that was region free, but it should be obvious why
the loony bin may not want lots of people calling them to talk to the loonys.