G. Morgan wrote:
Stormin Mormon wrote:


Many people did this, and it's dishonest. You are conveying a message, but
not paying for the otherwise paid service.


Bull****. When I was a kid visiting grandmom my mom always called and
let the phone ring for 3 times (then hang up)when we got home to get the
message all was safe. If grandmom didn't get the call in a reasonable
tine, then she could find out what is up.

Remember, long distance used to cost a fortune. As long as the call is
not connected, there was no charge. I don't think that's dishonest.
Calls fail to connect all the time, it's not like you're using the
actual service that is chargeable.

You snipped the relevant part of the post that Stormin responded to.

Even though I'm the one who did it (quite often) I won't argue that
"faking" a collect call to convey a message is stealing to a certain
extent. Since these types of call were operator assisted, we were indeed
using the services of the phone company and the operator to convey a
message without paying for it.