We have our number blocked on our land line phone. Imagine my surprise
when I called a merchants 800 number this morning and as soon as the call
was answered a computer voice informed me of the status of my order.

So I did some investigating. Seems there's a technique called automatic
number identification that's available to any owner of an 800 etc.
number. It ignores number blocking.

Sort of destroys the whole purpose, doesn't it?

At least the phone company isn't charging me for the blocking I thought I
had :-).

--
Intelligence is an experiment that failed - G. B. Shaw