What a difference a 1 makes. With my Turkey trip a week away I tried faxing information to the Grand Rabbis in Istanbul so that my traveling companion and I could enter the various synagogues there. I dialed 01, country code, city code and number. Suddenly I was being asked for a credit card number or a pin number. Shock, confusion, call ATT and get lost in voice prompts. Finally reached a real person. Did this person ask what I had dialed? No. She simply said, “You must not have that service on your phone line.” This despite my having faxed stuff recently to England. Two hours later, service disrupted and changed at who knows what expense, I tried again. Same message. This time when I called back I was told, “You don’t have any service on that line.” Frustration reigned.
I checked my phone book for proper calling techniques, and lo and behold- dial 011 and all is solved. 01 is the code for credit card calls. Who would have guessed? Certainly not anyone at ATT.
