Phone book bungles

Press, 24 May 1988, Page 6

Phone book bungles

Telecom’s list of telephone directory bungles goes right to the top this year in the form of its own Minister of State-Owned Enterprises, Mr Prebble. Mr Prebble is one of three Cabinet Ministers whose Beehive office numbers are included In a list of 276 amendments the telephone monopoly is issuing for its 1988 Wellington directory. Callers to the number given for Mr Prebble get through to the office of the Minister of State Services, Mr Rodger, whose staff have been busy transferring them through the Beehive’s internal telephone system. But although Telecom admits embarrassment, it appears to have a forgiving political master In Mr Prebble. “Every time a phone book comes out it seems there is a

national game of trying to find mistakes,” he said. Not so philosophical are other notables in the list of amendments .Telecom is delivering to its 360,000 or so Wellington district subscribers. They are outraged by a recent Telecom policy decision to shelter behind a disclaimer in the front of its directories and make no compensation beyond distributing the amendments. Businesses, lawyers, doctors, a big stockbroking firm and even a branch of Postßank — a State-owned corporation from the same fold as Telecom — are also on the list.

But the Ministry of Energy is one customer distinctly reluctant to accept its place in the corrections list as adequate compensation for being left out of the telephone book.