TELEPHONE SYSTEM

Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 46, 23 August 1917, Page 9

TELEPHONE SYSTEM

10 iiis editor.

Sir,—With reference to the letter referred to in your issue of yesterday signed "Disgusted," regarding the telephone system in Wellington, the reply of the Superintendent of Telegraphs is, to say the least, rather amusing. Perhaps the Exchange answer the calls on his 'phone a little more promptly than on many others, as, when one wishes to ring up a few people in the evening, it generally means making v night silting of it. He has asked what is wrong with the system? The system' is i:)! tight, but it*is the way it is manipulated. What causes the annoyance is the delay that takes place in. waiting for the Exchange to answer a call (especially is this the case in the evenings and on Sundays). I generally have to ring four or five times before getting an answer. Even when the Exchange do answer and you give them the number, they never think of asking you if you have got them, and so you are kept waiting till you ring again. As for getting hold of the bureau, it is hopeless. You get the Exchange and ask for "bureau," and that is the end of the first section. You would probably get them if you wait long enough. The Superintendent of Telegraphs- would bo conferring a great boon on the' users of the telephone if he could do away vvith these vexatious delays, which is possible, as I can well remember five or six years ago when, directly one rang and took the receiver off, the Exchange asked for the number right away, apd there was no delay. The automatics have nothing to do!.with this complaint, as the telephones I use arc not automatic. —I am, etc.,

SPEEDING-UP.

22nd August.