TELEPHONE MIDDLE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 187, 10 August 1931, Page 11

TELEPHONE MIDDLE

TWO ANGRY SUBSCRIBERS DUPLICATION OF Nl’M LEIPS I Telephone subscribers who are expos ed to annoyance and financial io-; I through errors on the part of the Gen- • oral Post Office in Britain have m j remedy at. law, no matter how seriuir i the damage. The reason is that tin. ! Post master General and his underling jure in law the same as the Crown, ami a subject cannot sue the Crown in a | court of law. | This legal anomaly has been brought to public notice, by an error in the cui rent telephone directory. Owing to :i misprint, the London Trades Coumi land Me.-srs Demonstrations, Ltd.. "I ! Bloomsbury Square, appear to have tin | same telephone number. ■ “L calculate that the error has co>l I us a thousand pounds in lost busines*. .Mr. A. L. Newsam, a director uf Di I*monstrations, Ltd., said a few week.j ago. “For the first few days even jollier call we had turned out to be foi (the London Trades Council. I “Then the exchange arranged t<. j divert all calls and ask the caller which of us he wanted. We are a new firn (offering a serviee'new to this country Hhat of arranging demonstrations ut poods lor nianuLo'turers—arid pro.-pu i live customers who ring up tu make ar inquiry naturally become suspicious ot [our bona-lides when they find the rai ! police listening-in on Mispeeted crim j inals. Moreover, we have found that j for long period.-, sunietum.'s as much a« an hour and a-half. our line goes dea>; Ia ml we cannot put through a call. \\ • : have reason to believe that whetiuxci I telephone our automati<*ally goes out I ‘‘Yet lam advised we cannot recovm ■ •iainages. no matter how much loss <•’ j business we could show.” Mr. New j -am added that, the firm had decliner | to pay its telephone bill, and was in • \iting the Controller of Telephone- t' Sue them. . I Mr. A. M. Wail, secretary uf tin ■ London Trades Council, was equally an I noyed. “The duplicated number i i actually mine, and has been for mati.v ! years,” ho said. “’l’liis diversion o' ; < alls has held up our work ami led pen I pic to imagine that someone is listen ing in on Trade Union business. “I have told Messrs. Demonstra lions. Ltd., that I shall be pleased give evidence in court of the incon \enicnce that has been caused to botl: of us. I hope the result will be the in troduction of a measure to give tli< telephone subscriber some remedy loi damage caused by errors of the Depart I incut.”