This is NTL. Fuck Off.

what absolutely piss-poor reporting. "by chance"? how the FUCK do you discover that "by chance", having already hung up the phone?

beautiful pay-off, though.

"Drop a brick on it, luv"

Click. Brrrrrrrr.

what absolutely piss-poor reporting. "by chance"? how the FUCK do you discover that "by chance", having already hung up the phone?

I did think that.

Presumably they were asked not to say, on the grounds that someone else might have a go. When our shop was robbed recently, we were told not to comment to reporters on the actual circumstances of the robbery, for fear it would give anyone ideas.

A guy I know briefly became a celebrity in New Zealand a few years ago. He temped for a guy who ran a wedding photography and videoing company, then he went to temp for the phone company in the billing department. His previous employer's bill came in for him to check, so he added stuff to it like a $200 charge "for being a dick" among other things. He had to be sacked, but his colleagues did think it was pretty funny. It made the papers and everything.

it still doesn't excuse the laziness of that sentence. "by chance [he] discovered" ... what, through telekinesis? by going to ntl.com and clicking "hack our phone message"?

surely some more detail came out during the court case?

put it this way: i wouldn't accept copy like that from a reporter. and if it's been badly subbed, someone needs shot.

my beef here is simply that this is shockingly lazy reporting. as an editor, i deal with this kind of shit all the time and it really, really bugs me. that pathetic attempt at an explanation ("by chance") is just embarrassing.

(NB if you want to override the dreckitude of waiting in a caller queue, hit # or * after the first prompt just about any call system gives you - it's usually one of these options)

i think it's just that "by chance" that riles me. next time some scientist makes an earth-shattering discovery, are the grauniad going to say: "by chance, dave smith found a vaccine for HIV"?

:)

pressing 0 sometimes does it too, but quite often you find yourself through to a person who then has to sit and work out how to transfer you to where you want to be :)

p.s. you know, we can actually try and get the answer to this by utilising the Freedom of Information Act, to ask them how this person managed to change the phone details and demand an answer. they may be able to refuse through security grounds though (but not if they've already closed the loophole, which they must have surely??)

Well, if he wasn't looking for it and found it, it would be by chance, no? I'm not saying whether or not it's lazy writing, but if he was trying to do something else and he discovered how to do this, it would be by chance.

In Ireland, the FOI act applies to the public sector and entities that hold information about you.

good point, well made.