Monday, September 17, 2001
Holding
I received a notice in snail mail today that my second mortgage payment didn't arrive. This is getting annoying. So I called up the friendly 1-800 number they provided.
“Please press one … ” the oh so chipper recording said. “Please press two to …. Please press three for …. Please press four to talk to a represenative.”
Beep.
“Please press one to talk to a represenative.” Pause. Wait a second, didn't I just select this option?
Beep. “Please stay on the line. A represenative will be with you shortly.” Light heavy metal started playing. Waiting. Waiting. I get a beep, notifying that I have a another call coming in. Nice! I thought. The second I click over, the friendly represenative will be available, find me not on the line, and I'll have to do this all over again! I click over.
“Hello?” I said.
“Oh, sorry, wrong number!” The person hung up.
Oh, that was short, I thought. I clicked back over. Industrial Barbara Streisand was now playing. I thought the lacked conviction for her cover of “Closer” myself. But her cover of Napalm Death's “Conservative SXXthead” was spot on. Another click. Oh no, not another call!
“Hello?”
“Hello?!”
“Hello, yes. I'm calling to offer you a Dillards credit card and—”
“I'm not interested!” Time was running out. Any second now a represenative could hop on the line and I'd be screwed.
“But sir, the rates on this card are very low and—”
“I'm sorry,” I said, the anxiety rising in my voice. “But I'm not interested!”
“Okay, thank you. If you have any questions or … ” Yada yada yada. Once she finished rattling off the ending pitch, I switched back over. Luckily, they had now moved on to Trent Reznor covering “Memories” from Cats so I still hadn't missed the represenative.
Finally, just as I was giving up all hope of a represenative ever taking my call, one got on the line. I was able to check that indeed, they had actually received my last check and to ignore the notice.
I'm glad that was cleared up.
Funny, but only if you know RFC-822
I'm trying to reach some people at a particular ISP, and since I haven't heard from them in some
time, sent email to noc@XXXXXXXXXXXXXX,
postmaster@XXXXXXXXXXXXXX and
root@XXXXXXXXXXXXXX just to make sure that
maybe, just maybe, someone there would notice.
I just got this back:
----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors ----- postmaster@XXXXXXXXXXXXXX ----- Transcript of session follows ----- ... while talking to mail.XXXXXXXXXXXXXX.: >>> RCPT To:<postmaster@XXXXXXXXXXXXXX> <<< 550 <postmaster@XXXXXXXXXXXXXX>... User unknown 550 postmaster@XXXXXXXXXXXXXX... User unknown
Um … RFC-822
has this to say about postmaster:
6.3. RESERVED ADDRESS
It often is necessary to send mail to a site, without know-
ing any of its valid addresses. For example, there may be mail
system dysfunctions, or a user may wish to find out a person's
correct address, at that site.
This standard specifies a single, reserved mailbox address
(local-part) which is to be valid at each site. Mail sent to
that address is to be routed to a person responsible for the
site's mail system or to a person with responsibility for general
site operation. The name of the reserved local-part address is:
Postmaster
so that "Postmaster@domain" is required to be valid.
Note: This reserved local-part must be matched without sensi-
tivity to alphabetic case, so that "POSTMASTER", "postmas-
ter", and even "poStmASteR" is to be accepted.
§6.3 of RFC-822
It's a requirement that postamster exist as a valid email address
for any domain accepting email. So the ISP in question is violating an RFC. Tsk tsk tsk.
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