<story><title>Don&apos;t Pick Up: Missed calls in India</title><url>https://restofworld.org/2021/the-rise-and-fall-of-missed-calls-in-india/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>aembleton</author><text>When I was a teenager in the 90s in the UK, if I wanted my parents to collect me from somewhere then I could let them know by calling the operator from a payphone and asking for a reverse charge to my parents landline. Calls to the operator were free but reverse charged calls cost a lot to those who accepted them.&lt;p&gt;When asked for my name I would usually use my first name and use my last name as the place to pick me up from. If that gave them enough information then they could reject the call, which would cost them nothing.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>furyg3</author><text>This trick was so well known that a famous ad was made about it: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=9JxhTnWrKYs&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=9JxhTnWrKYs&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Don&apos;t Pick Up: Missed calls in India</title><url>https://restofworld.org/2021/the-rise-and-fall-of-missed-calls-in-india/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>aembleton</author><text>When I was a teenager in the 90s in the UK, if I wanted my parents to collect me from somewhere then I could let them know by calling the operator from a payphone and asking for a reverse charge to my parents landline. Calls to the operator were free but reverse charged calls cost a lot to those who accepted them.&lt;p&gt;When asked for my name I would usually use my first name and use my last name as the place to pick me up from. If that gave them enough information then they could reject the call, which would cost them nothing.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jedberg</author><text>When I went to sleep away camp one summer when I was 11, it required me to take an airplane by myself.  To let my parents know I had arrived, they told me to call collect, use my regular name, and they would reject the call.&lt;p&gt;If it was an actual emergency, I was to immediately call back again and then they would accept the call.  It was a great way to get free messages.</text></comment>