<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>karimmaassen</author><text>&amp;quot;John Starbucks at Mainstreet&amp;quot;</text></comment>