For many weeks, a citizen’s phone caller ID indicated that, in his absence, he had received numerous calls from a phone number identified as Ville de Montréal. This citizen worried about the reason for these repeated calls but, when he would dial the number shown on the caller ID, the line was always busy. He had tried to find the origin of the calls, but in vain.
We launched an investigation with the Service des immeubles et des systèmes d’information which confirmed that this phone number was linked to a line of automated calls from the library network which cannot receive any call.
We questioned the appropriateness of having a phone number showing up on citizens’ phones, with the indication that it is a Ville de Montréal number, if it is impossible for them to return the call at that number.
Following our intervention, modifications were requested so that these phone numbers be henceforth blocked off. The Service des immeubles et des systèmes d’information also suggested replacing the Ville de Montréal ID that appeared with the number, by a more specific ID allowing citizens to know which City Department actually called them: more specifically, in the present file, this ID could be replaced by “VDM_BIBLIO”.
This phone system was modified in 2012. Now, when a citizen receives a call from this automated call system of Ville de Montréal’s library network, the word “BiblioMontréal” appears on the recipient’s phone as well as the following number: 514 872-0535. If the citizen calls back, an automated message states in French and in English that the library network called because the return date of a book or document has expired. This is a significant improvement and we are quite satisfied with efforts made by Ville de Montréal in this file.
