Hearing someone's call in progress when dialing their landline

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Twice now I have called someone from my landline and ended up eavesdropping [briefly] on the person I'm calling. They were on the phone when I called. But instead of getting a busy signal or voicemail, I ended up hearing one side of their ongoing conversation. In one case I knew I could hear the person I was calling by the sound of their voice. In the other case I assume that I could hear the person on the other end of the conversation. Since I got voicemail right away when I called back I assume I was connected to the right conversation. Obviously I didn't want to listen too long for ethical reasons. [well, actually I wanted to but didn't. One was a customer! :biggrin:]
 
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Ivan Seeking said:
Twice now I have called someone from my landline and ended up eavesdropping [briefly] on the person I'm calling. They were on the phone when I called. But instead of getting a busy signal or voicemail, I ended up hearing one side of their ongoing conversation. In one case I knew I could hear the person I was calling by the sound of their voice. In the other case I assume that I could hear the person on the other end of the conversation. Since I got voicemail right away when I called back I assume I was connected to the right conversation. Obviously I didn't want to listen too long for ethical reasons. [well, actually I wanted to but didn't. One was a customer! :biggrin:]
Usually that happens when the person picks up the phone to place a call before you hear the ring tone, but you ended up in the middle of an ongoing call? I've had that happen, can't remember what the cause was though.