marko@apple.i.intel.com.ogc.edu (01/14/89)
Last night I was paying bills and opened my phone bill. Well the usual PR junk was stuffed in there with the bill. I normally glance at it to be sure they aren't trying to sneak one by, like a rate increase hearing or something. Anyway, the brochure had a blurb about alternative operator services and how you could be billed for their use when you are away from home and using your credit card. It went on to say that you should ask what operator you are using and ask for a different one if it is not the one(company?) you normally use. Now I understand that. What I don't understand is how do I know what I want? How do I get the best rate say eight or nine times out of ten? Does anyone know more about this? Mark O'Shea SDA
jbond@escargot.UUCP (Jeremy Shepherd) (01/15/89)
In article <472@gandalf.littlei.UUCP> marko@apple.i.intel.com (Mark O'Shea) writes: >Last night I was paying bills and opened my phone bill. Well the usual PR >junk was stuffed in there with the bill. I normally glance at it to be >sure they aren't trying to sneak one by, like a rate increase hearing or >something. Anyway, the brochure had a blurb about alternative operator services >and how you could be billed for their use when you are away from home and using >your credit card. It went on to say that you should ask what operator you are >using and ask for a different one if it is not the one(company?) you >normally use. > >Now I understand that. What I don't understand is how do I know what I want? >How do I get the best rate say eight or nine times out of ten? Does anyone >know more about this? > >Mark O'Shea >SDA One of the best ways to make sure that you aren't billed by some oddball long distance service that the hotel subscribes to (and might charge MANY times more for calls than AT&T, or one of the other major players in the LD business) is to first dial the equal access code for the carrier that you subscribe to at home. If it's AT&T, first dial "10288", then the usual numbers that you would dial. For example, to bill a call to your home phone through an AT&T operator at AT&T rates, dial "10288+0+AREA CODE+PHONE NUMBER", and wait for the operator to come online. If you want your call billed by MCI, or Sprint, or anyone else, replace the "10288" with the appropriate code number (which you can obtain from the company). Now the only hitch in this system is if the hotel uses some kind of system that tampers with your digits dialed, or won't let certain digit combinations go through. In that case, try using the pay phone in the hotel lobby, or another pay phone. The inconvinience of hopping from phone to phone is usually offset by the savings over what the hotel's LD company would charge. DISCLAIMER: I am not connected to AT&T or MCI or Sprint, I'm just trying to help out. :-) Jeremy Shepherd ("...tektronix!tessi!escargot!jbond") -- This is my nice new shiny .sig file! Wow!
jgp@moscom.UUCP (Jim Prescott) (01/21/89)
[ I'm redirecting this to comp.dcom.telecom -jp] In article <190@escargot.UUCP> jbond@escargot.UUCP (Jeremy Shepherd) writes: >In article <472@gandalf.littlei.UUCP> marko@apple.i.intel.com (Mark O'Shea) writes: >>... alternative operator services >One of the best ways to make sure that you aren't billed by some oddball long >distance service that the hotel subscribes to (and might charge MANY times... >is to first dial the equal access code for the carrier that you subscribe to The problem at hotels isn't that you might get routed though some bozo LD company but that the hotel is a reseller of telephone communications and can thus charge whatever they want to. One of the more obnoxious setups that I know of is charging customers 175% of the AT&T day rates for all guest calls while placing the call with the hotel's low-cost WATS lines. Even calls that don't cost the hotel anything (locals, credit card, reverse charged etc.) can get a surcharge tacked on. >try using the pay phone in the hotel lobby, or another pay phone. This is the best advice. Find a payphone and make sure you are talking with an AT&T (or MCI or whoever) operator. Or find out what kind of charges apply to phone calls before you check in and go elsewhere if they don't sound good. Moscom sells call accounting software but the above comments are my own. -- Jim Prescott moscom!jgp@cs.rochester.edu {rutgers,ames,harvard}!rochester!moscom!jgp