Bob Stratton <c_bstratton@hns.com> (06/20/91)
Some of you may remember me asking for any reasons NOT to buy cellular service from GTE Mobile Communications in the Washington, DC area. Well, I have one now - I'm inclined to think it's a big one, too. For background: In the D.C. Area, GTE resells service from both the A and B carriers (Cellular One, and Bell Atlantic Mobile Systems or BAMS). I elected GTE's resold BAMS service - they had some neat price plans, and were the only people stocking the phone I wanted. After I had the phone for a little while, I called GTE about changing my cellphone's PIC (LD carrier) from AT&T. They said that I'd have to call the carrier I wanted and have them do the switch; no problem, or so I thought. I called MCI and asked them to do the switch, set up some fancy billing to mesh with my existing accounts, etc. They said it would take about ten days to take effect. Last weekend, I discovered that my phone will not dial 700 and 900 numbers, but gives me the fast, high-pitched, "no service" reorder when I dial them, with or without a leading "1". I dialed *611, to ask BAMS what the deal was. They looked at my number, got confused about whether it had been turned on yet, and I explained the GTE reseller status. They then brusquely told me to call GTE. I called GTE to ask why I can't dial 700 and 900 numbers, and they give me some fluff about how "some" 700 and 900 numbers can't be dialed. I explain that this is too vague, and "Eva" says she'll get back to me. This was last Thursday, and I haven't heard from them since, except for a card saying welcome, and that they've tried to reach me without success to see if everything's all right (which I know to be false, as I would have received a message or been paged if they called me). I dialed "00" and got an AT&T operator, which told me who my PIC was. Today, I called MCI to check on the status of the switch. I got a VERY helpful and professional rep who called GTE first, got referred to Bell Atlantic, which said two things: a) I have to write AT&T. and b) call GTE's regular customer service number. The MCI rep three-wayed me with the GTE rep, who then proceeded to tell me that GTE has "chosen" AT&T to carry their cellphone LD traffic in Bell Atlantic-land, and that if I want to change LD carriers, I have to cancel my GTE account and get new service from Bell Atlantic. Needless to say, the MCI rep and I were both disappointed. I'm going to write a letter to the Great Telephone Experiment asking why this condition exists. Do any of you GTE Mobilnet users have to use one particular LD carrier? Inquiring minds want to know. Bob Stratton Stratton Systems Design| SMTP: strat@gnu.ai.mit.edu, c_bstratton@hns.com Alexandria, Virginia | PSTN: +1 301 409 2703
wright@ais.org (Carl Wright) (06/25/91)
c_bstratton@hns.com (Bob Stratton) writes: > Last weekend, I discovered that my phone will not dial 700 and 900 > numbers, but gives me the fast, high-pitched, "no service" reorder > when I dial them, with or without a leading "1". In GTE's defense, I would like to point out that is very difficult for the celluar provider to determine the cost of calls to 700 or 900 numbers without waiting for billing to come from the carriers supplying the services of the 700 or 900 number. Rather than try to solve this problem, they must be blocking these calls. Can anyone out there call these kinds of numbers with their cellular phone? Carl Wright | Lynn-Arthur Associates, Inc. Internet: wright@ais.org | 2350 Green Rd., #160 Voice: 1 313 995 5590 EST | Ann Arbor, MI 48105