"Joel B. Levin" <levin@bbn.com> (04/15/91)
I have forgotten the name of AT&T's plan, but I refer to the account management plan whereby each user of a phone (roommates, for instance) dial all long distance calls with 0+ and then enter a personal four digit code beginning with 15 instead of a calling card number. I have reported here before that when I dialled calls using 10288+0+ (Sprint is my default carrier) and entered 1511# or 1512# after the boing I heard the "thank you" and the call went through, this when calling from my home phone on a Nashua, NH central office. I have received my first billing since I began making these calls, and I have some good news and some bad news. The good news: first, as I said, the calls went through. Second, I was charged the straight station-to-station direct dialled rate with no surcharge for use of any 0+ services. The bad news: the calls, listed on the AT&T page of my New England Telephone bill, are shown as if they had been dialled with 1+; they are listed in chronological order with no indication that any group were distinguished in any special way from any others. So I can dial them that way, but without making prior arrangements with AT&T it has no effect. Aside: this experiment cost me a small amount of money; except for the day AT&T was having its eleven cent sale, these calls cost me 20% to 30% more than they would have on Sprint before the Sprint-plus discount. Now, before you get excited about that, I should say that these were all one minute night rate calls forty miles to Boston, and cost me $.12 or $.13 where Sprint would charge $.10. JBL nets: levin@bbn.com | BBN Communications or: ...!bbn!levin | M/S 20/7A POTS: +1 617 873 3463 | 150 Cambridge Park Drive FAX: +1 617 873 8202 | Cambridge, MA 02140
Michael Dorrian <0003493915@mcimail.com> (04/24/91)
Last month I tested the use of Call Manager on my non-ATT presubscribed business line. On my C&P bill this month I received a breakout of the call by the account code I used as well as a summary sheet listing the number of calls, minutes and charges by account code. I had forgotten to write in about during the moderator's absence (good to have you back Pat!) until I got a call today from my local AT&T rep. Since I haven't used AT&T as my principal carrier since 1982 I was somewhat surprised, especially when she offered to stop by and review my service needs. I asked her what her records showed. " A $.21 call im March " she said. Aha! It appears that I was the only user of Call Manager that was billed by C&P instead of AT&T. The all-knowing billing computer had kicked my record out as an exception report and someone actually followed up on it. I was impressed! I explained to the rep that I was part of a secret cabal probing the ... er rather that I was part of an International users group testing the feature functions of various Long Distance vendors. The rep is still going to come by my office and discuss whatever other undocumented features there are she can offer her accounts and to try to sell me AT&T service. I'll even listen. Question: A previous poster (whose name I lost) stated that he used 10XXX access Reach Out World while not having AT&T as his primary carrier. Was it billed by the local phone company or AT&T? Michael Dorrian The RTP Group Mid Atlantic Voice: 703-243-6000 [Moderator's Note: Interesting you mention this. I also tried the Call Manager service last month on a lark, to see what would happen. My bill from Illinois Bell arrived today, and a couple of the calls are identified by account code, along with a little summary at the bottom of the page. And even though they were zero plus calls with special billing involved, they were still treated under my Reach Out America and Reach Out World plans, with appropriate discounts, etc. So far no one has called me to discuss my requirements however. But apparently there is no need to sign up in advance to use the service. Just entering 0 + ten digits + 15xx sets it up. PAT]