irvin@northstar.dartmouth.edu (04/22/91)
I recently moved from Tennessee to New Hampshire. My phone service in Tennessee included (among other lines and features) a main number and a distinctive ringing number. This service was disconnected 2/1/91, with a recording placed on each number to direct calls to my new main number and distinctive ring number respectively ( the point of which is that these numbers are as yet not reassigned -- as you would imagine anyway ). Well, I got my final phone bill at the end of February, which was paid, and I said adios to my old service (or so I thought). Then a couple of days ago I get a "Revised Final Bill" from South Central Bell containing one AT&T long distance phone call made in March some number I had never heard of (in Tennessee) to Ohio and charged to my distinctive ring number. Total charge $2.42. The bill also contained a "Message" stating that "This Revised Final Bill contains charges not previously billed to my account. [paraphrasing from memory here] If you can not make payment in full at this time, call the business office to arrange a convenient payment schedule." Gee, I wonder if I should finance that $2.42. Well, anyway I called SCB and told them that I had not made this call. The rep said it looked like a Third-Number call, but I would have to call AT&T to clear it up. (BTW, have any of you called AT&T recently? Their reps are extremely irritating these days, "Thank you for calling AT&T, how can I provide you with EXCELLLLLENT service today??" and at the end of the call "If my supervisor were to call you would you say I provided EXCELLLLLENT service?") Sorry, I digress.... Anyway, called AT&T, said hey this ain't my call. I explained to her that the bill it was on was for xxx-xxxx (Main number), and that the call was billed to yyy-yyyy (my distinctive ring number) -- which confused the **** out of her. She then read off the number the call was placed from and told me that THAT was my old phone number -- I disagreed. She looked it up and told me it belonged to a Hotel and according to her computer was linked to my old distinctive ring number. She removed the charge, and told me to call SCB back to tell them to remove the link. Well, not wanting to get billed for every phone call coming from a hotel, I did just that. Well, the SCB rep was confused, said such things are impossible, and that I have nothing to worry about (we'll see I guess). She also mentioned that the AT&T rep had failed to remove the local tax from my phone call ($.16) and that I had better call them back or my account would end up being delinquent. Nothing like spending an hour to save a couple bucks, huh. And hopefully I would receive a bill next month for every LD call made by the guests of this hotel. Tim Irvin