dgc@math.ucla.edu (David G. Cantor) (03/27/91)
I was just a guest at the Del Mar Hilton Hotel (in Del Mar, California). The telepone in the room had printed on it, quite clearly, "Local calls 50 cents" and I placed a call to a number in La Jolla, California, which is immediately adjacent to Del Mar and which is a local call from Del Mar (according to PacTel, which provides local telephone service in the area and which provided the telephone directory in my hotel room). My bill contained a $4.86 charge for this call. I objected and the clerk replied that it wasn't a local call. After it became clear that I was familiar with the area, etc., she stated that "Yes, it is a local call from the [PacTel] payphone in the lobby, but not from our system"! . . . David G. Cantor Department of Mathematics University of California Los Angeles, CA 90024-1555 Internet: dgc@math.ucla.edu
Barton.Bruce@camb.com (Barton F. Bruce) (03/29/91)
In article <telecom11.245.8@eecs.nwu.edu>, dgc@math.ucla.edu (David G. Cantor) writes: > I was just a guest at the Del Mar Hilton Hotel (in Del Mar, > clearly, "Local calls 50 cents" and I placed a call to a number in La > My bill contained a $4.86 charge for this call. I objected and the clerk If enough folks on the net were interested to see if the Hilton Hotels have some chain policy, they could EACH call Hilton's 1.800.445.8667 number and ask. It might be reasonable to also ask if the Del Mar property is Hilton owned or privately owned, and if privately owned, 'Are they supposed to be conforming to chain policies that prevent one property from giving the rest of the chain a bad reputation?'. It is always wise to do as much travel planning ahead of time as possible, and this little call may simplify future decisions.
john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) (03/29/91)
"David G. Cantor" <dgc@math.ucla.edu> writes: > I objected and the clerk replied that it wasn't a local > call. After it became clear that I was familiar with the area, etc., > she stated that "Yes, it is a local call from the [PacTel] payphone in > the lobby, but not from our system"! When you step over the threshold of a motel or hotel, you are subject to its tender mercies. It controls the horizontal and the vertical. It can make the image a soft blur or sharpen it ... oops, sorry. Wrong program. But you get the idea. It can charge whatever it likes. A visitor from out of the area stayed at a Day's Inn in Santa Clara. For those not familiar with the area, Santa Clara is completely encompassed by the "San Jose 2" calling area. It includes all of Santa Clara, San Jose, Sunnyvale, Campbell, Los Gatos, Mountain View and Los Altos (in 415), Milpitas, and Cupertino as local. But the sign on the telephone indicated that anything outside of Santa Clara was "long distance". So a perfectly local call to my house from the lobby pay phone ended up being a rather costly "long distance" call from the room. Remember, you pay dearly for that convenient telephone in your room. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !
yazz@prodnet.la.locus.com (Bob Yazz) (04/01/91)
On that Del Mar Hilton the phone bill overcharge -- This hotel is in my local calling area so I called them up and asked about it. I got the manager in charge of their phone system. She insisted that it was Pacific Bell that programmed their system and that Hilton charged their hotel guests a non-local rate Only because Pac Bell charged Hilton a non-local rate. I insisted her information was false. She offered to look at my bill, and I believe that if I had been the guest with the bill she'd have refunded the $4.86 for "guest relations" reasons and let it go, but she did promise to get with Pac Bell and make sure they were charging correctly. She also indicated exactly what the earlier poster indicated -- that a call to La Jolla (an abutting community to the south) was a local call from the Pac Bell payphone in the lobby but Not a local call from the Pac Bell programmed Hotel Telephone System. My Pacific Bell directory indicates that Del Mar to La Jolla is a zone 1 (as local as it gets) call. Anybody at Pac Bell or Hilton reading this? Payphone ripoff problems in California? Call Pacific Bell at 800/352-2201 Bob Yazz -- yazz@lccsd.sd.locus.com They take complaints M-F, 8-5