wah@zach.fit.edu (Bill Huttig) (02/05/91)
I just thought I'd post an update on the status of my account. The Telecom*USA central divison finally changed the flags on my phone line around the 27th of Jan. I received a copy of my 1/1/91 invoice today. I also recieved two welcome kits. The first one was a PrimeTime plus Personal 800 and it had the info on the second 800 number I set up (The one that rings at my aunt's). The other one had a brand new 800 number and was a regular Personal 800 account ($5/mo $.25/min type) ... so I called and the rep found that they had set up a new account for me. She transfered (I guess she requested that it be transferred) it to my existing account. Then I had her explain the other charges section on the bill. It seems that they break down the monthly charge into PrimeTime Minimum Adjustment which only shows if you didn't use your hour ($6.50) usage. The other is called PRIMETIME OPTIONS ... mine shows $4.75 which is $1.00 for the 10% day discount and $1.75 for intrastate option and $2.00 for the 800 number ... She said somthing to the effect that the charge was $2 no matter how many 800 numbers you received. (According to the bill I have this seems true.) On my first invoice I had a lot of calls that were for one minute and I thought were not answered and I asked for credit, (This might be due to the fact that the equipment in this area was at one time SouthLand before SouthernNet bought it and then Telecom*USA but the TELECOM*USA/MCI Supervisior stats that is impossible to have unsupervised calls and will not credit those calls. As far as 800 calls are concerned there were only a couple on my bill so I couldn't tell. I guess I need to keep a log every time the numbers are used. I called Torie several times last week to see if my account was credited or not ... she was 'unavailable'. I left one message but she never returned my call. They say I owe $149.19 (for two months). I did a rough rerate my self and decided that Telecom*USA rates that showed are about 27%-30% too high. So I should end up with about $105 after adjustments. Also, I have found a way to get signed up for the service without getting MCI/Telecom*USA (if you have RingMaster) as the dial one service. Simply sign up for PrimeTime and use the RingMaster (or whatever your Phone Co. calls it) number as the line you want connected. There is no way a call can originate from that number. >> issued is basically just a shared number among a large number of >> customers. (Anyone know how many?) They say it is much like a When I talked to MCI/TELECOM*USA a while back a very nice Customer Service Representative said 3000 PIN's per number. In article <16621@accuvax.nwu.edu> forrette@cory.berkeley.edu (Steve Forrette) writes: [about MCI/TELECOM*USA stating that the PIN was the last four digits of the number] They asked me for a PIN also ... I don't know why ... Maybe the originally planned to give each user his/her own number with a PIN so that they didn't have to adjust for wrong numbers. But if you dial a call from a rotary phone the MIC/Telecom*USA operator will answer and ask for the PIN and complete the call. Bill
wah@zach.fit.edu (Bill Huttig) (02/07/91)
In article <16694@accuvax.nwu.edu> Bill Huttig <wah@zach.fit.edu> writes: >I just thought I'd post an update on the status of my account. [stuff deleted] >the second 800 number I set up (The one that rings at my aunt's). The >other one had a brand new 800 number and was a regular Personal 800 See below >I called Torie several times last week to see if my account was >credited or not ... she was 'unavailable'. I left one message but she >never returned my call. They say I owe $149.19 (for two months). I >did a rough rerate my self and decided that Telecom*USA rates that >showed are about 27%-30% too high. So I should end up with about $105 >after adjustments. Well I called her again today and she said that she hadn't heared anything from the billing department ... so she offered a $25 general credit. I said that I thought it should be a little higher so she offered $50 which was $5 more then I was hoping. I will do a rerate myself when I get the February invoice and see what the bonus for all my time was. I dont see why they dont do what the other half of MCI does and issue a blanket credit instead of spending all that personnel time to rerate, etc. >They asked me for a PIN also ... I don't know why ... Maybe the >originally planned to give each user his/her own number with a PIN so >that they didn't have to adjust for wrong numbers. The third number I received comes with the PIN I requested: 2455 which spells BILL. [Moderator's Note: Why do they have all those employees to correct errors, you ask? The rule of thumb for many (most?) huge companies is that about half the people there have as their main duty correcting the mistakes of the other half. Consider how large most customer service departments are the telcos. What would they do if there were not lots of mistakes to be corrected constantly? PAT]