drears@pica.army.mil (Dennis G. Rears (FSAC)) (12/23/90)
When I dial a 900 number am I paying for the connection or the
information provided? Let me give you an example.
On November 4, I ran and finished the NY city marathon. In the race
packet, there was a card that announce an 900 number that you could
call for your personal race statistics (overall place, sex place, age
place, time, etc). The service was available starting the night after
the race up and finishing two weeks later. Because the information
would be be printed in the next day's {New York Post}, I suspect calls
were only made the night of the race.
The call would be $2.00. I called it and after entering race
number the service said I did not finish. I called it again (just in
case I had misdialed my race number) and got the same message. I was
an offical finisher as I got my certificate several weeks later. I
feel I should not have to pay for those calls becuase they did not
provide the information they stated they would. I did pay for them
because it was only $4.00 for both calls. Did I have any recourse?
Dennis
[Moderator's Note: When calling a 900 number, you are paying for the
information provided and the cost of the call. Most 900 numbers only
cost a few cents each to the information provider however. I'd think
you could go to whoever ran the 900 service and demand your money
back. Better still, just don't pay that part of your NYT phone bill
and let NYT squabble with the IP about it. PAT]