clements@bbn.com (09/20/90)
I just got a couple of AT&T's Reach Out offers in the mail, for two of my home phone lines (individually billed). This offer is the one that says (paraphrasing) "We aren't sending this offer to just anyone. We're sending it to you because we've analyzed your phone bill and you can save money by buying Reach Out, etc." One of the lines is used only for local calls (mostly data) and has not had more than one or two long distance calls in a year. I'd sure like to know how Reach Out is gonna save me money with a monthly fee and no usage. Unfortunately there's no phone number to call and ask them to put their analysis in writing. Bob Clements, K1BC, clements@bbn.com
PCHROMCZ@drew.bitnet (Alec) (09/26/90)
>This offer is the one that says (paraphrasing) "We aren't sending this >offer to just anyone. We're sending it to you because we've analyzed >your phone bill and you can save money by buying Reach Out, etc." If they wanted us to "save money" they would just lower their rates rather than trying to sell us a "money saving plan." -*- Alec -*- PCHROMCZ@drunivac.bitnet PCHROMCZ@drunivac.drew.edu ...!rutgers!njin!drew!drunivac!PCHROMCZ
john@bovine.ati.com (John Higdon) (09/26/90)
On Sep 25 at 23:41, Alec <PCHROMCZ@drew.bitnet> writes: > If they wanted us to "save money" they would just lower their rates > rather than trying to sell us a "money saving plan." I was wondering how long it would take for someone to realize the absurdity of "calling plans". An associate of mine refers to this as "charging for a discount". AT&T, Sprint, MCI, and all the other IXCs aren't the only ones who play this game, but the LECs do it as well. A Pac*Bell person explained that, "calling plans are not designed to save anyone money. They are designed to guarantee a level of revenue and to create the impression that the customer maximizes his savings the more he uses the service. He tends to make more calls to take the greatest benefit of that special plan that he is paying for." If you think about it, why "WATS" or "ProWATS" or "ROA" or any of that stuff? Why not just have a sliding scale where the rate gets cheaper as usage increases? The "special" plans are nothing more than theater to convince the customer that he is getting something "special". Also, "plans" make it necessary for the customer to continually re-evaluate his service to make sure that he has the right "plan". What the service provider hopes all the while is that the customer will forget about it and will end up paying for a plan that is useless. A customer of mine paid AT&T hundreds of dollars over the course of a couple of years for a LD plan and Sprint was the customer's carrier! John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@bovine.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !
levin@bbn.com (Joel B. Levin) (09/28/90)
From: John Higdon <john@bovine.ati.com> >I was wondering how long it would take for someone to realize the >absurdity of "calling plans". An associate of mine refers to this as >"charging for a discount". AT&T, Sprint, MCI, and all the other IXCs >aren't the only ones who play this game, but the LECs do it as well. I agree with all your comments. Such evaluation is why I use Sprint Plus over AT&T's ROA. The reasons are: most calls are short distance, NH to MA, so the fixed per-minute rate of ROA represents small savings; and a lot of the calls are during the day, when ROA diesn't help. The savings would have to exceed the monthly fee before I could break even. Sprint Plus has no "cover charge," only a "minimum" of $8/month (my phone bills almost always exceed $50), and even during the day there is some small discount; so there is no question of breaking even; I always do better than straight Sprint or AT&T without ROA. On the other hand, for calling card calling, I always choose AT&T because of the straight 10% discount across the board for using my Universal card. When each LD company comes out with a new plan, I have to look at it carefully and decide if maybe it's time to switch. So far I think I am doing as well as I can. JBL