roy@cs.umn.edu (Roy M. Silvernail) (08/28/90)
john@bovine.ati.com (John Higdon) writes: > Funny you should mention this. This is exactly what many 900 service > packages provide. Through a strange quirk of fate, I happen to know > that both Telesphere and Pac*Bell 900 allow about twenty seconds of > 900 supervision before the billing clock begins. IPs are admonished to > provide a "chicken exit" on their recorded intros so that inadvertant > callers can bail. > In a previous Digest there was an article by someone who was worried > that by simply dialing a 900 number and then instantly hanging up a > charge would appear on the bill. Even if there is no "chicken exit", a > 900 call must supervise just like any other for billing to begin. My roommate found out, the hard way, that this supervision delay isn't universally implemented. See, I didn't think about 900 blocking, and tried to call 900-410-8463 (the Naval Observatory Master Clock). I was informed that the service was unavailable on our line. My roomie then called one or another of these cheeseball 900 outfits on TV, on a whim, and the service answered! He had thought we were blocked, after my call had failed. The connection lasted seven or eight seconds, at the most. (Just long enough to hear "Thank you for...") Sure enough, the call appeared on that month's bill. This rather incensed the third roommate, who is the actual person on the billing. He _had_ ordered 900 blocking, and obviously it hadn't been turned on. A call to the USWest office cleared it up, and the charge was removed. Still, there was certainly no "chicken exit" period. Our LD carrier is Telecom*USA, if that makes a difference. Roy M. Silvernail roy%cybrspc@cs.umn.edu [Moderator's Note: Here is an example of a 900 number which is routed to a POTS: The Naval Observatory Master Clock as noted above is reached at 900-410-TIME. But why pay 900 rates when you can call the clock on its POTS number: 202-653-1800 -- and pay 12 cents during the overnight hours! A public service message from TELECOM Digest! :) PAT]