DREUBEN@eagle.wesleyan.edu (DOUGLAS SCOTT REUBEN)) (07/26/90)
I think Comm Systems is some slimey AOS that does a lot of business in the Bay Area and Northern CA in general. I have even seen them in Reno, but they are much less prevalent there. If anyone has any dire interest to try them out and can't find a Safeway COCOT (most of which use Comm Systems), the Equal Access code is, neatly enough, 10266. (10-C-O-M). I figured this out by experimenting for a while, but I could have just as easily got it from the Nevada Bell phone book, which lists all the 10xxx carriers in the Nevada Bell area, their 800 numbers, their 10xxx codes, etc. They also say that 10xxx access codes are available for the asking, free, from Nevada Bell Directory Assistance. Why can't other Bell Co's be so open with the information? It doesn't favor any Long Distance carrier over the other, and I doubt THAT many people would call DA just to get access codes, so why doesn't Pac*Bell do this? (I called Pac*Bell to try this, and said, "But Nevada Bell always gives me instant access numbers for alternate carriers ...", and the Pac*Bell operator said, "Sir, you are not dealing with Nevada Bell!" Sort of sounds a bit familiar, huh? I think the people at Pac*Bell are watching too much TV! :-) [Well, OK, she didn't say that EXACTLY, but sort of...] ) Anyhow, from my unfortunate experience with Comm Systems, they don't seem to check the PIN all the time from payphones and COCOTs that have them as their primary 0+ carrier. Hence, if you go to a COCOT or Pac*Bell phone that says "Comm Systems is the 0+ carrier for calls outside the area", and make up a PIN or an entire calling card number, they don't always check, and probably just pass the bill along to the appropriate local Bell and make the Bell figure it out. (Why they should be allowed to do this, costing some Bell and eventually their customers more money I'll never know...). If you dial from a non-Comm Systems payphone, they almost universally check. I tried making up a PIN for my NY number from a Comm Systems phone about 4 months ago, and I was billed for the call (some outrageous amount). I called NY Tel, which has a *special office* just to handle AOS problems (I wonder how much THAT costs us ratepayers!), and the rep. instantly took it off and said, quite frankly, "Please!!! Sir, if you can, just use AT&T!". When I told her that the PIN wasn't even valid, she said "Oh, sure ... sounds like them ... you could probably dial in 411 and they'd let that go through ... I've done 35 or so complaints about them today already!". So much for divestiture...(but let's not start on THAT again...) Doug dreuben@eagle.wesleyan.edu dreuben@wesleyan.bitnet (hopefully getting a CA account soon...)
trebor@uunet.uu.net> (07/26/90)
DREUBEN@eagle.wesleyan.edu) (DOUGLAS SCOTT REUBEN) writes: >I think Comm Systems is some slimey AOS that does a lot of business in >the Bay Area and Northern CA in general. I have even seen them in >Reno, but they are much less prevalent there. You think that's bad? At one phone where Com Systems was the AOS, when I dialed 10ATT, I was asked to deposit 60 cents! At another phone (a Safeway) 10ATT worked. Robert J Woodhead, Biar Games, Inc. !uunet!biar!trebor trebor@biar.UUCP