STEVEF%WRQ@mcimail.com (Steve Forrette) (07/24/90)
When I got my AT&T "Call Me" card a few months ago, there was an insert enclosed. The first part reads: "Don't forget that the Card can only be used to call one number - yours. In order to guarantee this restricted calling feature of the AT&T Call Me Card, callers should make certain that they place their calls over the AT&T Long Distance Network. It is important for them to look for AT&T Long Distance Service identification and to listed for 'AT&T.' " Does this not imply that if the caller uses the Call Me card on another long distance carrier that accepts AT&T cards, that they may accept it for calls to anywhere? I went to a Pacific Bell payphone nearby whose long distance carrier was "ComSystems", some odd-ball name I'd never heard of. I called an out-of-state number that I knew was out of service and entered my Call Me number. Sure enough, it was accepted! I listened to about ten seconds of the out-of-service recording, then hung up. When I got my bill, I had a charge for a three minute call totalling around $4.50. :-( :-( I called the Pacific Bell business office, and explained the situation. They said "But sir, if it was out of service, why was the call 3 minutes long?" I told them that perhaps the carrier was lying. The rep said "well, okay, since it's only one call, and I know this is a 'problem' carrier, I'll take it off your bill." The moral of the story is - your resticted calling card, *isn't*! (Further details - I then tried a call with a random PIN, to test to see if they verified them at all, and that one didn't work. Then, I tried it with my unresticted PIN, to check for the situation where they may have thought "well, we just accepted a call with valid PIN xxxx, so PIN yyyy must be invalid", but that call worked, so apparently they do have access to the PIN database, whereever that may be. Either they do not get the information regarding whether a PIN is restricted, or they choose to ignore it!)