john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) (07/08/90)
An amusing COCOT incident:
Needing to reach Pac*Bell over some matters with my residence phone, I
spotted what looked like a standard Pac*Bell pay phone. It turned out
to be a [Public*Phone] (tm) with colors and logos that are borderline
actionable in their resemblance to Pac*Bell. They have blue rectangles
in the upper left corner and an embossed logo on the coinbox cover
that from more than ten feet away looks exactly like the puckered
asshole logo of Pac*Bell.
Anyway, I dialed 811-5700 and was told that I had dialed an "invalid
number" by the grainiest digital excuse for a voice you have ever
heard. Then I dialed 211 and explained that I couldn't reach 811-5700.
She asked me to hold and then I heard a touchtone digit which made the
phone go dead. A moment later she came back and said that the phone
did not indicate any money lost. I told her I didn't put any money in
and that 811-5700 should be a free call anywhere in the state of
California.
She went off the line again, and then came back and said that I would
have to use another phone. I explained that there were no other phones
anywhere in the vacinity and that I was going to express my
displeasure over the inconvenience with the store proprietor.
Suddenly, her tone changed and she said, "just one moment." The next
thing I heard was "Pacific Bell, may I help you?".
So, as the guru and mentor would say, "what have we learned, my
children?" Perhaps, the COCOT robber barons are just a bit sensitive
about suckers--er, customers complaining about their one-arm bandits
to those who might have the power to have them removed.
John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395
john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !dattier@ddsw1.mcs.com (David Tamkin) (07/09/90)
In TELECOM Digest, Volume 10, Issue 468, John Higdon wrote: | An amusing COCOT incident: | Needing to reach Pac*Bell over some matters with my residence phone, I | spotted what looked like a standard Pac*Bell pay phone. It turned out | to be a [Public*Phone] (tm) with colors and logos that are borderline | actionable in their resemblance to Pac*Bell. They have blue rectangles | in the upper left corner and an embossed logo on the coinbox cover | that from more than ten feet away looks exactly like the puckered | asshole logo of Pac*Bell. Around metropolitan Chicago, COCOTs originally looked like something untoward, but after a while all new ones installed were made to appear deceptively similar to Illinois Bell coin phones. One frequently has to get close enough to see that the logo in the white space in the upper left of the card is not IBT's before recognizing one of the buggers for sure. The guise backfires in Centel's satrapy, where telco pay stations have a distinctive boxy solid brown or gray housing and a prominent instruction card in a different position from the IBT payphones and the COCOTs. Since there don't seem to be any COCOTs manufactured to look like the pay phones of independent telqi, the COCOTs in Centel territory (usually outside gasoline stations or inside restaurants, but far sparser than in IBT country) stick out like sore thumbs. David Tamkin Box 7002 Des Plaines IL 60018-7002 708 518 6769 312 693 0591 MCI Mail: 426-1818 GEnie: D.W.TAMKIN CIS: 73720,1570 dattier@ddsw1.mcs.com
john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) (07/11/90)
In article <9530@accuvax.nwu.edu> dattier@ddsw1.mcs.com (David Tamkin) writes: >Since there don't seem to be any COCOTs manufactured to >look like the pay phones of independent telqi, the COCOTs in Centel >territory (usually outside gasoline stations or inside restaurants, >but far sparser than in IBT country) stick out like sore thumbs. Centel's other major bastion, Las Vegas, has the same problem but more of it. When COCOTs were allowed there, they sprang up like a fungus and you are hard pressed to find even one of Centel's stupid-looking (but quite functional) NT coin phones. Also, since there was no point in trying for the "Bell" look, most of the COCOTs look like anything from stamp machines to condom dispensers. And most of them might as well be; their handling of telephone calls leave a lot to be desired. It was in Las Vegas that I was first introduced to the $7, three-minute call to San Jose. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !
carroll@beaver.cs.washington.edu (Jeff Carroll) (07/13/90)
In article <9622@accuvax.nwu.edu> John Higdon <john@zygot.ati.com> writes: >In article <9530@accuvax.nwu.edu> dattier@ddsw1.mcs.com (David Tamkin) >writes: >>Since there don't seem to be any COCOTs manufactured to >>look like the pay phones of independent telqi, the COCOTs in Centel >>territory (usually outside gasoline stations or inside restaurants, >>but far sparser than in IBT country) stick out like sore thumbs. >Centel's other major bastion, Las Vegas, has the same problem but more >of it. When COCOTs were allowed there, they sprang up like a fungus >and you are hard pressed to find even one of Centel's stupid-looking >(but quite functional) NT coin phones. Also, since there was no point... This thread reminds me of a remarkable phenomenon I observed on a recent trip to Chicago. At the Dunkin' Donuts in Des Plaines (on Higgins, if I recall correctly), there are four pay phones; one next to the entrance, and three on the back wall. My recollection is that the one at the entrance and one of the ones on the back wall were Centel phones, and the other two were operated by *Illinois Bell*. Question: Are the IBT phones COCOTs? Or is the Dunkin' Doe franchise located in some sort of Telephone Demilitarized Zone? >It was in Las Vegas that I was first introduced to the $7, three-minute >call to San Jose. At least you got thru to San Jose, which is more than you'd be able to say had you used one of those funny-looking telephones that has a handle instead of a receiver :^). Jeff Carroll carroll@atc.boeing.com