stanley@uunet.uu.net (John Stanley) (03/15/90)
"O what tangled webs we weave, when first we practice to telecommunicate..."
A recent series of messages discussed how to 'unlist' oneself by
changing the listing name. I had had a bad experience with a
(pre-divested) Michigan Bell, which did not allow me to do this. I
tried it with NYTEL, and LO!, 'certainly sir, what name do you want?'
There was an admitted $9.90 service order charge, which was minor, so
I said 'change it.'
This month, I see the order charge, plus a $1.81 per month charge. I am
waiting for a supervisor to call me back and I will find out what this is.
I am waiting because Happy NYTEL is trying to time my untimed service. They
claim that untimed service pays one charge per call, no matter how long the
call is. On my last bill, they charged me >$8 for 4 (very long) calls, all
local service area, all supposedly untimed. Previous bill: $12 for 15 calls.
And finally, who says COCOT and AOS weasles don't have a sense of humor?
Last bill, credit card call through a COCOT on the Ohio Turnpike to Michigan,
$1.56 for one minute. AT&T - similar distance, $.96. What's the humor? The
AOS service is named "Integretel". Like, 'integrity', only almost and not
quite.
/*------------------------------------------------------------------------
nn m m RRR i John Stanley
n n m m m R R New Methods Research, Inc.
n n m m m RRR i 6035 Corporate Drive
n n m m m R R i East Syracuse, NY 13057
n n m m m R R i
#include <disclaimer.h> stanley@nmri.com
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[Author's note: is there really a 'receipt' mechanism for submitted items? I
have not received any for any of several submissions. Is mine one of the
bouncers?]
[Moderator's Note: Yes there is. It was not operating for about a
month due to a problem in the software, but it has been running again
for a few weeks. We use mmdf here, and a file called '.maildelivery'
tells how to sort, deliver and respond to incoming mail. The
'.maildelivery' file exempts mailer-daemons and other (themselves)
automated replies, to prevent an endless loop. But there is such a
variety of names these things use it is impossible to prevent them all
without accidentally excluding some legitimate names as well (without
having the .maildelivery file go on for hundreds of lines.) The use
of a 'reply-to' line in your message almost always guarentees a
receipt. The autoreply program substitutes the 'reply-to' information
in place of the 'From' information whenever possible. If it can't,
then it replies to 'From'; but these frequently bounce. I have about
a 95 percent success rate with autoreply. PT]