tel@cdsdb1.att.com (Tom Lowe) (03/02/90)
> >[Moderator's Note: Does anyone know if they are still incapable of > >accepting their own (AT&T) credit card for these calls from other than > >the Atlanta area? PT] > Not only do you need to have an AT&T calling in the Southern Bell > billing area (or use MasterCard/Visa), but they cannot handle their > own corporate calling card clients. Even thought the return address > for AT&T billing is in Orlando, FL the statement of charges is always > sent from Cincinnati, OH. > [Moderator's Note: And yet, see two items in a Digest earlier today > from readers who used Bell telco cards from New England and California > without any hassle. What gives here? Is the VoiceMark man reading > this? PT] I'm here! Actually, both were from New England as far as I could tell. The deal is, AT&T doesn't handle their own billing yet. All billing is dished out to the RBOCS. We only have a contract with Bell South to do VoiceMark billing at this moment in time because that's where our initial offering is. "For competitive reasons" I can't say when other areas will be available. We will accept certain corporate cards (or RAO Cards as we call them) (RAO = Regional Accounting Office) if the first three digits (Area Code) belong to Bell South. There are also RAO Cards where the first three digits do not correspond to an Area Code. Instead, they are specific RAO Offices that pass their billing to a certain RBOC. For example, RAO Cards beginning with 694 get billed by New Jersey Bell. We will not yet accept these cards for several reasons. The only call I found around the time Ken Rossen made his call that had anything to do with New England was was a call to a 617 number using an RAO card from the Bell South Area. I didn't have enough information to track down John Levine's call, so I'm not sure why it worked. If either Ken or John would like more information about their specific call, please email me the destination number of your call and the approximate time/date of the call. The same goes for anyone who has a problem or question. Enjoy! Tom Lowe tel@cdsdb1.att.com 201-949-0428 VoiceMark: 1-800-562-MARK
tel@cdsdb1.att.com (Tom Lowe) (03/06/90)
Me again!
I have received several messages and I saw a couple in the Digest
regarding VoiceMark(sm). I thought I would reply to these...
1. RAO Cards. Seems information we were given by a couple sources
regarding RAO Cards and the first 3 digits may be partially incorrect.
We were told to accept RAO Cards where the first 3 digits corresponded
to an Area Code in Bell South territory because they were Bell South
RAO's. That is apparently wrong. My thanks to those people who
pointed that out. By the way, You won't be getting a free ride if you
use a 601 RAO Card, we will bill eventually.
2. Someone asked about sending a message to multiple locations. We
have that feature. After you have finished recording your first
message and entered the options, you are given the opportunity to
record another message. If you select to do so, You will be prompted
for another set of options, the same as for the first message. When
you come to the Message Record portion, enter a "*T" (Star T for
Transfer) to copy your first message. I'm not sure why they selected
T for transfer, but that's what they did. I personally would have
selected *C for copy, but that's life. You can now finish the rest of
your options. You can do this for up to 10 messages in a single phone
call.
3. Someone else also suggested using the service as a greeting card:
"While the ads I've seen suggest using voice-mark in special
situations such as alerting (sleeping) family of your travel plan
changes, etc., it may also be marketed as a voice-greeting-card-type
service. The service is price competitive with a card and stamp and
suited for it. With point-to-multipoint features (suggested in one of
the netnews replies), the service also competes with seasonal greeting
cards and is much more attractive from the point of view of amount of
user effort." AJE
4. There was some question about access from Canada. Canada is
considered International and as such, can't be accessed through the
800-562-MARK number. This is not because of 800 routing restrictions,
but because of billing for VoiceMark. International access costs more
than domestic access and as such will probably cost more to record a
message from Canada for delivery in the United States. I'm looking
into more details regarding Canadian access and will post more info
when available. By the way, if you send a message to Canada, you will
be paying an international rate.
Thanks for the replies and suggestions. Keep 'em coming. It's input
like this that makes a difference!
Tom Lowe
AT&T
tel@cdsdb1.ATT.COM
201-949-0428
VoiceMark(sm) Service: 1-800-562-MARK
P.S. What would YOU like to see in a Voice Mail System?
for example:
features,
access methods (900 number, 800 number, 700 number, local number, etc)
reasons for use,
preferred pricing (flat rate, usage sensitive, etc),
etc. Anything that's on your mind.
We are trying to come up with some requirements for a Voice Mail system
and I figured what better place to get opinions that from all of you!
Post or email...makes no difference to me. I'll post summaries.
Thanks!