carols@husc6.harvard.edu (Carol Springs) (02/01/90)
In article <3310@accuvax.nwu.edu> HAMER@ruby.vcu.edu (ROBERT M. HAMER) writes: >Another thread: C & P has a .50 (or .75?) per month charge to maintain >your inside wiring. I maintain my own inside wiring. It seems to me >that periodically, that charge reappears on my phone bill and I have >to call them up and tell them to take it off. I would call that >sleazy behavior -- they keep sticking on a charge for an optional >service that I don't want and I have to keep telling them to take it >off. At New England Telephone, the charge is $.45/month and is called Telesure-Basic. On a recent Saturday morning, I got a call from New England Telephone hyping a great new service called "Telesure-Plus." If I chose this wonder-option, then not only could I pay (some $ amount I quickly forgot) every month from now on, but I would be protected from getting billed $55/hour for service in my home if the problem turned out to be in my phone equipment rather than in the inside wiring. In addition, New England Telephone would lend me, "free of [additional] charge," a telephone to use in place of my faulty phone, until I could get around to getting the old phone repaired or replaced! Wow! Now, I realize that not everyone has spare phones around to check these things out, and that to some people the idea of borrowing a friend's phone is somehow inconceivable. Also, some folks probably just don't bother (even when cautioned to do so by the repair people themselves) and then get angry when they're hit with a huge bill for the service call. But "insurance" like this, by whatever name, is still gouging. I've had to call repair at New England Telephone a couple of times because of a dead line. The first time was after my second line was installed but never came up. The second time was a network problem, nothing to do with inside wiring (or, of course, my phone) at all--but I got the Telesure-Plus hype call a week or two after I'd reported the problem. Could be coincidence, I suppose. The real point is, the folks staffing the repair line *do* tell you to try another phone in the jack, and caution you that you'll be hit up for big bux if the problem turns out to be in the phone. Offering insurance against an easily-checkable possibility contributes to the illusion that customers are helpless and must be protected from the exorbitant expenses that can arise from their own telephobias. And how does one protect against large expenses? With a little bit every month, of course. (Please don't bother telling me that I'm probably wasting my money on the $.45/mo. Telesure-Basic, or basic inside wire maintenance, that I mentioned. I knew that even when I signed up for it.) Carol Springs carols@drilex.dri.mgh.com
geek@media-lab.media.mit.edu> (02/04/90)
In article <3435@accuvax.nwu.edu> drilex!carols@husc6.harvard.edu (Carol Springs) writes: >At New England Telephone, the charge is $.45/month and is called >Telesure-Basic. On a recent Saturday morning, I got a call from New >England Telephone hyping a great new service called "Telesure-Plus." >If I chose this wonder-option, then not only could I pay (some $ >amount I quickly forgot) every month from now on, but I would be >protected from getting billed $55/hour for service in my home if the >problem turned out to be in my phone equipment rather than in the >inside wiring. ... >...I got the Telesure-Plus hype call a week or two >after I'd reported the problem. Could be coincidence, I suppose. I just had one of my lines fixed. It was clearly an external wiring problem, so I disconnected by hodge-podge of phones, modems, fax, etc. and called it in. The repair order person started asking the usual questions; when I explained that I had a phone jacked directly into my network interface (and the line noise was audible to both of us) she said "sounds like our problem, we'll fix it by 6 PM Saturday". The line got fixed the next day. That evening we got a call from the NET telemarketing folks, which confused my wife as she interpreted it as a subtle threat to bill us $55/hr to fix the line. She was annoyed! Anyway, a question. The telemarketer seemed to imply that if someone came out to fix a problem, and it turned out to be on our side of the network interface, that we *had* to let them fix it on the spot at $55/hr. I had always assumed that you would have the option of telling them thanks but I'll do it myself. Does anyone know if you have a choice to refuse service on your own wiring if someone on the spot claims it is your wiring in response to your service call? chris
ccplumb@lion.waterloo.edu (Colin Plumb) (02/05/90)
In article <3506@accuvax.nwu.edu> Chris Schmandt <mit-amt!geek@media-lab. media.mit.edu> writes: > Anyway, a question. The telemarketer seemed to imply that if someone > came out to fix a problem, and it turned out to be on our side of the > network interface, that we *had* to let them fix it on the spot at > $55/hr. I had always assumed that you would have the option of > telling them thanks but I'll do it myself. Does anyone know if you > have a choice to refuse service on your own wiring if someone on the > spot claims it is your wiring in response to your service call? No; you can tell him no thanks (you can tell him to get off your property, simple as that), *but* the repairman can bill you for the time he took to determine that it was your fault, and probably something for travel. You're gonna end up paying something. By the way, does anyone know if residential 800 is available in Canada? The marketing droid I talked to hadn't heard of it, but I didn't trust her knowledge of the more obscure features. -Colin
dave%westmark@uunet.uu.net (Dave Levenson) (02/08/90)
In article <3506@accuvax.nwu.edu>, mit-amt!geek@media-lab.media.mit.edu (Chris Schmandt) writes: ... > Anyway, a question. The telemarketer seemed to imply that if someone > came out to fix a problem, and it turned out to be on our side of the > network interface, that we *had* to let them fix it on the spot at > $55/hr. I had always assumed that you would have the option of > telling them thanks but I'll do it myself. Does anyone know if you > have a choice to refuse service on your own wiring if someone on the > spot claims it is your wiring in response to your service call? In New Jersey, the policy is that if they dispatch craft to a customer's premises and the trouble turns out to be in customer owned and maintained equipment, the customer is billed for the time spent in the service call, and that no repairs are actually made by NJ Bell personnel. The hourly rate is different (do I remember $45 per fifteen minutes?) but it applies to the time spent traveling, diagnosing, etc, but not fixing it. Dave Levenson Voice: (201 | 908) 647 0900 Westmark, Inc. Internet: dave@westmark.uu.net Warren, NJ, USA UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave [The Man in the Mooney] AT&T Mail: !westmark!dave