Ken@cup.portal.com (10/23/89)
A few comments on some payphone experiences I had on a recent trip: 1) Most people do not understand that they may not get AT&T when making a call from a payphone. I sat and watched one person try 4 or 5 times to make a credit card call. He was trying 0+, 1+ and a few other ways and kept hanging up when he got NTS operators. I finially got up and showed him how to dial 10288. At least he realized he wasn't getting AT&T. Another grandmotherly looking lady was happily punching in her card number for several calls. I hope she doesn't have a heart attack when the bill comes. 2) Somebody other than AT&T has the 0+ concession at Atlanta. The card on the bottom of the phone makes this reasonably clear, but you have to know what they are trying to say. There was a statement to the effect: Dial 1-800-288-xxxx for rates. Maybe it's my ^^^ suspicious mind, but they could have selected a different prefix. 3) Back in the days of the Bell System, AT&T would not let you advertise funny names as numbers (i.e. 1-800-car-rent) in the Yellow Pages. Or at least if you did that, you were told to put the corresponding number in the ad also. I happen to agree with that philosophy, as I find it very hard to dial such numbers. Times Change. I was in several airports this week that did not have AT&T as the 0+ concessionare. At each airport there were large lighted signs that said, "To use AT&T, you must first dial 10-ATT." The number 10288 did not appear anyplace on the ad. 4) In Milwaukee, the 0+ concessionare is MCI. I wanted to use Sprint but rather than dial the 800 number to make a credit card call, I thought I'd try dialing 10333+0+NPA+NXX+XXXX and entering my foncard number. After three recordings saying my card number was wrong, I got a Sprint Operator. She already had my card number, but asked me to repeat it just to verify it. She said it should have worked, but it took her several tries before the computer would approve the number. This being the first time I had tried calling this way, I have no idea if it was a one time glitch or a problem with Sprint's card authentication procedures. 5) Also at Milwaukee, MCI is perfectly happy with my AT&T card number, but Sprint won't take it. ken@cup.portal.com