Schwartz.osbunorth@xerox.com (10/12/89)
>McGowan was particularly irked by a claim that MCI's fax service has >57 percent more problems than AT&T faxes. He said that number was >arrived at by figuring the difference between AT&T service -- with 4.9 >percent errors -- and MCI, with 7.7 percent errors. Rather than >reporting the 2.8 percent difference, the ad claims a 57 percent >higher rate -- the percentage increase between 4.9 percent and 7.7 >percent. >"Talk about misleading," McGowan said. I'm not a fan of AT&T, but 7.7 percent errors vs. 4.9 percent errors IS a 57 percent higher error rate! If these were plane crashes we were talking about, we would certainly say that airline X has 57 percent more crashes than airline Y. Saying that MCI has 2.8 percent more errors would be misleading. I think McGowan should get "particularly irked" about some OTHER example of misleading advertising on the part of AT&T. Victor Schwartz [Moderator's Note: McGowan is asking that AT&T be forced to discontinue all advertising of their products and services for a full year, and then at that point to submit future ads for judicial review and approval. Knowing McGowan, I'm amazed he didn't simply ask that AT&T be forced to discontinue all operations and turn over all their customers to him. That would make it a lot easier to build his empire. PT]