canoaf@ntvax.uucp (Augustine Cano) (09/13/89)
Boy, did I just get an education in ripoffs! Public thanks are in order to the AT&T "billing questions" people for solving the problem to my complete satisfaction. I guess competition works miracles... The background: Years ago, I purchased a Star Micronics printer (yes Star Micronics is the offending company.) It worked fine for straight ascii printing, but I recently needed to do graphics. My software had no support for this particular printer and any attempt to print graphics resulted in a "Venetian blind" effect. I wondered if some emulation mode could be set. The manuals were of no help and all 4 800 customer support numbers there had been disconnected. No one on the net seemed to know what the current number(s) was (were), or of any solution to my problem. How I got the information: After not finding any number for Star Micronics in any phone book I have, I call Directory Assistance. In two minutes, I have the Star Micronics Tech support number. It is a 900 number. Having heard about these, I ask how much this would set me back: 50 cents is the answer. Odd, think I, usually these numbers are at worst regular numbers, many, like Epson, which I had just called minutes earlier, are 800 numbers. Maybe this is to avoid frivolous calls... Maybe I haven't been in the real world lately... (how widespread is this kind of thing for peripherals such as printers, modems, etc... anyway?) In any case, in less than 4 minutes I had the answer to my question: it is not possible to use this printer for graphics without modifying the software that drives it. This printer (a Gemini 15X) is not Epson or IBM compatible. The outrage: When I got the phone bill, the call cost $32.00 !!! This works out to $8.00 a MINUTE or $480.00 per hour. Kind of expensive to tell me that there is not a dip switch I can set on a printer which I could probably not sell for $50.00. This kind of rate might be reasonable for up to the second information that might allow commodity traders to make thousands per minute in the futures markets, but to answer a question about a product I already paid them hundreds for?! And it's not like I'm asking complex and time-consuming OS maintenance questions either... Apparently, the directory assistance people should not have quoted a figure, since apparently the 900 charges vary by company. Also, that kind of rate seems to be the norm. Well, maybe for dial-a-porn numbers, but I'd never heard of such thing for plain customer support. I won't even touch the issue of the propriety of the phone company referring people to those numbers without telling them in advance about the exact cost. I hope this saves someone a nasty surprise... Augustine Cano canoaf@dept.csci.unt.edu