njs@uunet.uu.net (Nicholas J. Simicich) (07/24/89)
In article <telecom-v09i0242m07@vector.dallas.tx.us> telecom@eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Moderator) writes: [Lots of stuff] >And I might add that if your AT&T card is ever compromised for any reason, >if you call them immediatly -- 24 hours per day -- they will kill the card >on the spot AND issue you a new pin within three or four hours. That is >how serious they are about keeping service available to their customers >at all times. [....] Hmmm, interesting. Must be a recent change in policy. I remember a few years ago when my wife and I were robbed and my wallet taken. While notifying all of my credit card issuers, I happened to call AT+T. They thanked me for notifying them, and declined to issue me a new pin. According to them, they would be happy to write off any fraud that occurred, and if there were fraud, they would issue a new pin at that time. But issuing a new pin to everyone who was robbed was more expensive than writing off the fraud. Gasoline companies had the same attitude. Wait for fraud, and then issue a new number. In the meantime, I could have a new card with the same number on it. In both cases, we insisted on new numbers, as we didn't want to be the ones to have to deal with the fraud. I suspect that code abuse is more prevalent these days, and that quite a bit can be charged in a short period of time, leading AT+T to evaluate the costs differently. It took us weeks to get the new cards. I'm glad that the situation has changed. Nick Simicich --- uunet!bywater!scifi!njs --- njs@ibm.com (Internet) Seen on a button at an SF Convention: It's hard to think of you as the end result of millions of years of evolution.