kjchang@ucsd.edu (K. J. Chang) (07/20/89)
I stayed in a motel near San Jose for four weeks recently. During my staying there, I made two dozen phone calls at weekends or midnights to Los Angeles. When I checked out, I found that I have to pay more than three hundred dollars for the calls. The rate I was charged is more than five times as much as that of AT&T's discount rate. I am waiting for what the motel would say about their rate. At the same time, I want to know what kind of actions I can take to get back the money I was overcharged. Thanks for your attention! Keh-jeng Chang [Moderator's Note: As the above letter demonstrates, one of the nightmares of post-divestiture telephone service is the way innocent users are routinely victimized by the johnny-come-latelys on the telecom scene. Unfortunatly, there is probably nothing our correspondent can do to get a refund. I wonder if the architects of divestiture knew, or even cared about the confusion and rip offs the American consumer has endured the past few years as a result of their decision to make the highly technical -- and I will assert also naturally monopolistic -- telephone industry open to anyone and everyone who said they were operating a 'phone company'. Shame on all of them. PT]