anon@nowhere.uucp (01/27/89)
Should I ask Harold Green For $30.00?
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Here is a tale of woe.
We were in Florida on vacation when I tried to make a call
from the hotel room phone to Chicago. Wanting to use the AT&T as
a long distance carrier (I am an employee plus I get a discount),
I dialed an operator and got an "International Telecharge" operator
somewhere in Texas. When I asked to be connected to an AT&T
operator, the reply was "we cannot do that" (!!). So I went to a payphone
on the street and got exactly the same result!!! The "equall access code"
(i.e. 01-288) did not work either. So I asked the ITI
operator how can I go about making a long distance call using AT&T,
her answer was that if I dial direct using my AT&T credit card, the
call would be automatically billed to AT&T. Somehow that did not sound
right to me, but I went ahead and dialed DIRECTLY using AT&T card.
What choice did I have at that point anyway?
Well, you may have guessed it. When the bill came, all the calls were
billed as International Telecharge Operator Assisted (!!) calls. The price?
About $1.25 a minute for a late evening call from Florida (Marco Island)
to Chicago. I can call Europe for less than that!
I called Illinois Bell and Southern Bell consumer affair departments
and basically their answer was, sorry, but that is the way it is.
I guess I am out of 30 bucks and somewhat wiser. But if this is what
the deregulation was all about, I think it stinks.
Peter Pavlovcik,
att!iexist!peter
[Moderator's Note: Yep, that is what degregulation is all about. Why
don't you write Harold Greene and tell him what a mess he has made of
the phone network. Share his response with us, if he deigns to answer you.]boottrax@csd4.milw.wisc.edu (Perry Victor Lea) (02/01/89)
In article <telecom-v09i0037m02@vector.UUCP> anon@nowhere.uucp writes: > >Well, you may have guessed it. When the bill came, all the calls were >billed as International Telecharge Operator Assisted (!!) calls. The price? >About $1.25 a minute for a late evening call from Florida (Marco Island) >to Chicago. I can call Europe for less than that! > I was in the same situation when I tried using my ATT calling card from a phone up in Minneapolis. THe phone was assignbed to the MCI long distance service.. I never made the call and just quietly charged the guys house for the long distance call. ( He's my best friend, so he expects me to pull stunts like that). I couldn't understand why it was so hard to dial a 1800 and enter a calling card number from an MCI phone?
edg%bridge2.3Com.Com@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Ed Greenberg) (02/03/89)
... posters tale of trying to get the AT&T operator deleted >(i.e. 01-288) did not work either. So I asked the ITI > > Peter Pavlovcik, > att!iexist!peter > Peter, Next time, please try 10288 rather than 01288. -edg -- {decwrl|sun|oliveb}!CSO.3com.com!Edward_Greenberg Ed Greenberg -or- 3Com Corporation {sun|hplabs}!bridge2!edg Mountain View, CA 415-694-2952