steves@tekgen.bv.tek.com (Steve Shellans) (11/12/88)
My real question, which I will get to in a moment, is why does my local phone company offer a service (tollpac) which they never advertise? But first, a little background. I live in a town (Newberg, OR) that has two prefixes: 625 and 538. However, it is a long-distance call from one to the other, even if the phones are just across the street from each other, which is frequently the case. (BTW, they are both area code 503.) I believe this is unusual, and I think that the reason is historical -- originally, these exchanges were operated by two different phone companies, although both are now GTE (and have been for at least 15 years). About 10 years ago, the local newspaper reported that GTE was offering a new service that would allow subscribers in one prefix to buy a block of time to the other prefix at a substantial discount from the normal long distance rates. A couple of years ago, they expanded this service (renamed "Tollpac") to include other long-distance exchanges in the state. Again I learned about it from the local newspaper. Now for the question. If it is economically attractive to GTE to offer tollpac, why don't they advertise it? I have never received a flyer with my bill, for example, although there are flyers for lots of other things such as answering machines and phones. If it is *not* ecnomically attractive for GTE to offer tollpac, why are they doing it? Before you reply that the PUC must have ordered it on the basis of consumer outcry, I am not aware of any such outcry. No mention in the newspaper, no stories from neighbors, etc. Perhaps I am a cynical person, but I also believe that the PUC would not do this on their own initiative for altruistic reasons. Finally, let me say that their strategy, whatever the reason, seems to be working -- I believe there are exceedingly few tollpac customers. My reason -- from time to time, I get a bill that has gone bonkers.. When I call customer service, their first response is that it is news to them. Then, later, when they call me back, they tell me that a new billing system was just put in place, that the problem only affects tollpac customers, etc. Apparently, there are so few tollpac customers, that the programmers doing the billing system either don't know about its existence, or feel that it is not worth the effort testing the new software against tollpac accounts. What's going on here? Steve Shellans Tektronix, Beaverton OR steves@tekgen.BV.TEK.COM it will be corrected