siegman@sierra ("Anthony E. Siegman") (05/26/88)
What legal relationship exists between me and my local phone company for those charges on my residential phone bill where the local phone company (PacTel in my case) is only acting as "billing agent" (or whatever the appropriate term may be) for services provided not by it but by others? In particular, suppose $2000 in charges for a 976 dial-a-porn number, or some long distance service, suddenly appear on my phone bill (let's leave it undecided whether they're legitimate charges or not); and I refuse to pay. a) So long as I pay my local phone company for any legitimate telephone services which THEY provided (including possibly part of the access to these other services), can they cut off my phone service, or take any other punitive measures, based on my refusal to pay the charges for which they are only the "billing agent"? b) Can they charge, or try to charge, interest on the unpaid portion? c) If answer to either of the above is yes, doesn't this assume some legal relationship between me and them, in which I've agreed to put my phone service at hostage to these other services? When I placed my order with PacTel for >telephone< services, none of these other things existed. When did PacTel and I enter into any legally valid agreement on these broader issues? [Copies of any replies direct to siegman@sierra.stanford.edu (arpa) or w6.c93@stanford (BITNET) would be appreciated; I don't always get to see this bboard.]