sb@gmeeca.UUCP (04/19/88)
There is a federal investigation of the phone companies that service hotels
etc. These phone companies provide operators and very little else. Even if
you use MCI from a hotel, they tack on an incredible service charge (like $21.
for a call that normally costs $4.00). Are these third-party operator services
one and the same as the services that support COCOTs? If this is either true,
or if there should be an investigation, this present comittee (meeting out of
Wash. DC presently investigating about 12 companies), should be informed of the
wrong doings.
--Bradley
P.S. I live in MI, so we are a little behind the times here and do NOT have
COCOTS as prominantly as elsewhere.roskos@csed-47.UUCP (Eric Roskos) (04/22/88)
>"One very large company uses US Sprint BECAUSE of these problems. It says that >the bills arrive anywhere from one to six months late, giving them a nice cash >cushion, and usually come with less than 70% of the calls they know they made. >US Sprint will have to shape up fast, because such problems cannot last much >longer, if it wishes to survive." Unfortunately, the "less than 70%" part is not true in the long run. From my own experience, the remaining 30% do appear on your bills, it's just that they appear 6-8 months later (my most recent bill shows charges from August of 1987). The reason it is such a problem is that, when they (temporarily) lose calls from your bill, the calls are randomly lost throughout the month -- it's not as if a block of time during the month that you can readily identify has not been charged for. Unless you keep records of all your calls, it is often not apparent that any were lost.
msmith@TOPAZ.RUTGERS.EDU (Mark Robert Smith) (05/04/88)
Personally, when I am in a hotel, I never use the room phone for
outside calls, except when the other end is paying for it, because
they often charge more than the pay phone down the hall for local
calls. I use my MCI card for long distance, and my quarter for local,
fro the pay phone (unless it's a COCOT, of course, but I haven't seen
many of these.).
Mark
--
Mark Smith (alias Smitty) "Be careful when looking into the distance,
RPO 1604, CN 5063 that you do not miss what is right under your nose."
New Brunswick, NJ 08903 {backbone}!rutgers!topaz.rutgers.edu!msmith
msmith@topaz.rutgers.edu <This space for rent, I can't think of anything>