henry@GARP.MIT.EDU (Henry Mensch) (04/05/88)
The AT&T Public Phone Plus service is most often found in airports, rail
stations, etc. There is a card reader at the bottom of the phone which will do
the right thing (purportedly) with your AT&T card (I didn't think to try my
FoNCard), a bank card, or an AmEx/DinersClub/etc.
Some days ago I was in Boston's Logan Airport and I spotted one of these phones
so I went up to investigate. Instead of seeing a "Welcome" sort of screen on
the display, I saw a display which read "if you want to make another call,
press the <frob> button." Further inspection revealed that the receiver, while
sitting in the hangup hook, didn't fit well enough to depress the lever which
would have terminated the calling session. Over the next few days I noted that
the same situation existed on other "Public Phone Plus" devices in remote
places (other terminals of Logan Airport, as well as JFK and LAG airports).
Hasn't anyone been burned by this yet?
# Henry Mensch / <henry@garp.mit.edu> / E40-379 MIT, Cambridge, MA
# {ames,cca,rochester,harvard,mit-eddie}!garp!henrypbowden@polyslo.UUCP (Prentiss Bowden) (04/09/88)
In article <8804050224.AA01237@garp.mit.edu> henry@GARP.MIT.EDU writes: > >stations, etc. There is a card reader at the bottom of the phone which will do >the right thing (purportedly) with your AT&T card (I didn't think to try my >FoNCard), a bank card, or an AmEx/DinersClub/etc. I once used one of these AT&T Calling Card phones in San Francisco while waiting for a friends plane to arrive. I walked up to the first available phone and the last person to use it didn't completely hang up the phone either-- similar to what is explained here. I dropped their call and placed a call out on my card, but as usual I got an answering machine. I DID try out my other cards on my answering machine and it did MUTE the audio to the AT&T card phone, it passed the info to my answering machine at the other end. I tried it with an ATM card and a FON card and both sequences were there. > >Hasn't anyone been burned by this yet? > I am sure they have... and I am sure that AT&T is probably not so forgiving to see you place a "legitamate" call and then see perhaps one or more denied toll charge calls. Maybe SOMEONE out there might be able to deal with this, which seemingly isn't just a localized (Boston and SF aren't too close) problem. ___ -'/ > / |"Pete" Bowden, P.O. Box 905, Santa Maria, CA 93456-0905 /___/___ --/--___ | Sysop--LOIS BBS 805-928-6969 (4 public dialups) / /___> / /___> | Packet: N6QDC@W6IXU or N6QDC@WB6DAO / _/\____/\_/\____/ | ...{csun,sdsu}!polyslo!pbowden Quitting while behind is NOT a viable alternative!