DREUBEN@EAGLE.WESLEYAN.EDU (Douglas Scott Reuben) (04/08/88)
Recently, I received a bill from New York Telephone for a Bell Calling Card call from a private payphone. (I think they are called "COCOTs"). A local call in New York City using a calling card is usually $.47 for the first minute, including the surcharge for using the card. My bill from the private phone/COCOT, which was operated by Central Tel. (??), came to $3.18!!! Outraged, I called NYTel (collect), and they proceeded to tell me "Well, you know, you SHOULD have used a New York Tel phone." I told them thanks for letting me know after the fact, and they told me "Ok, we'll take the $3.18 off now, but it you do it again, we'll make you pay." Fair enough. But what am I supposed to do next time I am on the road and the only phone is one of those private phones? I mean, they actually make GTE payphones in GTE territory seem nice! ;-) Apparently, the COCOT does not dial through the calling card call directly, but instead calls an 800 number (in this case) or a local number, to reach an Alternate Operator Service operator. (I know it was an 800 number becuase you could hear the phone dialing out the 800 call.) The phone seems to have been able to pass along the number I was trying to reach, but not the calling card number I dialed in. When the Alternate operator came on, she asked me to tell her my WHOLE calling card # again, SLOWLY, in front of a group of people, which I'm sure Bell is just very happy to hear about. :-) When I received the bill, the COCOT call was billed as an Alternate carrier call, IE, after my New York Tel local call section and the AT&T Long Distance call section, there was a section that said "Central Tel." and the charges for that one call. I'm not sure how they do this, but is it possible that like some Bell Co's that have their own Equal Access codes for local service (Bell of PA, New Jersey Bell, and New York Tel., for example), Central Tel has its own equal access number, which the operators on the other end are somehow hooked up to? (IE, they dial 10XXX and then 0+AC+# ? Or all calls that the operators make use a Central Tel 10xxx number so that the Bell Operating Company knows to bill that call at a different rate?) I'm curious as to how they do this, and any ideas on this would be appreciated. (I'll summarize if anyone cares...) I called my local Bell company at home in Connecticut (SNET) to ask them about this, and they said its the first they ever heard of a $3 surcharge for a calling card call, and said I must have made a mistake. In any event, they assured my, SNET would never bill me for that. I'd like to go back to that payphone and see if they are right! (SNET still has, in many ways, a pre-divestiture atitude, which is refreshing after talking to New York Tel customer reps....!) At least Connecticut does not have private payphones, so we don't have to worry too much about that here! Finally, on a recent trip to Tahoe, I noticed that a lot of the payphones, as well as the hotels, were handled by a AOS outfit called NTS. NTS seems to operate just like Central Tel, although I haven't received a bill from them yet, so I don't know how high their rates are. Many hotels there used the same service. Interestingly, there are many AT&T-like payphones, which appear to be old Bell phones which were rebuilt and are now sold by AT&T as private payphones. (They mailed me a catalog about these...). These phones are especially deceptive, as they don't let you "tone-in" more than 14 digits, just enough for a calling card call. They also charge $.25 for an * 800 * call (!!!!) and a 950 call (again, !!!!!). So after foolishly putting in my $.25 cents to use my school's 800 number to get their PBX, the phone wouldn't let me tone in my access code, and the PBX hung up on me. When I called NTS for a refund, they (rudely) told me that "The 25 cents to dial an 800 number is a service charge, and you don't get it back, period!". In cases like this, its best to just dial the Pac*Bell operator (or any local operator, but not "00"), and have them place the clal for you. I know, Pac*Bell is very fussy about getting an AT&T operator for a cusotmer, but the minute you tell them "I'm calling from a private patyphone" they suddenly laugh and put you through, no questions asked. In most cases, although it is slightly more inconvenient to go through the operator, it saves a lot of time and a lot of quarters in the long run! This works pretty well for most COCOTs, so I usually do that rather than dial direct and let the COCOT charge me 600% what I should normally pay... Sorry this was so long...I think I'll go back my car up into a private payphone and see if it takes a beating as well as Bell's do ! :-) -Doug DREUBEN%EAGLE.WESLYN@WESLEYAN.BITNET Dreuben@Eagle.Weslyn
rbd@NEON.GATECH.EDU (Richard B. Dervan) (04/08/88)
I had a similar experience where in Atlanta with NTS pay phones. I got a call on my pager and went to the nearest pay phone. I used by Southern Bell calling card since I was out of change and expected to see a $.55 charge on my So. Bell bill. Lo and behold, there's a $7.00 charge from NTS for a call from Atlanta to Atlanta. I contacted Southern Bell about this and they gave me the toll-free number to NTS for billing questions. After one month of busy signals, I called Southern Bell again and really complained this time. They told me that they would return the charge to NTS as 'uncollectable'. It seems that NTS is one of the services that cater mostly to hotels for local and long distance calls. Hence, the outrageous long distance charges many hotels have. I have definitly learned my lesson.... If it doesn't have the familiar little bell symbol and/or have the words "genuine bell" on it, I will run (not walk) away from it. -Richard _________________________________________________________________________ | Richard B Dervan BitNet: ccoprrd@gitvm1 | | Office of Computing Services ARPA : neon!rbd@gatech.gatech.edu | | Georgia Institute of Technology or : rbd%neon@gatech.gatech.edu | | Atlanta, Ga 30332 CIS : 70365,1012 | | (404)894-6808 (Work) MCI : RDERVAN | | uucp: ...!{decvax,hplabs,ihnp4,linus,rutgers}!gatech!neon!rbd | |__________________"We don't fit the mold...we build it"__________________|