hes@ecsvax.UUCP (Henry Schaffer) (02/12/86)
<>Our local operating company, Southern Bell, has announced its "optional Trouble Isolation Plan for single-line residence and business customers" which "is designed to help eliminate customer confusion and frustration having to do with repair responsibilities." "Here's how it works. When a Southern Bell technician visits your premises on a repair call, there is no charge for locating the trouble if you belong to the plan. If the trouble is in the facilities we maintain, we will make the repairs at no charge. If the trouble is in the telephone set, the technician will isolate the problem but won't be able to fix it since the instrument is no longer the property of Southern Bell. Under the plan, customers do not have to be concerned about the possibility of paying $31.25 for a repair visit only to learn that the problem is not in Southern Bell's facilities" "The plan is optional and costs $1.05 a month." (There is no service order charge if I sign up in Feb., $10.75 residence, $14.50 business, thereafter.) How do you like this, insurance against finger-pointing! With a break-even point at about 30 months it might be worth it for non- technical people who buy complicated/unreliable telephones. My own experience with Western Electric pushbutton phones is that I haven`t had to have a home repair call for over 10 years. I wonder if Southern Bell had to get permission from the state Insurance Commission? (i.e., is this legally considered insurance - my guess would be -no-, it probably is considered a maintenance contract.) What do you think it is? --henry schaffer
bill@crystal.UUCP (Bill Cox) (02/23/86)
In article <1177@ecsvax.UUCP>, hes@ecsvax.UUCP (Henry Schaffer) writes: > <>Our local operating company, Southern Bell, has announced its > "optional Trouble Isolation Plan for single-line residence and > business customers" which "is designed to help eliminate customer > confusion and frustration having to do with repair responsibilities." > > I wonder if Southern Bell had to get permission from the state > Insurance Commission? (i.e., is this legally considered > insurance - my guess would be -no-, it probably is considered > a maintenance contract.) What do you think it is? Wisconsin Bell recently had to cancel a similar setup, except it was 50 cents or so per month for "premises wiring maintenance". The Public Utility Commission told them it was insurance, and they had to stop selling it. [Another issue was that the charge was pretty well hidden in the bill, with some sort of negative option to get rid of it.] bill cox -- William Cox Computer Sciences Department University of Wisconsin, Madison WI bill@wisc.crys.edu ...{ihnp4,seismo,allegra}!uwvax!bill
mark@umcp-cs.UUCP (Mark Weiser) (02/23/86)
I recently had a strange experience with the $0.50 inside wiring maintenance
charge in the Maryland area (C&P Telephone). I called to order a new phone
line into my house, and at the end of the call discovered a discrepency
in the expected monthly bill. It turns out that, without even asking,
they had added the $0.50/mo. inside wiring maintenace plan to my order.
Now for the truly strange part: I was doing my own inside wiring, and
they knew it. A major part of our discussion had been how they should
just bring the wire to the house and I would handle it from there. I did
NOT have maintenance on my other phone line, and they knew it (we had also
talked about that).
When I found out about the unexpected $0.50 charge, the following
conversation occurred:
Me: But how can you possibly agree to maintain something that you know
nothing about?
Tpc: The days when we have to do everything are over. We don't care who
installs the wires, we'll maintain them.
Me: But what if something goes wrong? You'll fix it, under the $0.50/mo.
maintenance?
Tpc: Oh, nothing can go wrong.
Me: But how will you know that I did the installation right?
Tpc: If you do it right, then it will work. If you don't do it
right you won't be able to use your phone. If you do it
right your phone will work and then we'll maintain it.
About this time I decided to get off the phone. The catch-22 of
"we'll maintain the wires as long as they work, but as soon as they don't
then you must have done something wrong and we won't" was giving me
the chills.
-mark
--
Spoken: Mark Weiser ARPA: mark@maryland Phone: +1-301-454-7817
CSNet: mark@umcp-cs UUCP: {seismo,allegra}!umcp-cs!mark
USPS: Computer Science Dept., University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742