Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!netsys!vector!telecom-gateway From: hp-sdd!hplabsz.HPL.HP.COM!kjchang@ucsd.edu (K. J. Chang) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Expensive Motel Phone Calls Message-ID: Date: 19 Jul 89 20:48:12 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Reply-To: "K. J. Chang" Organization: Hewlett-Packard Laboratories Lines: 23 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 246, message 7 of 8 I stayed in a motel near San Jose for four weeks recently. During my staying there, I made two dozen phone calls at weekends or midnights to Los Angeles. When I checked out, I found that I have to pay more than three hundred dollars for the calls. The rate I was charged is more than five times as much as that of AT&T's discount rate. I am waiting for what the motel would say about their rate. At the same time, I want to know what kind of actions I can take to get back the money I was overcharged. Thanks for your attention! Keh-jeng Chang [Moderator's Note: As the above letter demonstrates, one of the nightmares of post-divestiture telephone service is the way innocent users are routinely victimized by the johnny-come-latelys on the telecom scene. Unfortunatly, there is probably nothing our correspondent can do to get a refund. I wonder if the architects of divestiture knew, or even cared about the confusion and rip offs the American consumer has endured the past few years as a result of their decision to make the highly technical -- and I will assert also naturally monopolistic -- telephone industry open to anyone and everyone who said they were operating a 'phone company'. Shame on all of them. PT]