Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!sun-barr!texsun!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway From: klg@dukeac.UUCP (Kim Greer) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: In Defense of GTE and their Apparatus Message-ID: Date: 15 Sep 89 11:42:29 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Reply-To: klg@dukeac.UUCP (Kim Greer) Organization: Academic Computing, Duke University, Durham, NC Lines: 54 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 377, message 5 of 9 In article kitty!larry@uunet.uu.net (Larry Lippman) writes: > I am not certain why GTE operating companies have been singled out >for bashing in this forum, but I suspect that IN TRUTH their problems are >no worse than those of any Bell operating companies. You may not be cetain why GTE is "singled out", but I think I understand. For year after year here in Durham I put up with : - noisy lines - wild buzzes and garbage, not just white noise and itsy, bitsy clicks now and then - picking up the phone to dial, only to find other people on the line in the middle of a conversation - getting chewed out at work, while on call, for not answering the phone to come in to do an emergency lung scan. The phone hardly ever rang when someone called me ... lots of people said "Where were you last night? I tried to call, but there was no answer." - "touch tone" that was not buffered well enough and was converted to pulse anyway (Dial "too fast" and you have to start all over.) - dropped connections in the middle of a conversation - wrongly routed calls (several times someone in other cities would have the operator to place a call to the Methodist retirement home, only to *still* have the equipment end up connecting to me) - wrong numbers, much more than I though was reasonable to expect. Why do I say that? Well, how can even the stupidest person continue to dial "8364" instead of "4082"? Wrong numbers were frequently not even remotely similar to my number. The list goes on, but you get the point I hope. And these were not isolated things every couple of months or so --- it was *all the freaking time*. I came very close several times to have the "service" disconnected and save the money and hassle. When I lived in Charlotte (Southern Bell), phone service was just that- a service. It was not a hassle and headache that someone charged you to have. SB was great. GTE _was_ a pain in the ass. To their credit, our exchange (383) was converted to ESS of some sort or other (all I ever heard was "its digital".), and all of the above kind of non-sense has stopped. GTE still charges for dmtf (about $1.50 / month I think). I refuse to pay them for something that is in my opinion to their benefit as much or more than mine to have. Why pay for subsidizing the pulse dial phone users when tone is more efficient from the standpoint of the switch? GTE has a rather large presence here in Durham, though some parts are being moved or have moved to other distant lands (Florida I think). I have several friends who work for GTE, but I never bothered to embarass them with all of the above. I'm sure they knew it all first hand anyway. Kim L. Greer Duke University Medical Center try: klg@orion.mc.duke.edu Div. Nuclear Medicine POB 3949 ...!mcnc!ecsgate!dukeac!klg Durham, NC 27710 919-681-2711x223 fax: 919-681-5636