Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!watmath!att!bellcore!rutgers!apple!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!wuarchive!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway From: arc!chet@apple.com (Chet Wood) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Pac*Bell: The Old Bell System? Message-ID: Date: 20 Sep 89 21:29:29 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Organization: Advansoft Research Corp, Santa Clara, CA Lines: 41 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 390, message 7 of 7 john> Over the past months, a number of disturbing manuvers have been john> executed by Pacific Telesis. It would appear that in direct john> contradiction to the spirit of Judge Greene's order, our RBOC is trying john> to re-create the old Bell System. john> [ ...lots of complaints about PacBell muscling in everywhere... ] I have been waiting to whine about a pet peeve of mine for quite a while. This is a good chance, though it's a nickel-dime matter compared to John's complaints. Yesterday I was ordering new service and the lady asked me if I wanted touch-tone service. I said no, and she acted real surprised and said, "Don't you have any pushbutton phones?" I said "they're pulse" and that satisfied her. I think that's distinctly fraudulant. If they are going to be allowed to push so hard for their extra dollar a month, at least they should be limited to correct terminology and ask, "aren't you using Touch-Tone (TM) phones?" I had had non-touch-tone service in my home for years-- I was able to use touch-tones to dial with no problem, and was rather proud that I was avoiding the $1 + per month ripoff. About a year or two ago, the business office called my wife on some pretext to "review" our phone service, asked her the same question, and pressured her into ordering the extra service. They probably are raking in several million dollars a year on that scam. Why are they be allowed to charge extra for this anyway? I'm sure it doesn't cost them anything, given today's technology-- pulse dialing may even cost them more, since the line must be open longer. John, I've heard that the PUC has a bbs. Would it do any good if I called them up and complained? Chet Wood ~ (408)727-3357 arc!chet@apple.COM . Advansoft Research Corporation chet@arc.UUCP . 4301 Great America Parkway apple!arc!chet . Santa Clara, CA 95054, USA