Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!texbell!chinacat!telecom-gateway From: wcf@hcx.psu.edu (Bill Fenner) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: My First Experience With Stupid LD Carriers Message-ID: Date: 29 Nov 89 02:51:26 GMT Sender: news@chinacat.Lonestar.ORG Lines: 56 Approved: telecom-request@chinacat.lonestar.org X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 535, message 3 of 7 I had my first experience with call supervision problems today. But first, a little history. When I ordered my telephone line, I was too young (or something) to have the service billed in my name (no proof of ability to pay). So I took care of ordering service, and my father called them to just say "Yes, it's OK." They asked me which long-distance carrier I wanted: ITT or AT&T. Well, I chose ITT, just for the heck of it; I never expected to make many long distance calls. The line was for my computer, which was running a BBS, and why in the world would a BBS make outgoing calls? That, of course, was before I discovered FidoNet. Now my BBS makes several long-D calls a month. I always got my ITT bill as part of my Bell of PA bill, but it was about 3 months delayed. I wondered why in the world it was always 3 months late, but didn't bother to do anything about it; I figured ITT was just lazy. So I open the mail this morning and find a quarter-inch thick phone bill. When I came to, I took a look at it. 580 one-minute calls to Texas. Hmm. So I called the number that was on the bill, and got a Bell of PA rep. He said "Oh, ITT bills if you let it ring more than 45 seconds." I said "*WHAT???* That's hardly fair. How am I supposed to know that?" He mumbled something about he wasn't told it himself; he found it out during an investigation of another problem. Like we weren't supposed to know. So he conferred with his supervisor, and said "Ok, we'll take the charges off this month's bill, but that's it, you have to fix your computer not to let it ring for 45 seconds." I said "Wait, they're billing me 3 months behind, what if there are more of these calls?" He said, "Well, you should have set up an account with ITT to get your bills quicker." Again, "Nobody told me that!". So he said he'd take any one-minute calls to that number off my bill up to today (11-28-89). I said I was satisfied with that, and then he transferred me to ITT to set up an account. First, no one answered the main number after about 20 rings, so he went and looked up another number and got a representative. She took the phone number I was calling about, and a phone number to reach me at, and said that the person who is in charge of adding accounts was busy and I would get a call back in 15 minutes. I was around for several hours afterwards and did not get a call. I could also not get anyone to answer on their main number. So I finally managed to get the Bell of PA rep to get me what I wanted, although it took a bit of prodding and 3 or 4 consultations with his supervisor. ITT's customer service seems to be nonexistent, so far. The practice of charging after 45 seconds of ringing is pretty ridiculous, as far as I'm concerned. Do other carriers do this? As far as I can tell, ITT's rates are about 2/3 of AT&T's, at least for the calls that I have been making. Anyone have another carrier to suggest? Relatively inexpensive, doesn't do stupid things, etc. Bill Fenner wcf@hcx.psu.edu ..!psuvax1!psuhcx!wcf sysop@hogbbs.fidonet.org (1:129/87 - 814/238-9633) ..!lll-winken!/