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From: kaplanr@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu (Robert Kaplan)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: One More Horror Story
Message-ID: <5124@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 12 Mar 90 22:39:32 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 169, Message 5 of 10


Just when I thought Brandeis Telecommunications had gotten as bad as
it could get, comes this month's phone bill.  Checking the calls
carefully, I found _four_ calls that my roommate made.  Now, Brandeis
uses six-digit accounting codes, and at least in theory, calls made
with one's access code will appear on one's own bill no matter what
phone the call was made from -- very much like a phone credit card,
though our numbers bear no relation to any real phone number.

Well, all four calls were made with my roommate's access code, _not_
mine.  So somewhere in the billing computer, it is looking at what
extension the call was placed from instead of the access code used
[this problem has never happened in reverse; since the phone line is
registered in my name, meaning collect calls and the like show up on
my bill, not his].

And it's not like the technical problems with the system are the worst
part.  When I went in to complain, the lady there told me that I
should first attempt to collect the $10.59 _directly_from_my_roommate_!  
Imagine if AT&T were to suggest that to its customers!  Needless to
say, I told her that I had already wasted more than enough of my time,
and that Brandeis Telecommunications could figure out its own billing,
and that maybe I'd just use an AT&T card from here on.

This is not at all an isolated problem; people here have had nine-hour
calls to Brazil and other oddities on their phone bills for months
now, and there's nothing we students can really do.

Of course, New England Telephone isn't allowed to connect a direct
line to my room ... and I'm willing at this point to pay $15 a month
just so I can get 10XXX dialing, answer supervision, reasonable
billing, and twenty-four-hour-a-day operator service.

Any other ideas? (And no, I can't afford a cellular phone :-)


Scott Fybush
Disclaimer: This may not be my own opinion.

"Help me, my home phone is a COCOT!"