Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!wuarchive!decwrl!hayes.fai.alaska.edu!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: john@bovine.ati.com (John Higdon) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Annoying Intercept Behavior Message-ID: <9748@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 15 Jul 90 19:12:03 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: Green Hills and Cows Lines: 41 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 486, Message 4 of 6 Jordan Kossack writes: > After two or three rings, my quarter is > returned and I get a message to the effect of "please deposit > forty-five cents." OK, so I drop the two bits back in, add two dimes > and redial the number. After the obligatory two or three rings, my > $0.45 is returned and I get the same "please deposit ..." message. A utility pay phone has no way of knowing how much money you initially deposit. All it knows is if you put in at least the "initial rate" for a local call, which is a "go -- no go" situation. If the initial rate is $0.20 and you dump a dollar in for a local call, if the call is completed, the phone will blithely collect your buck, period. The same goes for a "non-local" call where more than the initial rate is required. If you have deposited the initial rate, the phone must return it so that the automatic coin system (not the phone) can count your deposit from $0. What I don't understand is this "two or three" rings before your initial deposit is returned. Around here, if I dropped $0.20 into a phone, then dialed something outside of my local area, the dimes would be in the coin-return slot before my finger was off the last button. It's almost startling. Then immediately the voice would say [for example], "Forty-five cents please. [pause] Please deposit forty-five cents for the first three minutes. [longer pause] Forty-five cents please." Dropping a coin during this sequence would shut the recording up. If you wait long enough between coins you get, "Please deposit ten cents" (or whatever is required to complete the total requested). When you have complied, you get "thank you" and your call goes through. If you put in too much from not having the correct change, you would get "Thank you. You have ten cents credit for overtime." Due to the CCS7, this last message is usually spoken over the first ring. The whole procedure has always seemed most unambiguous. The only ringback tone you ever hear is that of the called number. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@bovine.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !