Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: Linc Madison Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Leaving Brief Messages With Free Collect Calls Message-ID: <11463@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 29 Aug 90 08:15:38 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Organization: University of California, Berkeley Lines: 28 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 605, Message 1 of 10 I have a very simple (and legal!) method of evading payment for calls to my parents. If I'm home, I call them. I say, "Mom." My mother says, "Do you want us to call you?" I say, "Yes." We hang up, I pay anywhere from 12c to 25c for the privilege, she calls me back. If I'm away from home, but in 415 area code, I use my MCI card, and answer the question, "Yes, I'm at 415-XXX-XXXX." Because of the "Around Town" feature, I still pay two bits or less for the call. If I'm farther afield than that, I just call on AT&T and bill to my parents' calling card number, but in that case the one-ring scheme doesn't work, and the operator is likely to get suspicious about my calling p-to-p and asking for a callback to a roadside payphone, so the 80c surcharge is worth the savings in trouble. Seriously, with one-minute calls from a residence as cheap as they now are, I can't justify using some cumbersome ringing/collect/person scheme to get my parents to call me. I can afford 12c for a half-hour call half way across the country, and my parents don't call me every time someone hangs up on a wrong number. Linc Madison = linc@tongue1.berkeley.edu [Moderator's Note: You are not 'evading' payment (illegal). You are legitimatly reducing the costs of your calls. (legal). PAT]