Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!fernwood!apple!olivea!mintaka!mit-eddie!rutgers!ucsd!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!umich!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request
From: optilink!cramer@uunet.uu.net (Clayton Cramer)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Overbilled by Six Orders of Magnitude
Message-ID: <12722@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 27 Sep 90 18:22:44 GMT
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Organization: Optilink Corporation, Petaluma, CA
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In article <12576@accuvax.nwu.edu>, jjohnson@hpljaj.hpl.hp.com (Jeff
Johnson) writes:

> Chicago (AP) -- Cori Ward's mother got a little defensive when she
> received a phone bill for three weeks' service -- $8.7 million.

> "She says, 'I only called my sister,'" said Ward, who handles her
> elderly mother's bills.

> The bill from Illinois Bell should have read $87.98, not $8,709,800.33.

Uh, doesn't the phone company's accounting software have some sanity
checks in it?  Do they regularly send out residential service bills
that require seven digits left of the decimal point?

> Ward said she had a hard time explaining the mistake to the phone 
> company.

Whoever Ward talked to in customer service, then, needs replacement
with a non-robodroid.  If I were in customer service, and someone
called up with a $8x10^6 phone bill for three weeks of residential
service, this would be immediate evidence of serious billing SNAFUs --
I wouldn't need an explanation at all.


Clayton E. Cramer {pyramid,pixar,tekbspa}!optilink!cramer
You must be kidding!  No company would hold opinions like mine!


[Moderator's Note: Very few customers of Illinois Bell get seven-digit
phone bills each month: City of Chicago; University of Chicago;
General Services Administration (billing for all federal agencies
here); Cook County government; State of Illinois government;
University of Illinois at Chicago; Amoco/Standard Oil; and probably
the Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center, to name a few. Every
one of them have a customer service representative for their exclusive
use: someone who does nothing but attend to that customer's
requirements eight hours per day, five days per week. There are plenty
of six-digit monthly billings: Chicago Board of Education, including
the City Colleges; Transit Authority; and Commonwealth Edison.   PAT]