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From: ames!ames!claris!portal!cup.portal.com!John_David_Galt@uunet.uu.net
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: A New Way to Get Slammed
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Date: 13 Oct 90 05:55:05 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 733, Message 4 of 11


John Higdon (john@bovine.att.com) writes:

>People would have these features for years
>without even knowing anything about them. It came to light when people
>began calling repair service claiming that their conversations would
>be interrupted with clunks and beeps.

>Pac*Bell was ordered to remove the services and retroactively refund
>to any and all who came forward after a media blitz. Another
>outcropping of that incident was the requirement that all monthly
>residence bills contain a detailed listing of the monthly charges.

I saw the same news stories I think you did, but I read them more
carefully.  No one got service they hadn't asked for, but lots of
telemarketing calls were made to offer Custom Calling -- and a few
elderly people thought they said "customer calling" or some such
thing and agreed to it without understanding it.

I don't like this kind of aggressive marketing, but it is possible
(and one would assume) that the marketing people did not intend to
deceive anyone.  I wonder if the costs of these customers' stupidity
wound up in my rates?