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From: dattier@ddsw1.mcs.com (David Tamkin)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Two Residential Phones; Same Address and 'Owner'; One Bill?
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Date: 20 Oct 90 19:12:43 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 748, Message 3 of 9


Policies vary from telco to telco.  When my second number was an
auxiliary line of my first number, I had to accept a single bill from
Centel to get the auxiliary-line billing arrangement.  The two drew
off the same prepayment for message units, regardless of which line I
placed a local call from, and ANAC gave the main number for both.
Some long-distance companies listed all calls as having been dialed
from the main number; some listed them separately.  AT&T told me,
contrary to what I've since read here in Telecom Digest, that I'd need
separate ROA accounts for the two lines and would have to pay two
minima per month or take ROA on only one line.  I told AT&T no thanks.

Later I realized that CallPak 200 would not be enough (especially
after they fixed the billing software error that was allowing me four
hundred units per month before billing additional units instead of
just the two hundred I was paying for) and wanted to switch to CallPak
Unlimited.  Centel told me that (unlike the old "Family Plan" in
Illinois Bell's CallPak days, where any residential CallPak could
cover two lines for about 20% more cost than for having it on a single
line) they would not allow auxiliary lines with CallPak Unlimited;
that would allow (for the flat $6.91 per month for an auxiliary line)
unlimited Inner Met calling from both lines.  I would have to get
separate billing and at least CallPak 80 on the other number.  Since I
make enough calls to Barrington (outside the Inner Met area but still
cheaper to dial via Centel than via an IEC), I figured heck, I'll use
up the eighty units by making Outer Met and other intra-LATA calls
from my CallPak 80 line, and if I go over the eighty units, extra
Outer Met units cost the same from either number.

So now I get two bills, sometimes arriving a day apart but usually
coming together.  ANAC (for the few months afterward that I could
still reach it) gave each line's own number and long-distance bills
now show the number of the line I called from, not that that matters
much.  I can still enclose a single check and both bills' payment
coupons in one envelope if I drop the payment off at a Centel night
depository; I hesitate to think what would happen if I tried to mail a
single check to their collection center in Lincoln, though: they'd
probably credit the whole payment to only one number and I'd need to
get the Des Plaines office not only to reallocate the payment but also
to remove the late charges: Lincoln's done that before.

Anyhow, ask the telco; I'm sure they'd prefer combining your bills
just to save on paper, postage, and inserts.  I've told Centel that
they're welcome to stuff my bills into one envelope; unfortunately,
the billing facility in Lincoln isn't sophisticated enough.


David Tamkin  Box 7002  Des Plaines IL  60018-7002  708 518 6769  312 693 0591
MCI Mail: 426-1818  GEnie: D.W.TAMKIN  CIS: 73720,1570   dattier@ddsw1.mcs.com