Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!Teknowledge.COM!unix!synoptics!bionet!hayes.ims.alaska.edu!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: john@bovine.ati.com (John Higdon) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: A New Way to be COCOTted Message-ID: <13948@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 24 Oct 90 02:36:25 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: Green Hills and Cows Lines: 40 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 757, Message 5 of 10 On Oct 23 at 1:40, TELECOM Moderator and Martin Weiss write: > [On] the collect call issue. Presumably the choice > of carrier should be made by the person paying for the call (that's > the way economics is supposed to work, anyway). If someone is calling > you collect from a COCOT or a telephone served by an AOS with whom you > don't care to do business, then how do you get to choose? > Moderator's Note: A sent-paid call and an incoming collect call are > not quite exact opposites of each other. It is just because this is true that I take a somewhat draconian stance on the problem. I don't accept collect calls. Period. No exceptions. The moment I sense that an operator is even thinking "collect" I say "absolutely not" and hang up. Now, while you are staggering hand over heart to your terminal to talk about "emergencies" and "unforseen situations", allow me to give you the view from here. I have not accepted a collect call from ANYONE in about twenty years. In that time, no one has dropped dead, gone hungry, or served time as a result. There is always a way to pre-pay a call, whether it be change in the box, third-number, credit card, etc., etc. If some agency is calling to tell me about a relative or what-have-you, they can prepay the call. A one-minute call from anywhere in the country at the most expensive time of day is under $0.50 (I never said I wouldn't call the person back). The most destitute or cheap individual can afford that. If the only choice is a gouge-a-matic AOS, why should I pay rather than the caller? To that end, I have collect calls blocked in the Pac*Bell database. This means that a collect attempt within the LATA and a collect attempt within the state via AT&T will fail before it is placed. My personal feeling is that the concept of "collect" is an anachronism. Those who wish to receive collect calls as a "courtesy" to others will just have to accept the risk that accompanies their largess. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@bovine.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !