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From: DREUBEN@eagle.wesleyan.edu (Douglas Scott Reuben)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: AT&T International Call Blocking, Again
Message-ID: <16204@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 20 Jan 91 08:38:31 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 50, Message 1 of 11


I was speaking to a friend of mine today (before going over to visit
her), and during our phone conversation, she mentioned that her "best
friend" was in Isreal teaching English, and due to the hostilities in
the area, was unable to get through. My friend was pretty anxious to
call her teacher friend, so I tried it out from my own phone before
leaving.

I've only called that country once myself, so I looked up the country
code, city code, etc., (to make sure that she had not made a mistake),
and then dialed the number, and it worked fine, on the first try. So I
figured that she was calling at a busy time, or SHE misdialed.

When I went to her school to pick her up, I asked her to do EXACTLY
what she did on her previous attempts. So she went to the dorm
payphone, dialed 01-972-4-333-xxx-#, and got the AT&T "boing". I
entered MY calling card to make sure that her card wasn't invalid or
over the limit (she has one of those AT&T cards with no physical phone
number).

An AT&T operator came on, and said that one can NOT make Calling Card
calls to that country. I asked why, and she said (incredible as this
may sound) "The state on New Jersey doesn't have a credit card billing
agreement with Israel". I told her that I really don't buy it, and she
just asked if I wanted to talk to her supervisor. I told her "No, not
really, I know they'll give me some story about fraud ... I'll just use
MCI instead."

I remember a few months ago we were discussing this very same thing,
and if I recall correctly, a letter was sent to the chairman of AT&T
via AT&T mail (or AT&T's in-house system, if not the same). What ever
came of this?

I'd be interested in knowing because I am considering writing to them
letting them know how inconvenient it was not to be able to get
through. Chances are that I'll never have to call there again, but
that misses the point. If I WANT to call there, I, as a customer in
good standing, should be allowed to. I am thoroughly upset by the
attitude which a company I (generally) have a great deal of respect
for seems to be willing to take, especially at a time like this when
it is very important for some people to get through.

I'm also interested in how legal this is ... I'm not up on common
carrier law or administrative law, but if someone who knows could
point me in the right direction maybe I could investigate this a bit.

And YES, I am up at 4AM typing this, probably becuase I am quite upset
with AT&T. (I feel like that guy in the AT&T ad at the payphone where
he always gets connected to Fiji ... but in this case I *AM* dealing
with AT&T!! :) )

Thanks for any info/help,


Doug

dreuben@eagle.wesleyan.edu  //  dreuben@wesleyan.bitnet


[Moderator's Note: Don't you love the bogus and totally stupid stories
the AT&T operators make up about these things?  Don't waste time with
them or their supervisors. I mean, 'a billing agreement between New
Jersey and Israel' ... now really.  When you get into a hassle trying
to place an international call with your AT&T card tell the operator
to connect you to the Pittsburgh IOC and that you don't want any
backtalk from her about it. A lady in our office had the same problem
from our *office* phone Thursday. About noon Thursday, recall that the
air raid sirens went off accidentally, and the television said Israel
had apparently been hit a second time. This lady is Jewish; some of
her family live in Israel. Her trouble is she is super honest about
the use of the office phones. We use several thousand dollars of AT&T
international calling each month; she could have easily just dialed
her family direct and the call would have passed unnoticed on the
office phone bill. But oh no! She doesn't believe in that, and instead
tried to dial it using her personal AT&T card so she would get the
bill. Despite the fact that AT&T had a positively identified
'bill-back' number (our office number showed on the operator's tube)
and despite the fact that our office does a large volume of business
with AT&T, the operator and her supervisor refused to honor this
lady's request!  It made me sick to think this lady is upset about her
family and AT&T wants to play games. I manage the phones in our office
and I am tempted to pull all sixteen of our dial one plus lines, our
T-1 and our tie lines away from AT&T and give them to Telecom*USA.
Then when our AT&T rep comes around to ask what I did that for, I'll
smile sweetly and say, "because your operator said there is no billing
agreement between New Jersey and Israel ..." as I forcibly walk him
out the door.  I'm growing increasingly disenchanted with AT&T and
their high-handed, and probably illegal discriminatory practices.  PAT]