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From: wah@zach.fit.edu (Bill Huttig)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: MCI/Telecom*USA Personal 800 Story Continues
Message-ID: <16694@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 5 Feb 91 00:13:45 GMT
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Reply-To: Bill Huttig <wah@zach.fit.edu>
Organization: Florida Institute of Technology, ACS, Melbourne, FL
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 94, Message 1 of 11


I just thought I'd post an update on the status of my account.

The Telecom*USA central divison finally changed the flags on my phone
line around the 27th of Jan.  I received a copy of my 1/1/91 invoice
today. I also recieved two welcome kits.

The first one was a PrimeTime plus Personal 800 and it had the info on
the second 800 number I set up (The one that rings at my aunt's).  The
other one had a brand new 800 number and was a regular Personal 800
account ($5/mo $.25/min type) ... so I called and the rep found that
they had set up a new account for me.  She transfered (I guess
she requested that it be transferred) it to my existing account. Then I
had her explain the other charges section on the bill.  It seems that
they break down the monthly charge into PrimeTime Minimum Adjustment
which only shows if you didn't use your hour ($6.50) usage.

The other is called PRIMETIME OPTIONS ... mine shows $4.75 which is
$1.00 for the 10% day discount and $1.75 for intrastate option and
$2.00 for the 800 number ... She said somthing to the effect that the
charge was $2 no matter how many 800 numbers you received.  (According
to the bill I have this seems true.)

On my first invoice I had a lot of calls that were for one minute and
I thought were not answered and I asked for credit, (This might be due
to the fact that the equipment in this area was at one time SouthLand
before SouthernNet bought it and then Telecom*USA but the
TELECOM*USA/MCI Supervisior stats that is impossible to have
unsupervised calls and will not credit those calls. As far as 800
calls are concerned there were only a couple on my bill so I couldn't
tell. I guess I need to keep a log every time the numbers are used.

I called Torie several times last week to see if my account was
credited or not ... she was 'unavailable'. I left one message but she
never returned my call.  They say I owe $149.19 (for two months). I
did a rough rerate my self and decided that Telecom*USA rates that
showed are about 27%-30% too high. So I should end up with about $105
after adjustments.

Also, I have found a way to get signed up for the service without
getting MCI/Telecom*USA (if you have RingMaster) as the dial one
service.  Simply sign up for PrimeTime and use the RingMaster (or
whatever your Phone Co. calls it) number as the line you want
connected. There is no way a call can originate from that number.

>> issued is basically just a shared number among a large number of
>> customers.  (Anyone know how many?)  They say it is much like a

When I talked to MCI/TELECOM*USA a while back a very nice Customer
Service Representative said 3000 PIN's per number.

In article <16621@accuvax.nwu.edu> forrette@cory.berkeley.edu (Steve
Forrette) writes:

[about MCI/TELECOM*USA stating that the PIN was the last four digits
of the number]

They asked me for a PIN also ... I don't know why ... Maybe the
originally planned to give each user his/her own number with a PIN so
that they didn't have to adjust for wrong numbers.

But if you dial a call from a rotary phone the MIC/Telecom*USA
operator will answer and ask for the PIN and complete the call.


Bill