Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!casbah.acns.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: IZZYAS1@mvs.oac.ucla.edu (Andy Jacobson) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: "Independent" Coin Phones Message-ID: Date: 19 Feb 91 19:29:00 GMT Sender: news@casbah.acns.nwu.edu Organization: TELECOM Digest Lines: 37 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 133, Message 1 of 11 Originator: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu In TELECOM Digest V11 #129, peter@taronga.uucp.ferranti.com said: >And how much did that three mile drive cost you, in time and >inconvenience? And john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) said: >And so, you confirm my statements about the marketplace. The fact is, >you went three miles out of your way to avoid dropping any money into >a device that you deemed unworthy of your business. Granted, in the Now wait just a minute. First, never in my post did I say I went out of the way to use a real phone. (I call COCOTs "decoy phones" to my friends with less telephonic inclinations). Although I stopped at that shopping center only to use a phone and it was absolutely on my way to go down the road a piece, anyone who was there shopping probably would have been inconvenienced to do so. (Especially as one person using the decoy phone appeared to be waiting for a ride.) I doubt anyone would chose to avoid a shopping center because of the stripe of pay phone. This is not necessarily because people are too stupid, don't care, or are happy with it, it is because it is not a deciding factor in their need to shop there in the first place. Once there though, it is quite impractical to stage a protest, or to forego an important call. Very few businesses are likely to suffer a loss of patronage due to their choice of a decoy pay phone, and in my example, the phones are not directly tied to the stores, but the mall management, which has no presence at all. Maybe COCOTs are too much a trifle to be effectively boycotted. Maybe though, use does not connote approval, but instead an effective extortion campaign. I was lucky, I, in that circumstance, could opt out. Often, I have no choice. I could give a dozen examples where I capitulated and paid not a pittance to talk to someone. I did (and do) not do so _willingly_. Andy Jacobson or