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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!yale-com!leichter
From: leichter@yale-com.UUCP (Jerry Leichter)
Newsgroups: net.followup
Subject: Re: charging for uncompleted telephone calls
Message-ID: <2045@yale-com.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 19-Sep-83 08:34:46 EDT
Article-I.D.: yale-com.2045
Posted: Mon Sep 19 08:34:46 1983
Date-Received: Mon, 19-Sep-83 16:40:43 EDT
References: vortex.137
Lines: 25

Re:  Charging techniques for phone calls in other countries.

Next time you want to complain about telephone company practices here, consider
the way the German PTT (Post Telephone & Telegraph - the usual abreviation in
much of the world) charges (as related by a friend who lived there for a couple
of years).

At the end of the month, you get a bill for the total long distance calls you
made.  The bill contains a single number, the amount you owe.  There is no
breakdown on a call by call basis, nor will the PTT provide you with one.
There is no record of who you called.  Further, as a matter of law, the bill
is assumed to be correct.  If you wish to dispute it, the burden of proof is
on YOU to show an error, not on the PTT to show correctness.

If you want, you can get a "phone meter" (for an extra charge, I believe).
This is simply a timing device attached to your home that duplicates the
charging algorithm used at the central office.  It allows you to check the
bills the PTT sends you.  (Presumably, it also can constitute proof of in-
correct charges.)

BTW, the PTT, which knows it can't lose, tends to respond to complaints like
"but a bill 3 times my usual bill when I didn't make any extra calls is
obviously unreasonable" with "not to us, pay up".
							-- Jerry
					decvax!yale-comix!leichter leichter@yale