Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!killer!vector!nobody From: dgc@math.ucla.edu Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: New way to donate money Message-ID: Date: 19 Jan 89 17:16:39 GMT Sender: chip@vector.UUCP Lines: 64 Approved: telecom-request@vector.uucp X-Submissions-To: telecom@bu-cs.bu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.uucp X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 21, message 3 A few more quick comments: 1. In California, the state PUC did order the telcos to allow 976 blocking and initially they charged $2.00 per line for the "service". I discussed this rather extensively with the PUC attorney who handled the matter. The telcos didn't want to do the blocking! I know nothing about other states. 2. When we had finally were able to have 976 numbers blocked, our local telco (General Telephone) informed us, IN WRITING, that, pursuant to Federal law, it was not blocking out-of-state, long-distance 976 numbers. Whether some individual long-distance services do so, I don't know. At the moment, I have NO WAY of blocking 900 calls and fairly expensive ones are now being advertised. Look at the TV commercials around 4:00 am for the $1.00 per minute 900 party lines! 3. The reply to the comment, "What is so hard about calling your service rep and saying you refuse to pay for something?" is easy. a. You dial the 800 number for the service rep (General Telephone has centralized the service). b. You wait 2 minutes until someone answers. c. You wait another 3 minutes until the call is transferred to a person who handles your type of account. d. You dither and bargain, get questioned, etc. and finally, maybe, if you are trusted, the calls are deleted from the bill (in the case when he had 976 calls deleted, we were asked to write a Formal Letter of Request to a Mrs. X of the telco for this deletion, and we did so). In some cases, occuring to close friends of ours the telco has simply refused to delete calls, and it has taken lengthy negotiation with the PUC to have that done (turned out it was a "bug" in the billing system). e. You get the next month's bill and find that it was done all wrong. It's easy to waste a great deal of time. Once again I reiterate. If the telco's are going into the general billing service, like Visa, Mastercard, etc., (And note that there's no particular reason that you shouldn't be able to buy theater tickets, airline tickets, automobiles, rent cars, reserve hotel rooms, etc., using 976 or 900 calls) then they should be subject to the same regulations that these other operations are, including the various kinds of recourse which protect the customer--the card companies must refuse to pay companies when the customer so requests, etc. and failure to pay charges for other than telco services should have no effect on telco service. This implies that the billing should be separate, so that the charges can be distinguished. dgc David G. Cantor Department of Mathematics University of California at Los Angeles Internet: dgc@math.ucla.edu UUCP: ...!{randvax, sdcrdcf, ucbvax}!ucla-cs!dgc