Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request
From: dattier@chinet.chi.il.us (David Tamkin)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Finding Out the "Real" Number behind a 1-800 Number
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Date: 22 Dec 89 16:50:15 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 9, Issue 588, message 5 of 9


Various contributors have been saying yes, no, and sometimes to the
comment that a call to the underlying local number behind an 800
number is still billed to the callee at 800 rates.  (I know from
personal experience that the answer is either "sometimes" or "no", for
I worked somewhere where it wasn't.)

If that is the reason that a company wouldn't want to give out the
underlying phone number of its 800 indial, surely they have other
incoming lines on which suppliers, local business contacts, and
employees' families can call them without their paying to receive the
calls.  It's very poor business practice to tell a potential customer
that they refuse to talk by telephone with people in his or her
location and that he or she must deal with them through the mail.

Perhaps the question to them should not be "What's the true local
phone number underlying your inward WATS service?" but rather "If
someone who wants to buy from you can't dial your 800 number where
(s)he is, is there another number (s)he can call your company on at
his/her own expense?"


David Tamkin  PO Box 813  Rosemont IL 60018-0813 (708)518-6769 (312)693-0591
dattier@chinet.chi.il.us    BIX: dattier  GEnie: D.W.TAMKIN  CIS: 73720,1570