Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request
From: toddi@gtisqr.UUCP (Todd Inch)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Phone Frustration
Message-ID: <2597@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 4 Jan 90 22:18:31 GMT
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Reply-To: toddi@gtisqr.UUCP (Todd Inch)
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 6, message 4 of 8


In article <2520@accuvax.nwu.edu> peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) writes:

>In article <2497@accuvax.nwu.edu> tad@ssc.UUCP (Tad Cook) writes:

>> Our PUC has an 800 number.  A call to the PUC with the location and
>> telephone number of the phone has resulted in DISCONNECTION of the
>> non-complying phone every time.

>Pretty nasty thing to do to some individual or small businessman who
>(as you later pointed out) may have NO idea of the legal requirements.
>How about trying to talk to the person running the thing, first?

Although this would be the polite thing to do, and I would probably
try it first myself, I disagree that a person is being unreasonable or
rude by calling the PUC instead.

Since I'm not at all connected with the telecom biz I may
misunderstand some of the details, but it seems that if you are going
to provide telephone service of any type to the public, through a
privately owned coin phone in this case, it is your responsibility to
know what you're doing and to make sure you've followed all the
regulations.  The public should be able to hold you accountable for
this.  If you don't know what you're doing, you should hire a
knowledgable consultant.

If I were in the restaurant business, for instance, I'd have to
understand sales tax, health regulations, etc.  (Hmmm . . . should a
customer tell me about gross things he found in the hamburger, or just
call the Health Dept?)  There are plenty more examples.

I assume that the phones in question are intended to make profits or
to support another business (hotel, etc) which make profits.  I
wouldn't feel quite so strongly about this if the phone were truly a
public service rather than a revenue-generator.

There is already too much confusion in the telecommunication business
which the consumer has to deal with.  I can do without more naive
business people trying their hand at these new markets.

It IS reasonable to try to keep others from having trouble with a
problem (billing, operation, or whatever) phone by having it shut off.

How easy would it be to find the owner/operator of the phone, let
alone convince him of the problem?

Most of the times I've tried to convince a business that they have a
problem, either I can't find the right person or they don't care.
I've found this to be true of even very small business that you'd
think would want your input.  Kinda sad.  That's my $.02 worth,
anyway.  


Todd Inch, System Manager, Global Technology, Mukilteo WA
(206) 742-9111 UUCP: {smart-host}!gtisqr!toddi ARPA:
gtisqr!toddi@beaver.cs.washington.edu "You are the booger in the nose
of my life." - My wife, to me. (Jokingly?)  Disclaimer: My boss will
read this while checking up on me and will disagree.