Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!paperboy!snorkelwacker!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: john@bovine.ati.com (John Higdon) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: New Sleazy 900 Service Message-ID: <2821@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 11 Jan 90 12:13:56 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: TELECOM Digest Lines: 44 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 24, message 5 of 12 Seth Zirin writes: > 3) WOR in NJ seems to bombard their evening viewers with ads > for various date and love lines. They state that only women > will be on the line. Since we never see ads geared towards > women that claim only men will be on the line, we can only > assume that the women are employees of the service provider > and are not women calling in on some other number. While there are female employees of the service provider lurking on the line to keep things under control (get rid of obnoxious callers, keep a sagging discussion going, etc.), the ads are set up in this manner because it is difficult to get men to call. They need to make it look like the line is teeming with women, and it usually is. > Using 900 for these calls was a bad idea. Anyone dialing an off by > one to a toll free 800 number can get zapped. Imagine trying to get > credit for a $59 wrong number from one of the fly by night "telephone > companies." As the weary recipient of many 800 number misdials, let me say that this would be a great incentive to dial the right number, don't you think? But unlike other evils in the telephone jungle, the 976/900 sleaze market is something you can easily avoid. When your car quits on some lonely road and the only phone for miles is a misprogrammed COCOT, you're screwed. When your local telco is gouging you for local service, it's already too late. If you can't get any modern features because your telco is more interested in profits than modernization, well... On the other hand, 976/900 are easy to do without: just don't dial them. I have to say that regardless of how sleazy the TV spots are, no matter how much they charge for their questionable "service", or how much money I *could* waste by calling them, I have not lost one cent to these people. This is a truly *optional* evil. You need go to no pains to avoid spending a single dime. For this reason, I can't get too excited about this particular telephony annoyance. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@bovine.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !