Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request
From: drilex!carols@husc6.harvard.edu (Carol Springs)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: "Sleaze"
Message-ID: <3435@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 1 Feb 90 06:14:16 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 69, message 1 of 10


In article <3310@accuvax.nwu.edu> HAMER@ruby.vcu.edu (ROBERT M. HAMER) writes:

>Another thread: C & P has a .50 (or .75?) per month charge to maintain
>your inside wiring.  I maintain my own inside wiring.  It seems to me
>that periodically, that charge reappears on my phone bill and I have
>to call them up and tell them to take it off.  I would call that
>sleazy behavior -- they keep sticking on a charge for an optional
>service that I don't want and I have to keep telling them to take it
>off.

At New England Telephone, the charge is $.45/month and is called
Telesure-Basic.  On a recent Saturday morning, I got a call from New
England Telephone hyping a great new service called "Telesure-Plus."
If I chose this wonder-option, then not only could I pay (some $
amount I quickly forgot) every month from now on, but I would be
protected from getting billed $55/hour for service in my home if the
problem turned out to be in my phone equipment rather than in the
inside wiring.  In addition, New England Telephone would lend me,
"free of [additional] charge," a telephone to use in place of my
faulty phone, until I could get around to getting the old phone
repaired or replaced!  Wow!

Now, I realize that not everyone has spare phones around to check
these things out, and that to some people the idea of borrowing a
friend's phone is somehow inconceivable. Also, some folks probably
just don't bother (even when cautioned to do so by the repair people
themselves) and then get angry when they're hit with a huge bill for
the service call.  But "insurance" like this, by whatever name, is
still gouging.  I've had to call repair at New England Telephone a
couple of times because of a dead line.  The first time was after my
second line was installed but never came up.  The second time was a
network problem, nothing to do with inside wiring (or, of course, my
phone) at all--but I got the Telesure-Plus hype call a week or two
after I'd reported the problem.  Could be coincidence, I suppose.  

The real point is, the folks staffing the repair line *do* tell you to
try another phone in the jack, and caution you that you'll be hit up
for big bux if the problem turns out to be in the phone.  Offering
insurance against an easily-checkable possibility contributes to the
illusion that customers are helpless and must be protected from the
exorbitant expenses that can arise from their own telephobias.  And
how does one protect against large expenses?  With a little bit every
month, of course.

(Please don't bother telling me that I'm probably wasting my money on
the $.45/mo. Telesure-Basic, or basic inside wire maintenance, that I
mentioned.  I knew that even when I signed up for it.)


Carol Springs                          carols@drilex.dri.mgh.com