My 10-10-xxx died one weekend - no doubt Something to do with some M$ software they'd forgotten to cleanse..

Operator suggested, "Well, I can place the call via AT&T". Foolishly I neglected to ask, "and at what cost?" -- merely presuming I would be gouged (as non-subscriber) for $3-5 for my 5\ufffd semi-emergency call.


Bill came:

1 minute (more like 20 seconds) @ $14.38

Wait.. there's more -
Fed excise tax @ $.48
LD-Universal Connectivity Charge @ 1.52

TOTAL for 20 sec call to Ohio: $16.38

Natch I call AT&T. Early levels were actually sympathetic, being Real people; agreed They would be pissed off too! but had no authority to reverse. Natch. After 3 levels of such I reach a guy who asserts, "Hey the PUC says its legal!" I say, [IWETHEY provides such Handy phrases]

"In Murica, slavery was *legal* til quite recently too.. Now, is your charge ethical?"

Etc. (man was speaking with a black-ethnic accent/style BTW) Cackle - no effect. He spoke with Management's Voice - unflinchingly as do the Righteous always. I could see that shiny Suit over my mere black&white non-video phone!

No, they would not correct this charge. No matter the ill will - or the contrast that, they often try to bribe you to join their little abattoir with $40-50 'credit' for signing up.!. No problemo - that this interaction meant that I would next mention the story wherever relevant and add them to the select M$-like Shit list.

I could.. have refused to pay. Nice lady at GTE mentioned that, since it was 'legal' for them to rip me off, the result would be: I would be guaranteed local fone service but NO long distance (not ATT, GTE -Verizon or Anyone). Sewed up - kinda like the RIAA wants everywhere?

So I wonder.. as AT&T (and Earthlink) gobble up all the loose ISPs and cable sources -- reassemble their original monopoly but with Dubya breaking ground for them now -- what level of atrocity would lead to a DOJ breakup of AT&T AGAIN???



(Yes, I jest - This IS Corp-Am. But it's fun to imagine what an actual democracy might do about such Corporate policies.) Imagine; you're on a small island with a few people. You slash an artery. Two folks have equipment but one is out fishing. You ask for a tourniquet. Guy replies, "how much ya got in your wallet, Bub?" That's: AT&T-2002

Aren't "self-correcting market forces" (and a Corp-purchased PUC) just the greatest fiction story yet?



Ashton
Next stop - PUC. Fruitlessly of course.

PS - anyone noticed quite recently: that virtually ALL the CC companies are raising 'late' charge rates to Draconian levels? and also raising overall interest following some oversight: for (one ex.) SIX MONTHS -- after which, if you are Good, they deign to reduce it to the previous usurious level (while banks pay you 1.5% on "savings").

Obviously too.. this impacts the poor the very most, along with all the less-poor who got axed or otherwise have no simple alternative to running a balance. Ahhh I See. Never mind.




PPS [edit] anyone here happen to have a secret phone # for a Hi(er)-level AT&T Suit? I'd promise never to reveal the source, and I'd be polite in explaining my query and hearing the justification I'm not smart enough to have spotted.

- on those services which still 'compete' -- like good capitalists claim.

I've had very good service at 5\ufffd/min anywhere in US via -811. Only one other time were they down for.. a couple hours, and I was able to reach them on another matter, about as quickly as you can get anyone live at the Too-Big 3. EZ enough to put the prefix onto a button, I find. (When a private Sprint account with a friend lapsed..

I never let local fone Co. sign me up for any of the Biggies - as they are constantly switching rates -- and you Have to call to find out how much you're being charged over the latest best-offer. They will Not tell you, I found. (Verbal promises are meaningless at the phone droids - also a lot of written ones)

I shall now refresh my list to find out what other independents have survived, for next time. Cheap lesson. Eventually I will uncover an ATT exec; some folks I know seem to know (about) everyone. Whether or not I receive a refund is now beside the point - but it will be a pleasure to mention the effect of their arrogant behavior, describe how many Xerox copies of my bill shall make the rounds - and direct him to Slaughterhouse Five for re-viewing at his leisure..




Nobody fucks with Paul Lazzaro!
:-\ufffd

Yeah - true. I reported on the incident only to alert anyone else who might be on the road, dropped cel-fone in a privy and hears on payfone, "Would you like fries with that? "AT&T to place this call for you?"

As I said - cheap lesson! ie Never Assume that, because it's the dregs of a once massive Murican Corporate Entity.. that their rates, though a bit higher - will at least be Honest.

(I knew that - now I Know that fershure)



Ashton

See.. you were a member of the ATT Club. Yours was a dispute about a patently sleazy 'charge change' (the std Fone BS game IIRC). I think this means that, you indeed had a court case for their having behaved in a Microsoftian way = the court might well have come to same conclusions as they did re the Original Microsoft's behavior.

But.. my rip-off had to do with a %^*#^@ PUC-SANCTIONED ripoff: for those *not* a member. (ie anyone in an emergency? on-the-road? etc) Since the PUC has jurisdiction over setting max ""legal"" fees and ATT has chosen That value for their Standard rate: I believe I would lose, even if the judge might agree it was a rip-off which any 9 year old could identify. The Majesty of that Nation of Laws / fuck the smaller unfunded people, y'know?

Correct me if I'm missing something.. though I do believe that some org could make this into an impeachment of the PUC / as not acting in the public interest / as obviously whoring around with Fone Suits, etc. But not on my budget, alas.

(Other windmills are apt to have a better tilt-quotient than this Murican Corporate Standard Behavior 2002 IMhO)



Ashton :(

but that is debatable - point is moot as, with "automatic deduction" via bank xfer: payment will go out - there's a 30-day buffer to alter that option; no provisions for emergency like.. Corporate Misbehavior. I have to assume that Verizon is not lying about this part. But the prohibition of using any LD service.?. I think may merely be the ultimate revenge, after a series of no-pays of legitimate bills. As I said - moot just now.

I'll find an Other way to recapture this from AT&T with Interest, in time. My bill is the evidence. Perhaps I will need the Peruvian legislator to explain it to AT&T ...



Ashton