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From: dattier@jolnet.orpk.il.us (David W. Tamkin)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Sleazy Touch-Tone Marketing Tactics
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Date: 25 Sep 89 06:25:17 GMT
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X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 410, message 2 of 9


  |From: 90784000 
  |Subject: Re: Central Office Answering Machine
  |Chet Wood wrote in Digest volume 9, issue 390:

| I had had non-touch-tone service in my home for years-- I was able to
| use touch-tones to dial with no problem, and was rather proud that I
| was avoiding the $1 + per month ripoff. About a year or two ago, the
| business office called my wife on some pretext to "review" our phone
| service, asked her the same question, and pressured her into ordering
| the extra service.

Not only Pac*Bell but also Illinois Bell.  My father has aphasia from a
stroke.  He has great difficulty making himself understood.

IBT marketing once phoned when he was home alone because I had taken
my mother grocery shopping.  When I brought her (and their groceries)
back to their house, my father told us quite clearly that IBT had
called, trying to get them to pay for tone service, and that he'd said
no.

Nonetheless, on their next bill two charges for tone service (they
have two lines) appeared, backdated to the date of the marketing call
and including the coming month.  The marketer had figured that dealing
with someone who had difficulty speaking gave him or her the right to
claim a fake sale.

I called the Illinois Bell business office for them and complained.  I
told them that my parents are perfectly willing to dial by pulse and
that they can switch their telephones over to tone after reaching the
other end when they call something that requires audio response.  The
representative tried to convince me that oh no, they can't do that
without paying for tone dialing!  If you don't pay for tone dialing,
your telephones cannot generate tones!

I demanded to speak to her supervisor and started over, asking for the
bill to be adjusted (it was, but how many people would have paid
without looking the bill over?) and for her to straighten out the
representative about audio response.  First marketing had recorded a
fake order and then the representative had either lied or proved too
stupid to do her own job.

| They probably are raking in several million dollars a year on that scam.

Pac*Bell and Illinois Bell both.

David Tamkin   dattier@jolnet.orpk.il.us  {attctc,netsys,ddsw1}!jolnet!dattier
P. O. Box 813  Rosemont, Illinois  60018-0813   (312) 693-0591  (708) 518-6769
BIX: dattier                   GEnie: D.W.TAMKIN               CIS: 73720,1570
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