Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!ll-xn!mit-eddie!bloom-beacon!amethyst.ma.arizona.EDU!uucp From: uucp@amethyst.ma.arizona.EDU ("Unix-to-Unix Copy") Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Submission for comp-dcom-telecom Message-ID: <8805110316.AA27295@amethyst.ma.arizona.edu> Date: 11 May 88 03:16:13 GMT Sender: daemon@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU Organization: The Internet Lines: 72 Approved: telecom@xx.lcs.mit.edu Path: amethyst!rsm From: rsm@amethyst.ma.arizona.edu (Robert Maier) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: US Sprint and COCOTs Message-ID: <636@amethyst.ma.arizona.edu> Date: 10 May 88 13:16:09 GMT Sender: uucp@amethyst.ma.arizona.edu Distribution: world Organization: Math. Dept., Univ. of Arizona at Tucson Lines: 62 Recently, to my extreme displeasure, I encountered my first COCOT. It was mounted on the outside wall of a convenience store just off the Interstate north of Phoenix. I tried to use it to place a US Sprint FON-Card (i.e., credit card) call, but found that impossible. It turned its touch-tone pad off after I placed the initial call to US Sprint's 800 number! So I decided to place my call through a US Sprint operator. I dialed 1-800-877-8000 again, and after a few seconds got one. But in order to place my call, she wanted to know the number of the phone I was calling from. That was impossible, because this wretched COCOT had no number on it. She told me she couldn't place my call without it, so I spoke to her supervisor. And to her supervisor's supervisor. Finally they managed to get Sprint Customer Service to trace my call. But all Customer Service could supply was my phone's exchange. They had no way of getting the final four digits of its phone number. This posed a problem, because (as I learned through overhearing the various conversations) US Sprint's billing software requires the operator to punch in all seven digits of the originating phone's number when placing operator-assisted calls. Finally the Customer Service type invented a random four-digit string for them to punch in. This nonsense occupied over 20 minutes of my time. (In order not to seem petty, I won't mention that I was standing outside, in shorts, in a freezing wind...) But it provides food for thought. It suggests that 0) COCOTs are anathema. (We already knew that.) 1) US Sprint's billing software is buggy. (We knew that too...) 2) The reason why US Sprint's monthly bills do not list the originating phone numbers of FON-Card calls is that they don't have them. (All the bills specify is the originating city, i.e., the exchange.) 3) In the case of operator-assisted calls, US Sprint operators normally are wholly dependent on the customer for the originating phone number. It's not clear whether they can even check whether the customer is giving the correct area code. Fellow US Sprint users are urged to complain about these points. The near-impossibility of placing US Sprint calls from modern COCOTs, their inability to resolve phone numbers completely, and the lack of security implicit in (3) altogether make US Sprint look less and less like a bargain... ====================================================================== Robert S. Maier | Internet: rsm@amethyst.ma.arizona.edu Dept. of Math. | UUCP: ..{allegra,cmcl2,hao!noao}!arizona!amethyst!rsm Univ. of Arizona | Bitnet: maier@arizrvax Tucson, AZ 85721 | Phone: +1 602 621 6893 / +1 602 621 2617 -- Robert S. Maier | Internet: rsm@amethyst.ma.arizona.edu Dept. of Math. | UUCP: ..{allegra,cmcl2,hao!noao}!arizona!amethyst!rsm Univ. of Arizona | Bitnet: maier@arizrvax Tucson, AZ 85721 | Phone: +1 602 621 6893 / +1 602 621 2617