The Joys Of Big Business; or Why AT&T Long Distance Sux 426
I've recently moved to Boston, as those who've been on IRC with us, and watched the news lately have seen. It's great -- I love the city, and I like where I live. When moving, I had to do the typical thing of signing the house up for electric, gas, water and all that good stuff. One of the interesting things that Boston differs from Holland in is that you can have different local phone providers. Not being very happy to start with concerning Bell Atlantic/Verizon, I opted instead for another giant media company, MediaOne. They only offered local service, not long distance, so I selected MCI Worldcom as my long distance. I'd been happy with them before, and they offered me frequent flyer miles.
I'm happily going along this morning, deleting submissions when I get call from MCI Worldcom wondering why one of my lines has left MCI. After spending the 30 minutes to convert my line back, I become progressively more frustrated.
You see, the FTC had given MediaOne and AT&T permission to merge, which they did recently. Since then, I've gotten a call a day on my lines, asking me to switch to AT&T for long distance. I refuse. It costs more, and I don't get frequent flyer miles. I've told them this, but they somehow persist, thinking perhaps that they can wear me down, like so much water on rock.
But they evidently decided that me saying No meant Yes, and so slammed me. I hate this practice. What a waste of time and energy. And they know that they'll lose my business, and that if I get my gumption up I'll call the State AG's office. I think is illegal. If not, it should be.
How many other people have had problems with this?
Thr *real* per minute costs of long distance=$0.01 (Score:2)
Why do you think 3rd party companies can buy bandwidth from AT&T and turn around and resell LD service for 5 and 6 cents per minute? While AT&T still charges my Grandma, on the "basic" plan, $0.22/minute for LD? (She doesn't care because she hardly makes LD calls)
The answer is that bandwidth today is DIRT CHEAP. And the stupid consumer is happy so long as rates aren't going up. It's like if world oil markets dropped to $3/barrel while the at the pump prices went to $0.99. Stupid consumers would praise this as fantastically great when they're actually being ripped off blind.
Wek, FUCK AT&T. I have no LD carrier on my line. When I need one, I go to whatever 10-10 carrier is cheaper today. What? Your "promotional period" ended? Bye bye!
Since the AT&T breakup, yeah, we got rid of the monopoly. Woo hoo! But instead what we got in return was the formation of a price fixing, OPEC style cartel. Woo hoo indeed. Hey, DOJ! Quit wasting time on Microsoft, have a committee determine the real cost of a minute of LD and make that data public. See the real Mob leaders shit their pants in anger.
Cashed checks (Score:2)
I've also had several unpleasent AT&T experiences, but this one's kind of fun.
First, my local carrier has my long-distance service locked down. Can't be changed without a written authorization on my part. Contact your local phone company for info.
ATT has been running a promotional offer in which they enclose a check for $40 and request you sign the back, which is a contract to switch carriers. I cross out the contract, write "FOR DEPOSIT ONLY, NOT A CONTRACT" on the check, and deposit it. Twice this summer. Makes up for 7 minutes of hotel bills that ran me $50 last winter.
A check is a check is a check is a check. A rebate is a rebate. These were not rebates. ATT called one time to request a service change, I told them politely to engage in an act of self-indulgence.
I'm not recommending the tactic, but it worked for me.
What part of "Gestalt" don't you understand?
Say "Take me off your list now" (Score:2)
Re:*DO* blame the telemarketers (Score:2)
No, you moron. Not having credit cards is just one facet of it. Not having anyone willing to extend you any sort of credit whatsoever is a problem in today's world. Have you ever tried buying a house or car with bad credit? Maybe you make enough money that saving up for a big-ticket item isn't a problem, but the vast majority of people don't and have to pay for such things in installments. Not to mention that being denied a credit card does inconvenience people, sometimes considerably. Not having a credit card can be a real problem if an emergency occurs. Quit being such a twit and get off your high horse.
Re:*DO* blame the telemarketers (Score:2)
Debtor's prison is not a physical place. It's the inabilty to purchase anything that you cannot pay cash for at that very moment. It's the inability to make purchases over the internet. It's the much increased difficulty in buying big-ticket items due to the fact that you can't pay via cash or check, nor can you finance them.
Re:*DO* blame the telemarketers (Score:2)
I had thought that debt could not be transferred to someone else.
Oh yes, it most certainly can be transferred. It sucks, but that's the way the law works.
1-800-ATT-CALL (Score:2)
AT&T was getting slammed by its contractors (Score:2)
Not that I have sympathy for anyone who contracts to telemarketers--I think that telemarketing should be a criminal offense, or that at the lest there should be a national don not call database, available in hashed form, and that calling anyone on the list for marketing purposes should be a crime.
WHile I"m at it, AT&T screwed things up even having them as my carrier. I have their 5c all day plan (just try to get my wife to wait for eveneing . .
While I'm grumping about AT&T, idiots, and gtraduate school: At Iowa State, the school *was* the local telco in student housing. This meant that the school got excellent (for the time) rates, as they were buying somewhere around 10,000 lines in a single transaction . . . They switched carriers partway through, adn we got 10c around the clock while the best deals were generally paying a monthly to get 10c at special hours. We got *3* calls from AT&T wanting to know why we switched--somehow they couldn't figure out that they lost all those lines in a single contract . . .
hawk
Vis-a-vis Recording Calls... (Score:2)
Re:Hey Slashdot (Score:2)
There's nothing to gain by posting anymore, since MaxKarma was set to 50. I mean, I was often afraid of losing Karma back when I was at 120+, now I feel like I've got nothing to lose (hint, I'm at 96-ish now). Before, when I had something stupid to say, I'd post at 1, because that wouldn't attract the wrath of the moderators quite as much, probably because the moderators would moderate at +2, refusing to go down into the gutters of slashdot and rooting out the 0 and 1 first posters. But now, what good does having 96 Karma do me? Nothing. So I'll burn it down to 50, and if I last that long, maybe I'll change back into a good citizen. Until then however, it looks like there are a LOT of others out there like me who just don't give a crap anymore. Perhaps if Hemos would give me a blowjob if I stayed above 100, then I'd consider holding back my trollish ways.
I'm even considering reading slashdot at +3 now, because it's really taking up too much of my time reading all the +2 crap. I know that there are occasional pearls at +2, hell, even some very good stuff is at 0 or 1. I'm missing out. Oh well.
confirmation! (Score:2)
(just kidding) -
and it's not "State AG's", it's "State A'sG". The plural of Attorney General is Attorneys General.
Re:Consumers vs Corporates (Score:2)
in fact, it IS how these things work in corporations. Bean counters make the decisions.
Re:Check with JunkBusters for Efficacious Tips (Score:2)
Re:Goodbye Slashdot (Score:2)
Wouldn't work... (Score:2)
Re:Damn thing doesn't work (Score:2)
It's not just illegal, it's a Bad Thing (Score:2)
But the fun thing is the local carriers. The 'local' part of our phone company will require more and more stringent checks when switching service to long distance providers with a high rate of 'slamming'.. Some of them were so high on the list that the requirements normally discouraged customers from switching altogether! This sends a message.. You cut into the money, and they listen
This is done because when people are slammed, they normally call their local provider first to complain. The local provider doesn't want people tied up on those calls, and so they punish the long distance carriers.. eventually, the LD carriers get the message and fly right.
Re:PUC + TCPA = LART (Score:2)
The other idea that popped into my head was when I get really dumb tech support, I consider recording them. The legality behind this would be that they told me that "In order to assure quality customer service, this call may be recorded" which I interpret as granting me permission to keep them inline by recording them. Think it would hold up in court? :)
--
Re:Consumers vs Corporates (Score:2)
Here's a cheerful thought for the day. While excoriating "big corporations" for being heartless, mean-spirited assholes, keep this in mind. Firestone -- if they did run the numbers and decided that it's less money to pay wrongful deaths instead of recall -- is, in a way, forced to do so. If they don't, and just recall, they can be subjected to a shareholder lawsuit for not doing their due diligence.
It's a mean, mean world filled with vicious assholes. Picking on "big corporations" is great entertainment, because they are a legal-fiction of a person, not a real one, and it's easy to pick on somebody that doesn't really exist.
It's almost an exercise in navel-gazing, really.
Re:Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (Score:2)
AT&T Slammed Me...Or At Least Tried (Score:2)
I got a little suspicious, and got her phone number and extension, and told her that I'd call her right back. Reviewing our bills, I found I was right -- we'd been with Sprint ever since we started the business 14 months previously. Just to check, I called Sprint, and they said that we were still with them, just as we'd always been.
I called the woman back and demanded that she explain herself. She stuttered out a lame excuse: her computer said that I was with AT&T before, and that we're now with Joe's Long Distance, or something like that. I told her that was an absolute lie, and asked to speak with her supervisor. She said that she didn't have one, and hung up.
That is sneaky. BTW, we're now with Cable & Wireless [cw.com]. Our long distance bills have gone from -- really -- $13 / month to $1.25.
-Waldo
Re:What does Slamming mean ? (Score:2)
e.g. you are signed up for Foo long distance service, and company Bar switches your line to their service instad of Foo's.
i heard a while back that this sort of thing was happening to pay phones as well, since a lot of the newer payphones can take credit cards, and most people don't use 10xxx to select a LD carrier.
--
Re:Hmm... (Score:2)
AT&T Sucks (Score:2)
The funny thing is that even back in the day when I _had_ AT&T they still called asking me if I wanted to switch! My reaction would be....uhm morons...I use you already, are you that stupid?
Any company that can't keep track of its own customers has serious problems.
-Julius X
Re:Thought you could tell the phone company.... (Score:2)
Call your local telco and tell them that you want to put a PIC restriction on your line (after you get it changed back to MCI Worldcom), and they should do that, it shouldn't cost you anything, and it *should* make it harder to get slammed again, even for AT&T which now owns your local telco.
I mentioned this in another post, but definitely call the state utilities commission (PUC), they *will* take action on this...even with the big guys like AT&T.
If AT&T slams you again, you probably have an even *better* case against them in the PUC since it indicates that its likely that the local telco is treating AT&T more favourably than other l/d companies which is a *BIG* no-no.
Jeff
Talk like rock (Score:2)
This is just a joke, I'm just joking, that is true.
Geoff
Re:Don't blame the telemarketers (Score:2)
paulb
There are worst thing than slamming (Score:2)
Hasdi
Re:How rich are you, -Ben? (Score:2)
The original poster meant that Slashdot should retain a lawyer for misc law questions. duh.
Re:Check with JunkBusters for Efficacious Tips (Score:2)
1. If a telemarketer calls you and you are not home, your phone number is placed on a "call back real soon" list.
2. Do NOT swear at the telemarketer because they will often add you to the "call back real soon" list to further annoy you!
3. Politely ask to be added to their "do not call" list. This is surprisingly effective. It also will cut your current call short. The telemarketer knows you will never be a prospective customer, so they will want to get off the phone with you ASAP. They want to move to better prospective customers.
Re:Say "Take me off your list now" (Score:2)
- #1 (listed) should be the modem
- #2 should be the fax
- #3 answered as voice (or routed by the voicemail modem for processing as a primary number)
- #4 should be processed likewise, only at a different priority, greater or lesser, your choice.
(funky ring signal)Quick, Robin, it's the Batphone!
Oh, I never did say, why answer first as a modem rather than a fax? The odds of those scrooey telemarketers figuring out you're a fax and bombing it with junk (a violation of 47 USC 227, but they don't care) are a lot worse than some ev1L h@X0r d00d breaking into your properly secured (you ARE using 255-character MD5 passwords, aren't you?) Linux or OpenBSD box with the modem....
--
Geek by nature.
Linux by choice.
Re:Thought you could tell the phone company.... (Score:2)
Simply put, if I signed up with Company A, and for some reason company B is doing my LD, how is it my problem?
Re:Hey Slashdot (Score:2)
Jesus Christ indeed, you have a Score:2? Man, I thought I was appealing to the Slashdot Elite. Looks like I only was heard by fools and the ignorant.
Figure it out for yourself buddy. If you want to be a Troll, what the fuck do you need a holiday for? Go wild. Use that Karma. Abuse Slashdot. Hell, everyone else is, with or without my being here.
Idea (Score:2)
-cpd
Drone back.. (Score:2)
Independent Verification (Score:2)
<tangent>I'll never do any business with MCI. They bought my name form SallieMae (the student loan monopoly). They send me more ads then just about anyone and nearly all of them are hidden in other company's envelopes (Sun Country air being the worst offender.)</tangent>
Re:what I had to go through to switch ld carriers (Score:2)
-B
Re:Banks requiring land lines (Score:2)
It's also useful because anonymous calls are illegal, yay. I have not received one unsolicited call (aside from one wrong number) since I got it.
Then again, I live in Canada. Our banks are extremely technology savvy.
Re:*DO* blame the telemarketers (Score:2)
--
Re:Thought you could tell the phone company.... (Score:2)
Re:slammed by AT&T? (Score:2)
So why not sieze the opportunity? Call everyone you know in a foreign country and talk for hours. Call Hong Kong information and ask silly questions. Prank call Australia. Do this for a month. Then call the phone company and say you would like to go back to the original LD company, and oh by the way, you are not liable for these calls. If everyone did this, slamming would stop.
Re:Here's what I do with telemarketers (Score:2)
Re:I used to do that, now I do this... (Score:2)
TM: How would you like to save big $$$ on long distance calls?
NN: Did you say ONE? I think you said ONE. If you did say ONE, say ONE now, otherwise say TWO.
TM:
NN: Did you say TWO? I think you said TWO. If you did say TWO, say ONE now, otherwise say TWO.
TM:
Re:The sad thing (Score:2)
Actually... Quite a few of my friends work for telcos and make a decent wage for a part time job. They make $9 - $11 an hour. That's pretty good in the midwest for a part time job.
I have friends that have been managers at retail stores for similar pay and get along through life fine.
Re:*DO* blame the telemarketers (Score:2)
Advertising has become the business of anoying people just enough that they remember your name. Pissing off customers is considered the price of getting new ones. I've heard people in marketing cite many such scary mottos. For example:Does this scare you?
Telemarketers should be treated with the contempt that their job deserves. They may not have had a choice, but they're being rude as hell, and I see no reason to respond to repeated, deliberate rudeness with anything other than a curt dismissal and a hangup.
Re:Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (Score:2)
If you are a service bureau, forward all requests to be removed from a list to the company on whose behalf you are calling. Its is that company that is legally liable under the TCPA, not the service bureau. The "do not call" request must also be honored by any affiliate or subsidiary of the company if there is a reasonable expectation on the part of the consumer that there request would apply also to the affiliate or subsidiary.
I say, sue em!
Re:Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (Score:2)
How, exactly, do you prove that they called you? Can you post a copy of your complaint?
There may be a way to prevent it... (Score:2)
I don't know if it's a special thing that Bell South offered, but I advise everyone to call their phone company, and see if they can get it, or something similar.
In talking to a Bell South manager once, he said that some long distance companies have been known in the past to sell their customers to other providers if they're not making enough calls to make it worthwhile to keep them as a customer.
(I don't know if it's true or not, so I won't give a name incase it was just a rumor, and not a solid fact)
You don't need to sue, call the DTE (Score:2)
Um, but: duh.
There is a regulatory body which exists to protect consumers from the fraud and force of utility corporations. They are, in Massachusetts, the Department of Telecommunications and Energy [state.ma.us]. Yes, they take complaints from the public. They even have an on-line submission form if you want to lodge a compaint with them.
I just called them. See my other post in this thread for more info.
How *really* to piss of the Telemarketter Corps (Score:2)
Offer the poor schmucks better jobs.
"Hello, is this John Smith."
"Yes, are you a telemarketter?"
"Sir, I'm here to let you know about a great opportunity--"
"Would you like a better job? How much are you making now?"
"Uh..."
"You're not being recorded, are you?"
"... no...."
"Well, how good is the money you're making doing cold calls?"
"[insert pitiful commission rate here]"
"Well you have a fine voice. Have you ever thought of going into computers?"
"Computers?"
"Heck, yeah. My company is in dire need of {phone support people/data-entry people/receptionists}. We've got offices all over the place, and we pay [insert completely reasonable salary], and have full benefits. And we train. Where are you?"
"[insert some obscure location]"
"Have you ever considered moving to [insert real place with jobs]? Say, can you get me your resume?..."
Imagine if that happened to every telemarketter to pick up a phone.... :)
Mass. DTE cite (Score:2)
That's the state regulator's (DTE) letter to consumers about slamming. There's a bunch more on their web site, and a state law against it, as well as federal rules against it.
State law requires Third Party Verification by an authoritized "TPV" vendor, *or* tape recording of your phone call, *or* written authorization. It is not applicable only to ILECs (VeriZontal) but to CLECs like MediaOne/AT&T too. There are stiff penalties. Of course AT&T knows this, as they were on the losing end of zillions of MCI slams a decade or so ago; that's what led to the stricter rules. It's probably a third-party telemarketing company they retained who is desperate to make quota, but it's still AT&T's responsibility.
BTW I use AT&T/MediaOne's phone service in the Boston area too, and it's quite good. I also use AT&T long distance, with online billing (also a pretty good rate, 9c days 5c nights, no fee; I don't think they advertise it but it's available for the asking; international however is a different story). This hasn't stopped AT&T (the long distance side) from calling me asking me to switch *to* AT&T, from sending me checks whose indorsement consitutes authorization to switch me to AT&T, etc. So their internal records are (to use a famous Boston term for a young codfish) scrod.
AT&T's a big company. The consumer LD side is incredibly profitable but shrinking as LD rates decline. So Wall Street is unhappy, and AT&T's considering spinning the whole thing off. AT&T Broadband is still basically two companies, MediaOne and ex-TCI. They're not well coordinated. AT&T Broadband is talking about offering their own LD service, but for now doesn't seem to have any LD billing.
Is that the PICC you're talking about? (Score:2)
If you didn't have a PIC (e.g., no LD carrier), then you the subscriber got the PICC bill. No escape.
This stupid scheme was finally dropped, I think, in July of this year. The End User Common Line charge (monthly "access charge") will go up instead; it has been capped at $3.50 on primary resi lines and $6 on others. THis is NOT a charge for LD service, but a charge for that portion of local service which is technically assigned to the FCC's jurisdiction. Don't ask. (Smith v. Illinois Bell, US Sup. Ct. 1927.)
Re:You can stop most unwanted calls (Score:2)
> isn't binding [but it is effective]
Although what you say is true, I point out that you're still required to jump through a lot of hoops because the DMA managed to buy enough Congresscritters to make telephone harassment (they call it marketing, I call it harassment. Fuck 'em.) legal.
It's better than nothing, but the ideal solution would be legislation to ban the practice altogether. Regrettably, one such measure for California failed to gather enough signatures for the November election. Voter Revolt [voterrevolt.org] may choose to try again in 2002.
> and the lower forms of telemarketing scum still call,
Re:getting rid of telemarketers (Score:2)
> without my name and address, and they said it takes 60 days for them to process it,
The telemarketer is lying. (Marketers. Lying is in the genes.) The TCPA - the federal law regulating telemarketers - is very explicit about this. They must add you immediately, and after you say "Place this number on your firm's do-not-call list", any calls that any telemarketer gives you on behalf of AT&T allow you to collect $500 from AT&T in court.
Sue the fux0rs.
Re:Check with JunkBusters for Efficacious Tips (Score:2)
Quite true. You also forgot one other reason not to harass the drone on the other end of the phone - several companies are hiring prisoners, and/or ex-cons on early-release programs. These clods aren't the kinds of people you want to piss off, especially since they have your real name, phone number, and meatspace address sitting in front of them on the screen.
Despite my cathartic /. rant concerning what to do with telemarketers (something I'd desperately love to see legalized - FOX TV would definitely air the wire-brushings ;-), I'm actually pretty polite to 'em on the phone in Real Life.
Uttering the phrase "place this number on your firm's do-not-call list" the instant you realize it's a telemarketer usually results in a "yes sir, we'll do that", or "OK, thank you", and an immediate hangup.
The drone is interested in doing as many calls as possible - the faster they're done with you, the sooner they can harass the next person on the list.
By being polite and quick, you not only reduce the probability that an angry drone will target you for future harassment (remember, they've got your phone number, name, and address at a minimum), you increase the probability that you'll actually be placed on their do-not-call list.
I only break out the "big guns" (inform of TCPA violation and threat of TCPA suit) for repeat offenders. AT&T's been the only one dumb enough to call back three times.
It took me about three months, but I went from three calls a night down to one every month. It's actually been about 3 months since the last telemarketer darkened my phone. And I don't even pay the phone company the "ransom" for anonymous-call-rejection. (I see no reason to pay the phone company for what I see as something that should be mine by right - namely the right not to be harassed - even though the local telco sees that right as a service to be hawked.
( Besides, the bastards at the local telco sold my number immediately - even though I made sure the number was both "unpublished" and "unlisted" at the time of signup. I'll tear a slice outa my local telco some other day, though :-)
Re:Say "Take me off your list now" (Score:2)
'independent verification' is independant (Score:2)
by law, telcos have to have those recordings verified by a third party -- but telcos are allowed to have the verification done after the fact. hence, it's still possible to slam -- most customers don't give a damn if/when their LD carrier is changed. sad but true.
as a not-so-funny side note, this recently became an issue with my company and me when they slammed my father. when he told me, i sent a few polite emails to the people in charge, and the TPV recording was used to verify that my dad did indeed get slammed. his account was credited, and he was switched back to his former LD carrier. see, not all telcos suck.
Re:How rich are you, -Ben? (Score:2)
Clearly, the rich have access to wonderful legal care on a daily basis, and the poor have no resort. Why is this? Greed. Pure and simple, on the part of lawyers.
It's time to nationalize them. Legal representation is a basic human right which the megacorps have been denying poor people long enough. Well, Hillary has been working on a plan that she'll implement once in the Senate that will deal with this, an only a WTO-loving republican techophobe would oppose:
The country will be divided up into large "Legal Care Organizations" with regional coverage. You can get basic advice, such as "can I sue diz guy" and "for how much?" with only a minor* wait.
Lawyers will have salary caps to a reasonable maximum. Specialists will be trained and deployed only as needed by the Law Care Administration Bureau, to ensure that general practice lawyers are in sufficient supply, especially to underserved communities. A team of doctors will decide what legal salaries should be.
Now, if you go out of your region, you may not have access to full representation. This is to prevent people from trying to take more than their fair share of care by shopping around.
To insure equal representation, private law practice will be outlawed.
Another problem solved by government intervention, and brought to you by Al Gore and Hillary Clinton!
*The wait will be six, max seven years. Trust us.
Re:Thought you could tell the phone company.... (Score:2)
Just say the magic words (Score:2)
1) Buy a tape recorder.
2) Every time you answer the phone, inform people that they are being recorded for quality control purposes.
3) When the AT&T telemarkedroid starts talking, say the magic words:
PUT ME ON YOUR DO-NOT-CALL LIST
This phrase has deep legal signifigance. You can ask for them to mail you written confirmation of the do-not-call list. They are required to comply.
4) If they call again, confirm their identity, time/date stamp the recording, and find your lawyer. Then sue the fuck out of them.
For more information how, check out www.junkbusters.com. I successfully (settled out of court) sued MCI, and they never, ever call me anymore.
Re:really wanna mess with the people (Score:2)
- and if you tell them to never call again they are required by law to not call you
Well, not exactly... MediaOne and AT&T are the same company. You (Hemos) have a business relationship with this company so the normal anti-telemarketing clauses don't apply.Personally, I'm more pissed at AT&T calling to offer me -- an existing AT&T LD customer -- AT&T LD service. In the beginning, I would politely inform the drone that I'm already a customer. Now, I yell at them until they cry. (Alright, only one of them ever sounded like she was in tears. Most of them hang up after I start cursing.) It's not like the idiots don't know who they're billing. No, wait; THEY DON'T!
no (Score:2)
I have absolutely no compassion for those people.
Some people feel sorry for no one except maybe themselves, possibly because they're just plain mean sons of guns. I feel sorry for everyone, because we're all going to die pretty soon. Whatever.
Yours WD "dead" K - WKiernan@concentric.net
Re:PUC + TCPA = LART (Score:2)
We'll just go in alphabetical order. It's easier that way and AT&T still get's taken care of fairly quickly.
"Cramming" is a big problem too (Score:2)
It is time to have statutory damages for cramming, like $200 if the bill was obviously wrong (like the wrong name on the account). That would make it worthwhile for people to spend their time to get the crammed services removed, and hurt the crammers enough to make the practice uneconomical.
--
Build a man a fire, and he's warm for a day.
Re:How I Got the Phone Company To Stop Calling Me (Score:2)
AT&T Web Page on Slamming (Score:2)
Disclaimer: I work for AT&T, but my comments here are just my personal comments. You can read AT&T's comments on slamming on their web page.
AT&T got lots of flack for a while from people being slammed by their subcontractors, and they started putting a lot more control on that, but they still screw up sometimes.
I've never particularly liked the local phone companies' approach to slamming, which is to continue to bill you for the long distance service and have you resolve it. My own preference is to write to the local telco and the slammer telco notifying them that unsolicited services are legally a gift, and you did not request any services from them and will not pay for them, and thank you for freely handling all the calls that you tried to make using your preferred long-distance carrier (in my case, AT&T) and that they can return you back at their leisure but could they fix that little hiss in the background?
I haven't tried this, and the telcos probably wouldn't like having this used widely because it's an obvious method for fraud, but tough luck, eh?
I haven't had to use AT&T's don't-call lists, though I think one of their telemarketer subcontractors did call me once even though I'm a subscriber:-)
MCI does a decent job of maintaining don't-call lists - I usually ask them if their employee discount is better than AT&T's and they get the hint. They aren't bright enough to figure out about don't call lists for multiple phone lines at the same address, and they once got lucky and called my modem line between the time I got home and the time I plugged in my laptop, so it's in the list now also...
Yet another story... (Score:2)
As for myself, I discovered that I was being charged for long distance even though I had canceled my land-based line & had gone completely cellular (which took care of those damn long-distance company telemarketers at the same time). The long distance "customer service" representative seemed to be quite annoyed that they couldn't make me keep the service w/o a phone line.
As long as these companies don't get punished for their "mistakes", they don't feel any need to improve their service - and the more mergers occur, the less they have to worry about somebody with better customer service. Too bad individuals can't fine them a few hundred bucks for each mistake - the resultant hemorraghing would probably make them clean up their act REAL fast.
File a Complaint (Score:2)
In a nutshell stick it to them. Hmm. I wonder if you could file suit in a small claims court for the half hour you wasted dealing with this. I figure my free time is worth about $250 an hour...
Hmm... (Score:2)
Fav way to get the callers off my back (Score:2)
Credit Card Company: scream across the room "Hey, looks like we can get those other creditors off our back, we just got offered another credit card. Grab the bills and decide which ones we should pay with THIS card"
hone Companies: "No I'm sorry, I don't have any friends that have phones, I don't need any long distance calling plans."
Also you can always answer that you aren't the person with authority to change anything or that the person they are asking for isn't there.
But the one i use in reality is: "This is a non-soliciting number please remove me from you database."
Yhcrana
FCC Consumer Information Site (Score:2)
Re:what I had to go through to switch ld carriers (Score:2)
Honestly.
Besides, it doesn't deal with the issue of slamming. Slamming *IS* illegal, they may NOT change your long distance carrier without your permission, go file a complaint with the state AG, as slamming is getting a lot of attention these days.
Don't Blame AT&T (Score:2)
Go to the FCC site (Score:2)
and for a more general FCC page on slamming
try this. [fcc.gov]
what I had to go through to switch ld carriers (Score:2)
Anyhow, when it actually came time to switch, the southwestern bell rep actually had to call an independant number, punch in my phone numbers, and I had to record a message saying that I'd authorized the switch of the service. I'm not sure if they're just being conscientious or if slamming is illegal around here. Incidentally, if they can do anonymous call blocking with caller id, can't we get a solicitation call block?
Re:Say "Take me off your list now" (Score:3)
Since none of the auxiliary numbers are published, except to those who need to know, the number on the lists is the fax one. Supposedly, when the war-diallers get the fax tones, the number is quietly removed from the lists, which are then shared amongst the marketers. It really is amazing how the number of unknown name/unknown number telemarketer giveaway calls on the CID box have gone down recently. The beauty of it is, I don't even have to talk to them to tell them to put me on the do not call list.
Consumers vs Corporates (Score:3)
However, what annoys me about cases like this is that the penalty that AT&T will get is small, and that as a consumer, you'll see none of that (or, your amount will be the fraction of the award after the gov't splits it up among the people in the state). A similar case is happening with Ameritech in the midwestern states; after the SBC merger, they ditched a lot of tech workers and backed down from good customer support, such that now, customers are easily going 2, 3 weeks without simple phone repairs, and that's the least of the problems. The states are going fine these companies between 10 and 125 million (depending on the state), which again, will be eventually filtered down into a few dollars savings for the average consumer.
The recent Ford/Firestone tire recall brought a similar problem to light - there was strong rumors that at one point, Firestone weighed the cost of a recall of the tires in the US to the cost of settling any wrongful death lawsuits that may come from the problem. As I said, that's a rumor, but that seems to be a bottom line for many companies nowadays -- if it means more profits after paying the penalties, harm (physical or not) against the consumer is worth it. And while penalties may seem awfully high, these are usually paid back to the government, and then spread across all those that the government represents, even if they didn't have any dealings with that company (e.g, I drive a Dodge 2-door with Michilins).
It's more evidence that today's world is too strongly controlled by corporations. The concept of 'human resource' is being taken outside the workplace, and people's worth as a customer is all that matter to corporations, not the happiness of them.
Re:what I had to go through to switch ld carriers (Score:3)
And I know they did because when I got my phone service reactivated awhile back, Ameritech wrote my name down wrong, substituting an O for a P in a critical spot, so that the name was basically unpronounceable - and telemarketers sometimes ask for you by name.
For the rest I bought a toy phone with a voice-changer. I could just say "put me on your don't call list" and hang up, but this is much more fun: let them finish their sales pitch, so as to make them do the most work, then flip on the voice changer and begin speaking, either in Elmo-speak or in the deep booming voice of Satan. After that it doesn't matter what I say. They either go silent for many seconds and then hang up, or they bust up laughing and hang up.
Just once I had a telemarketer on the line, I chose the Elmo voice, and they didn't go away, so I had to switch to Satan voice: "NO, I said I'm not INTERESTED!"
*DO* blame the telemarketers (Score:3)
Yes, telemarketers call you at dinnertime. Sure, they may be annoying fucks, but that's their job, and I personally try not to hate anybody for their job, even the cops.
Everyone has a choice of what kind of job they want to have. In our current job market (of the US, that is) we have more opportunities than ever before. It's not like people are being forced into telemarketing.
In other words, people who are telemarketers had a choice of what jobs to get, and they chose the evil job of telemarketing. For this reason, I am abrasive and insulting as the law will allow me to be when they call me. Why? Becuase they are part of the problem.
My hope is that in my lifetime I've inspired just a few more telemarketers to quit and vow never again to return to the business.
Don't yell at them, don't piss whine and moan because they called you at dinnertime, because that's the only time that they work (4-8 or so), because it's just a part time job that they pay the bills with.
I have absolutely no compassion for those people. I don't care about their hard lives or their bills. If they don't like what I dish out then perhaps they should consider getting one of a few million jobs out there that don't involve invading my privacy and trying to sell me garbage that I don't need, never asked for, and never showed interest in.
Re:PUC + TCPA = LART (Score:3)
Have you considered saying 'Oh, yes, I'd -love- to subscribe to your wonderful service' and waiting until you get to the indepent verification and -then- saying, 'No, I don't want to subscribe; I lied, in order to get to the indepent verification; this call was in violation of the law and I'd like to know if you can provide me information about who made it.'
I'm not entirely convinced that the 'independent verification' is so very independent, but somewhere in the play-along process you might get the info needed to shaft them.
--Parity
FTC regs lack bite (Score:3)
The problem is that FTC rules only allow slammed customers to recover the difference between what they would have paid their preferred provider and what they paid the telco that slammed them. And that only covers the first 30 days after the unauthorized switch.
Bullshit, I say. If I've been slammed, I should owe the slammer zip, zilch, nada. Refund all charges, even if I made 20 three-hour calls to Kazakhstan during that time. Plus they pay to switch me back to my old provider.
Once telcos realize they'll take it in the shorts, they'll drop slamming like the bad habit it is.
Wrong language, and may not work. (Score:3)
Unfortunately, that may not work. Since MediaOne is now part of AT&T, and you have a business relationship with MediaOne, they may be able to pester you regardless (though I hope not). I haven't studied the law, so I can't say. Hope there's something that works.
--
Build a man a fire, and he's warm for a day.
Re:"Cramming" is a big problem too (Score:3)
I haven't heard the end of this story yet, but the family has a good chance of getting out of the charges due to the fact that they requested that long distance service be left off the second line and never authorized a change. I'm hoping the telco gets stuck with the six digit phone bill, their just desserts for cramming. Belgium Telecom needs a serious dinging too but I'm not going to go to Belgium to fight that battle.
At least you didn't have to shell out $500! (Score:3)
I move into a new flat in Chicago. I sign up with Ameritech(aaack!) for local service. I tell them I want my Long Distance provider to be Working Assets which leases their lines from MCI. Okay, everything sounds great, Ameritech gives the green light, thankyouaveaniceday.
Month later: phone bill. I tear into the envelope and my roomate nearly witnesses spontaneous human combustion. Grand total? $560 USD.
I call Ameritech, they say talk to your Long Distance provider ($480) about it. I talk to them and they say, hmm, looks like MCI never got back to us. I as, "So what does that mean?" They explain it this way:
Since they lease their long distance capacity from MCI, once I put in the request Working Assets sends a request to MCI to transfer my account to Working Assests. MCI sits on the notice for a month and wind up charging me the "casual rate" which is something like $2.14 the first minute and $0.54 each additional minute. Needless to say I had made a few long-distance calls in that first month.
Final outcome: Working Assets graciously credits me with difference in cost (almost $400) but I still have to pay off MCI, the cheeky sods. Those smarmy gits.
"Ma Bell, got the ill communication, Ma Bell, got the ill communication..."-Beastie Boys
Re:Say "Take me off your list now" (Score:3)
They can often do worse. (Score:4)
I feel sorry for people getting slammed. The companies claim, often, that it was not indented.
My first case of being slammed was kind of funny. It was in 1995. I ordered a fractional T1(384kb) for my business(a dailup provider, my 56kb was maxed out). Then one day I get werd extra charges on the T1. I ask our acountant what was goin on. He didn't know. Looking at the bill I noticed that we had been charged for a change of long distance carrier, twice. Once out T1 was switch to AT&T, then MCI, for "long distance" calls.
I explained this to the Pacific Bell billing people. I had a T1, which would not make long distance calls. They only said, will then wy did you switch carriers.
All people working for phone company seem not to "get it". Must be something in the water.
So, slamming is bad, but phone companies' billing paractices are worse.
I ordered a "Centrex" interoffice package from Pacific Bell in San Francisco back in earily 1995. Centrex is a group of business numbers which can call each other without any cost. They must all terminate at the same switch. This product was created to replace small office PBX systems.
Well I got Centrex ISDN lines. Centrex lines don't have to terminate at the same address. So I had many Centrex ISDN lines terminate at customer sites. Ta-ta, 128kb ISDN 24 hours a day with only the $29 a month bill.
I was an ISP, and this was gravy. Or so I thought. Little did I know that the Pacific Bell was holding a blade against my neck, and was cutting.
They somehow forgot that we had unmetered lines, there was a bug in the system. The bills came in to my customers not at $29, but at the metered rate. Pacific Bell, in our first month offering ISDN, overcharged us $38,000.00.
This continued. They even made us pay the bill. We could only speak to "our" customer service rep, who was out in training for 29 out of 30 days of the month it seemed.
When we did get refunds they did not indicate what they were refunding. Our customers got fed up after about six months and the billing nightmare continued.
We quite. Or rather, my partners did. I had no choice. We were the first in our area to offer what people can only get now via DSL. I can't think that is was just a bug in the system. I can't prove anything either.
In the end we sold the customers to other companies and moved on. I was glad to no longer have to spend my entire day on the phone with Pacific Bell.
So, slamming it seems is just par for the course.
Be seeing you.
The Lighter Side... (Score:4)
On the lighter side there was a story about a Telecom company in Texas named them selves idontcare. That way when you started service and were asked "Who would you like for your long distance provider?" people that said "I Don't care" got assigned to this company.
Another fun grab: The predecessor to AT&T's 1-800-CALL-ATT was a short-lived 1-800-OPERATOR (who cares if it's too long, right?). Soon afterwards, MCI, in a bid to get some of that action, grabbed 1-800-OPERATER.
All the yokels who couldn't spell OPERATOR were charged by MCI instead of AT&T.
Unfortunately, it caught on big, and people started doing this with domain names too.
*muttering something about wire brushes*
The sad thing (Score:4)
I'm not saying that this is how AT&T works. If it is, I'm sure the reason your "slam" had to do with somone's pay check and not AT&T's policy. It was some poor slob was just trying to get enough in his pay check to be able to afford a car that started!
The practice IS illegal, and you can asked to be removed from their phone list, and by law they CANNOT contact you for the period of 1 year. You can call your local better business bureau, they have the number to report "slamming" and other abuses.
On the lighter side there was a story about a Telecom company in Texas named them selves idontcare. That way when you started service and were asked "Who would you like for your LD provider" people that said "I Don't care" got assigned to this company.
Don't know if it's true, but it's funny.
Sample Call (joke - author unknown) (Score:5)
to sit down at the dinner table only to be interrupted by a phone call from
a telemarketer. I decided, on one such occasion, to try to be as irritating
as they were to me. The call was from AT&T and it went something like this:
(swallowing)
Me: Hello
AT&T: Hello, this is AT&T...
Me: Is this AT&T?
AT&T: Yes, this is AT&T...
Me: This is AT&T?
AT&T: Yes This is AT&T...
Me: Is this AT&T?
AT&T: YES! This is AT&T, may I speak to Mr. Byron please?
Me: May I ask who is calling?
AT&T: This is AT&T.
Me: OK, hold on.
At this point I put the phone down for a solid 5 minutes thinking that,
surely, this person would have hung up the phone. I ate my salad. Much to
my surprise, when I picked up the receiver, they were still waiting.
Me: Hello?
AT&T: Is this Mr. Byron?
Me: May I ask who is calling please?
AT&T: Yes this is AT&T...
Me: Is this AT&T?
AT&T: Yes this is AT&T...
Me: This is AT&T?
AT&T: Yes, is this Mr. Byron?
Me: Yes, is this AT&T?
AT&T: Yes sir.
Me: The phone company?
AT&T: Yes sir.
Me: I thought you said this was AT&T.
AT&T: Yes sir, we are a phone company.
Me: I already have a phone.
AT&T: We aren't selling phones today Mr. Byron.
Me: Well whatever it is, I'm really not interested but thanks for calling.
When you are not interested in something, I don't think you can express
yourself any plainer than by saying "I'm really not interested", but this
lady was persistent.
AT&T: Mr. Byron we would like to offer you 10 cents a minute, 24 hours a
day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
Now, I am sure she meant she was offering a "rate" of 10 cents a minute but
she at no time used the word rate. I could clearly see that it was time to
whip out the trusty old calculator and do a little ciphering.
Me: Now, that's 10 cents a minute 24 hours a day?
AT&T: (getting a little excited at this point by my interest) Yes sir
that's right! 24 hours a day!
Me: 7 days a week?
AT&T: That's right.
Me: 365 days a year?
AT&T: Yes sir.
Me: I am definitely interested in that! Wow!!! That's amazing!
AT&T: We think so!
Me: That's quite a sum of money!
AT&T: Yes sir, it's amazing how it adds up.
Me: OK, so will you send me checks weekly, monthly or just one big one at
the end of the year for the full $52,560, and if you send an annual check,
can I get a cash advance?
{{{pause}}}
AT&T: Excuse me?
Me: You know, the 10 cents a minute.
AT&T: What are you talking about?
Me: You said you'd give me 10 cents a minute, 24 hours a day, 7 days a
week, 365 days a year. That comes to $144 per day, $1,008 per week and
$52,560 per year. I'm just interested in knowing how you will be making
payment.
AT&T: Oh no sir I didn't mean we'd be paying you. You pay us 10 cents a
minute.
Me: Wait a minute here!!! Didn't you say you'd give me 10 cents a minute.
Are you sure this is AT&T?
AT&T: Well, yes this is AT&T sir but......
Me: But nothing, how do you figure that by saying that you'll give me 10
cents a minute that I'll give you 10 cents a minute? Is this some kind of
subliminal telemarketing scheme? I've read about things like this in the
Enquirer you know. Don't use your alien brainwashing techniques on me.
AT&T: No sir we are offering 10 cents a minute for.....
Me: THERE YOU GO AGAIN! Can I speak to a supervisor please!
AT&T: Sir I don't think that is necessary.
Me: Sure! You say that now! What happens later?
AT&T: What?
Me: I insist on speaking to a supervisor!
AT&T: Yes Mr. Byron. Please hold. So now AT&T has me on hold and my supper
is getting cold. I begin to eat while I'm waiting for a supervisor. After
a wait of a few minutes and while I have a mouth full of food:
Supervisor: Mr. Byron?
Me: Yeth?
Supervisor: I understand you are not quite understanding our 10 cents a
minute program.
Me: Id thish Ath Teeth & Teeth?
Supervisor: Yes sir, it sure is.
I had to swallow before I choked on my food. It was all I could do to
suppress my laughter and I had to be careful not to produce a snort.
Me: No, actually I was just waiting for someone to get back to me so that I
could sign up for the plan.
Supervisor: OK, no problem, I'll transfer you back to the person who was
helping you.
Me: Thank you.
I was on hold once again and managed a few more mouthfuls. I needed to end
this conversation. Suddenly, there was an aggravated but polite voice at
the other end of the phone.
AT&T: Hello Mr. Byron, I understand that you are interested in signing up
for our plan?
Me: Do you have that friends and family thing because you can never have
enough friends and I'm an only child and I'd really like to have a little
brother...
AT&T: (click)
Check with JunkBusters for Efficacious Tips (Score:5)
You can be aggressive in trying to personally attack or annoy the telemarketers; the problem with that is that:
This is a bottom end job, taken by people that have had few better opportunities. They make no decisions, and annoying one of them merely annoys one of them.
I instead suggest looking to JunkBusters.com. These are the same people that produce the beloved Junkbuster "web proxy" that can block cookies and evil ad banners for you.
Notably see JUNKBUSTERS Telemarketing Headlines, [junkbusters.com] subtitled How to reduce the number of junk phone calls you get.
I use this regularly, and it did the trick with MCI.
I still get an irritating number of calls from the companies I already do business with, mostly the credit card cretins; the LD Provider calls significantly diminished when I started at least partially following the "JunkBuster Script."
(Horrors! That sounds terrifyingly close to "chain letter" systems!)
Acronym Karma Whore (Score:5)
TCPA - Telephone Consumer Protecton Act [cornell.edu]
LART - Luser Attitude Readjustment Tool [tuxedo.org]
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur.
privatecitizen.com (Score:5)
If you join they will, on your behalf, send cease and desist letters to several hundred direct marketing companies, including telemarketers. The cost for both the telemarketing and junk mail service was, I think, $30.00 US. That was the best $30.00 I ever spent: my junk phone calls went to zero and my junk mail to just a trickle.
In addition, they have extensive information on how to combat telemarketers, how to go about suing them in small claims court (and winning), and other guarilla tactics individuals can use to get some of their privacy back.
I am a very satisfied, paying member of that group, and highly recommend it to anyone who seriously wants this shit to end, now. They were highly effective in ending it for me (I had been getting harassed multiple times/week, now I haven't been bothered in months).
Good Luck!
Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (Score:5)
The TCPAo1991 requires that companies keep a "no-call" list, which you can request to be added to. If you hear from them again, you are legally entitled to sue for $500 per incident. And this is federal law.
Look here [privacyrights.org] for more information.
Re:what I had to go through to switch ld carriers (Score:5)
It sounds cool, but unless you get a TON of telemarketers, it's not worth hassling your friends. I canceled mine after my uncle called from an airport payphone to tell me his flight was changed and was cut off twice by the service.
-B
Quite illegal: CONTACT THE DTE! (Score:5)
Greetings, Hemos, and welcome to Boston!
Slamming is quite illegal. If you have the bill in hand which demonstrates you have been slammed, report them to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Energy -- Consumer Division. [state.ma.us] The DTE is the regulatory body which governs utility companies. (I worked for them once, and oh, the stories I can tell...)
I just called the MA DTE on the phone (617 727-3531) and asked them: They said that if more than 20 people complained, a fine might be assessed against the slamming company. They also keep stats on slams.
As it happens, I just switched from AT&T to MCI/WorldCom. In the course of doing this I discovered that Verizon (my local bell) has an optional free feature, whereby they will not change your long distance service unless you personally call them up and authorize it; they make you testify to a 3rd party verification service (who tapes you) that you want your service change. Ask MediaOne if they will do it; I bet they will.
In any event: IFF you cannot get satisfaction on a (any) dispute with your phone (or gas, or electricity) co. after contacting them directly, then contact the DTE. On your phone bill, usually on the back of the first page, you will find a phone number for the DTE Consumer Division, or you may file a complaint electronically here [state.ma.us]. You must try to iron things out with the company directly, first, then the DTE will talk to you.
Re:PUC + TCPA = LART (Score:5)
Actually, I've been tempted to do just that, but they haven't called me in a few months. I guess when I said "This is the third call I've received on behalf of AT&T in violation of TCPA" and they drone wimped out and hung up, he put me on the real do-not-call (read: "The guys who actually wants to sue us, as opposed to just get us to stop calling" list) list.
The real catch-22 of getting the info you need to sue (theoretically, all I need to do is sue AT&T) is that it'd be useful to know which telemarketing company called me.
F'rinstance, it'd be a much stronger case (in the eyes of a judge, who may never have dealt with a TCPA case before) to say "XYZ Drone Services" called me twice, rather than "XYZ Drone Services" called me once, I told them to put me on the do-not-call, and "ABC Droid Services" called me tomorrow.
The judge could say "It's illegal, AT&T's responsible, but it's forgivable because there's no way ABCDroid could have known about your opt-out to XYZDrone in 24 hours. Two calls from XYZDrone would be pretty bulletproof, though.
Probably the only way to get that information ("Why, I'm calling from AT&T!", "No, I want the name of the company on your paycheck, not the company that hired your firm") in the context of a telemarketing call for long distance services would be to pretend to be someone interested in working at the telemarketing company. ("Hey, I need some extra dough, where do I sign up?")
Finally, when you get to court, you have to remember you're dealing with telemarketers. Unless it's legal to record a telephone conversation where only one party (you) is aware of the recording, it's highly probable that even if XYZDrone called you twice, their representative would just lie on the stand and say "no, we only called him once", or "we never called him after he asked to be put on the do-not-call list". It'd be your word against his, as you couldn't prove it without a recording of both calls identifying the telemarketer as an employee of XYZDrone.
If you live in a state where all parties must consent to recording, in order to prove that the marketer is perjuring itself, you'd have to admit under oath that you'd broken your state's eavesdropping laws. This would be a Bad Move(tm).
> While I largely agree with your rant, I would have moderated you down as flamebait
> for the gratuitously graphic profanity...
Yeah, it was a bit over-the-top, wasn't it? :-)
Seriously, as for the flamebait/trollishness, Slashdot moderation's probably gonna be even more fup'd-uck than normal today.
Personally, when I saw the Score:5 on my rant, I'd have gone for a (-1, Redundant) than a (-1, Overrated). You're quite correct in that there are lots of posts with a higher S:N ratio, particularly when it comes to using one's state PUC to LART for slamming, as opposed to the TCPA for illegal telemarketing. That technique is probably much more effective than suing 'em under TCPA. PUCs have the time and budget to win these cases, individuals using TCPA often have to spend a lot of time and effort. Go the TCPA route if you like fighting for the general principle, the PUC route for damaging the enemy.
FWIW, when I made the post, I figured my post was worth about a 4, tops, and that's with one of those points being a "Funny" for the ranting. The 5 surprised me too.
PUC + TCPA = LART (Score:5)
I've received numerous telemarketers trying to pimp AT&T long distance - and the past few have been in blatant violation of the TCPA.
Regrettably, the TCPA is toothless in that the telemarkters hang up (making the $500 violation a willful $1500 violation) as soon as I say "This call is in violation of the TCPA. Please state your name". Of course, since they've blocked their number, I can't get the evidence I need to launch the suit.
But anyways - fuck AT&T long distance and their telemarketers with wire brushes. I'll never do business with AT&T as long as I live, despite the fact that their junk-snail-mail arm has sent me multiple $90.00 "checks" as inducements to switch.
As for Katz, or anyone else who's getting multiple illegal telephone solicitations, if you're really pissed, there may be ways to obtain the phone numbers of the telemarketers (e.g. use the "trace/harassing calls" process and file suit, then have your landshark get the number from the cops) - and sue the motherfuckers for $500 (or $1500 for willful violation) per call.
Also, the Public Utilities Commission has a wide array of LARTs at its disposal, and they hate slammers as much as we do. Dunno what they can do about telemarketers per se, however. But if a telemarketer is habitually slamming, the PUC can apply serious mofo pressure to the offending phone company.
Did I mention I hate telemarketers, and especially AT&T's? (Fuck 'em with a wire brush! Fuck 'em until their guts bleed! Shove light bulbs up their arses and turn 'em on until they start to cook! Then tell 'em they can stop the burning by clenching their sphincters until they shatter the bulb! I hate telemarketers!)
Bottom line. Sue the motherfuckers into the stone age. Let the lawyers do the wire-brush stuff. Sell tickets to the courtroom.
How rich are you, -Ben? (Score:5)
Re:Say "Take me off your list now" (Score:5)
A while ago, when I was living with a couple of friends and using Sprint, MCI was pestering us constantly. We used to get at least one call per night from them, sometimes more. Asking them politely to stop calling us did nothing.
One day my roommate got fed up. The next time MCI called, he explained to them, "I do not want to switch to MCI. I will never switch to MCI. If MCI were the last long-distance company on earth, I would write all my messages down on paper and send them by pony express."
They stopped calling after that. I don't know exactly what the moral of this little experience is.
I've been Slammed, too. (Score:5)
I quickly called Bell South and Qwest and got myself switched back to the way I had it before, then put a lock on my line. The lock, which everyone should have (and should be the default) prevents your LD carrier from being changed unless you call your local carrier and tell them it is ok.
They claim that placing this 'lock' on your LD carrier is not the default case because it would be too inconvenient. Personally, I think that 'locked' should be the default for any phone service -- if you want to change it, you should have to explicitly tell the phone company.