🚀 go-pugleaf

Go down and see 'em in person. I think you'll get a different reaction.
It's different when there's a flesh and blood human being standing in
front of you. They'll say, " you must understand that we have people come
into town, run up huge bills then leave ..." or something like that.


--------------------
Dana Trantham
tran@intercenter.net				
--------------------


On 23 Nov 1996, Alexander Belopolsky wrote:

> Dear Newsgroup readers:
> 
> Let me apologize up-front for letting the steam out and making this
> cross-post.  I do admit that I am in rage and want to share this rage
> with you.  Sorry...
> 
> Here is a verbatim copy of the letter which I received from BellSouth,
> my local phone company, this morning.  Please read on, capitalization
> is theirs, my comments are quoted by "AB>"
> 
> ======================================================================
>                                                   Nov 20, 1996
> 
> AB> Received today, Sat Nov 23, 1996.
> 
> THE LONG DISTANCE CHARGES ON YOUR LATEST BILL ARE CONSIDERABLY
> HIGHER THAN USUAL.
> 
> AB> No greeting, no introduction...
> 
> THE TOTAL AMOUNT DUE IS $307.10. THIS AMOUNT INCLUDES
> $304.03 FOR REGULATED CHARGES AND $3.07 FOR
> UNREGULATED CHARGES, SUCH AS CHARGES ASSOCIATED WITH 900 AND
> 976 CALLS.
> 
> AB> $304.03 are *MCI* long-distance charges.
> 
> WE WOULD APPRECIATE PAYMENT BY NOVEMBER 27, 1996. PROMPT PAYMENT
> OF ALL REGULATED CHARGES WILL PREVENT INTERRUPTION OF YOUR TELEPHONE
> SERVICE AND A RESTORATION OF SERVICE CHARGE.
> 
> AB> The bill I received about tree days ago had a due date Dec 5 on
> AB> it.  Note that the 27th is 4 days from today and today is
> AB> Saturday. 
> 
> TO ENSURE PROPER CREDIT PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR TELEPHONE NUMBER ON YOUR
> CHECK OR MONEY ORDER.
> 
> IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS, PLEASE CALL 780-2200 FROM
> INSIDE THE LOCAL AREA OR, 1-800-927-2200 IF DIALING
> FROM OUTSIDE THE LOCAL AREA.
> 
> ACCOUNT REPRESENTATIVE
> ======================================================================
> 
> Business according to BellSouth...  You can imagine how upset I am.
> I am truly offended.  Pardon my language, but what the hell is their
> business to how much I spend on long-distance?!  Just imagine making
> holiday shopping and receiving a letter from your credit card company
> that due to "considerably higher" charges this month they would
> shorten your grace period by one week!
> 
> OK, local Bells are natural monopolies and can treat their customers
> like s..t.  This is understandable and there is very little we can do
> about it.  At the end of the day they own our only phone link.  Yet,
> in my humble opinion, BellSouth is exclusive even among the Bells.
> 
> I hope that sending me this letter was not a sound business decision
> after all.  The first thing I did, I called MCI and asked them to bill
> me directly and skip BellSouth for these purposes (what they were
> happy to do).  From now on I will try hard to do as little business as
> possible with BellSouth or anything associated with them.  This
> includes their Internet service, for which I signed up recently and
> will sign off after I get a month's service charge worth.  Above all,
> I am writing to you, ladies and gentlemen, and hope that some of you
> will agree that BellSouth is not a company to deal with.
> 
> Let us do some math (Oh, sweet revenge!).  At 20% APR compounded daily
> (God, where would you find this rate!), eight days of credit on
> $307.10 would be $1.35, which hardly covers the cost of sending this
> letter.  Here is what they lose:
> 
> 1. A loyal customer ............... $0    (Assume they do not bother)
> 2. Billing service for MCI ........ $6/mo (Wild guess, 2% of
>                                            long-distance charges)
> 3. A BellSouth.net customer ....... $19.95/mo
> 4. A user of add-on services ...... $10-20/mo (Voice boxes, etc.)
> 5. You put the price tag on this posting.
> 
> Not to mention that I will be the first in line when any other company
> will start to compete with BellSouth locally thanks to the
> telecommunication act of `96.
> 
> In a case this posting ends up in a mailbox of someone in charge at
> BellSouth, it should now be obvious that the anonymous "account
> representative" well deserves to be down-sized. Yours truly is
> willing to consider an apology from BellSouth.
> 
> Thank you, netters, for your patience and understanding.  I feel
> better now.
> 
> Sincerely yours,
> 
> Alexander Belopolsky.
> 
> PS: I am not a regular reader of any of the news groups, so please
> consider forwarding your comments to my e-mail box
> <belopols@physics.unc.edu>.  Please refrain from sending your comments
> to all newsgroups that I posted (yes, I am guilty!), send it to the
> one you read and to myself.  Thank you.
> 
> Disclaimer:  I am solely responsible for the views expressed in this
> message. 
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