🚀 go-pugleaf

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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