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| Author |
Message |
dpc
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Centrex Contract Complaint
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Dec 11 21:44 UTC 2002 |
I just got off the phone with Audrey Meidinger, who
takes consumer complaints about Ameritech for the Public
Service Commission.
She said the PSC has had a *lot* of complaints about
these Centrex contracts. She is forwarding our complaint
about Ameritech not letting us cut lines below 7 lines,
and not having our contract, to an Ameritech office
which works with the PSC to resolve issues like this.
Audrey said that Centrex contracts typically only last
three to five years. Ameritech's standard reply to these
complaints is to do a *new* contract with the complaining
customer.
Ameritech must respond to the PSC within ten business
days.
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| 7 responses total. |
other
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response 1 of 7:
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Dec 11 21:50 UTC 2002 |
Dave, to clarify, we haven't tried to reduce the number of lines below 7,
it's just that we think our contract precludes it, but without a copy
handy, we're not sure what the penalties are.
Thanks for doing this!
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aruba
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response 2 of 7:
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Dec 11 22:18 UTC 2002 |
Thanks Dave! I'll be interested to hear what happens next.
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dpc
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response 3 of 7:
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Dec 18 14:46 UTC 2002 |
On December 13 I got a voice mail message (after business
hours) from Kathy Jackson at the Ameritech executive office.
Her number is (800) 592-5386, extension 41813. She said she
was referring me to a billing specialist, who would call me
early in the next week.
Mirabile dictu! On December 17 (yesterday) I got a message
from Steve Hoenke, (262) 896-5504. He is the billing specialist.
I talked to Hoenke just now. He said that on November 21
Ameritech removed a line from our Centrex service, bringing us
down to the minimum of 7 required under the Centrex contract.
The monthly charge for 7 lines is $153.91.
Yes, we *are* allowed to cancel our contract just pay
for the number of lines we want for our Centrex service. Hoenke
said there is a $70 cancellation fee, which would pay for itself
quite quickly.
He said if we wanted to cut two more lines, leaving us
with 5 lines, the monthly charge is $124.65. It's about $19
per line per month.
I asked that Hoenke send us *hard copy* confirming what
he told me, and he said he would.
I *think* our troubles *may* be over.
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aruba
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response 4 of 7:
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Dec 18 16:01 UTC 2002 |
Thanks Dave!
One should always check the prices that Ameritech gives over the phone,
because they often leave things out. I ran the numbers for 7 lines next
month, and got $157.28, which is the number he gave you plus tax. (So
actually he did pretty good.) I ran the numbers for 5 lines though and
got $118.06, so I'm not sure what's going on there. Possibly the rates
per line go up slightly when we drop below 7. Or, now that I think about
it, it's probably because when we break our contract, we relinquish the
protection it's given us from the rate increases that have happened over
the last 6 years.
I think if we want to drop below 7 lines it would make sense to drop Centrex
all together, since we pay an overhead charge of $20 per month just to
have a Centrex system, and we're not using any of the features that make
Centrex valuable. (Like, call forwarding, intercom service, junk like
that.) (The reason we got Centrex in the first place was to save on
connect-time charges between the two ends of our ISDN line, but those
savings evaporated even before we switched to DSL.)
So I guess we should talk about how many lines we should have.
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mary
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response 5 of 7:
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Dec 18 18:33 UTC 2002 |
Do we know yet, for certain, when our contract is up
and we could cancel lines without a penalty?
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aruba
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response 6 of 7:
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Dec 18 18:59 UTC 2002 |
It would be good to have an exact date. The date our Centrex lines were
installed and from which we began being billed for them is October 18th,
1996. We know we have a 7-year contract, so I think it should be up on
October 18th, 2003. But it's possible the date is slightly earlier for some
reason.
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keesan
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response 7 of 7:
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Dec 18 21:20 UTC 2002 |
Did someone not mention July 2003 for a contract date somewhere in coop?
It sounds like we could save more than $70 on monthly charges between now and
July if we dropped 2 lines (at least $30/month). I dial grex up to 20 times
a day and maybe once in 3 months got a busy number (or I may have simply
reached a modem that would not answer). Is it Jan who runs the statistics
on usage? Do we want to drop lines used less than 1%, or less than 5%, of
the time? I don't mind having to redial once in a while. (And there is
always telnet if you don't mind the lag). How do other people feel about a
suitable cutoff point?
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