Re: PCS cell phones (was renters insurance)

From: Luigi Semenzato (luigi@Nersc.GOV-DeleteThis)
Date: Fri Jun 06 1997 - 12:52:03 PDT


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To: wind_talk@opus.hpl.hp.com-DeleteThis
Subject: Re: PCS cell phones (was renters insurance) 
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Fri, 06 Jun 1997 10:48:45 PDT." <lj4tbbpw0i.fsf@greenbaum.us.com-DeleteThis> 
Date: Fri, 06 Jun 1997 12:52:03 -0700
From: Luigi Semenzato <luigi@Nersc.GOV-DeleteThis>


> I jumped at Pac Bell's $19.95 a month PCS deal. 200 minutes free
> calling to home, free first minute on incoming calls, caller ID so
> you don't have to answer if you don't want to, numeric paging, voice
> mail all included (except for airtime to access voice
> mail).

That's actually pretty expensive voice mail if you think about it. I
wonder if one can turn it off, or if it can be accessed from a regular
phone.

There's also 10 free minutes/month, and it's 40c/minute beyond that.
All in all, it's pretty similar to the digital plans, except you get
the pager and Caller ID. Digital plans sell cheap bulk non-peak air
time.

I guess PCS is good if you call home a lot during peak hours. I am
usually in front of a phone during peak hours.

How does the pager work? Is it on a separate telephone number?
Does the phone have to be on for the pager to work? Does the pager
work off a separate battery? (I doubt that).

> Second, the $19.95 deal is really $23.95 after taxes. %20 higher
> than what they advertise is a big deal, and they are trained not to
> tell you about it when you sign up. I made them credit me for the
> first month since they never notified me about the charges and I'm
> sending a letter to the California Public Utilities
> Commision. That's called fraud.

That's interesting. I just called their toll free number for a quote
and asked if there were any taxes on top of the $19.95. He said no.
I asked him if he was *really sure* and he said he was.

I agree about the term `fraud'. It's almost as bad when someone sold
me an MCI account with 30c/minute calls to Italy, and then I got
billed for 60c/minute. When I complained to MCI, they had no idea
what I was talking about. ---Luigi



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