Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: telephone service (odd customer service experiences)

This is topic telephone service (odd customer service experiences) in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://ft-forum.com/ft/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=004128

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 06-26-2005, 06:34 PM:

I don't know whether this belongs here or in the joke forum, but I will post it here because it might lead to some discussion about "interesting" customer service experiences.

Anyway, my long-distance telephone company is MCI. I had a question about my bill and called them yesterday afternoon. After answering my question, the customer service employee started to give me the sales pitch for MCI local telephone service. I should point out here that I almost never make long distance calls, and my typical bill is under $1. The conversation went approximately as follows:

Her: Would you be interested in MCI local telephone service?
Me: Maybe, how much would it cost?
Her: Well, how much are you currently paying for local telephone service?
Me: About $30 per month, including taxes.
Her: You don't make many long-distance calls, do you?
Me: No.
Her: Well, MCI can offer you local service for $37 per month, including long distance for seven cents per minute.
Me: I don't think I would be interested.
Her: Why not?
Me: Because that would cost more than what I currently pay.
Her: Oh, OK.

[Roll Eyes]

Well, I thought it was funny at the time, anyway. To be fair, the service that they were offering includes caller-ID, call-waiting, and some other services that I don't want (I do have voicemail service), but I never told her that I was interested in those services (because I wasn't).

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 06-26-2005, 07:58 PM:

MCI is a joke by itself. Lotsa people had problems with MCI that I know of. Find you a better fone server, or stay with Verizon or such for celphone service.

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 06-26-2005, 08:52 PM:

I'm just curious, but for so few l/d calls, why have a long distance provider at all? I dropped mine about a year ago. All I have is local (through Qwest) which I mostly need so my TiVo can download its programming guide. When I need to make a l/d call, I either use my cell phone, or 10-10-220. Dropping the l/d service saves me $10-$20 a month. Local service is running me about $17/mo. My l/d calls average about $5/mo.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 06-26-2005, 09:37 PM:

I pay a flat rate of $49/month for unlimited calls to US and Canada with no long distance charges. This also includes crap like call waiting, call forwarding, 3 way calling, caller ID, call notes, etc.

Posted by Ian Price (Member # 14) on 06-26-2005, 10:12 PM:

I haven't owned a hard line in 6-years.
I don't talk on the phone much, but when people call me, I like to have the phone with me. So my cell phone is all the phone I need.
The other advantage of a cell phone is that I'm not listed anywhere so I don't receive solicitation calls. That alone is worth the money.
That said, I do miss the clean, reliable sound of a hard line.

I pay $50 per month for 400 minutes that I never use all of.

Even my mother who is philosophically opposed to cell phones in general just got a pre-paid cell phone for her convenience. I don't imagine it will be turned on very much.

She paid $50 for 1,000-minutes good for a year.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 06-26-2005, 10:56 PM:

I don't pay anything to have a long-distance carrier. I only pay when I actually make long-distance calls. Actually, I didn't realize that it was possible to order telephone service without specifying a long-distance carrier.

So far, I have managed to avoid getting a cell phone. Go me!

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 06-30-2005, 10:34 AM:

quote: Scott Norwood
Me: I don't think I would be interested.
Her: Why not?
Me: Because that would cost more than what I currently pay.

Brilliant. [Roll Eyes]

Scott. Me, neither. We don't have long distance on our home phone. On the original installation we had AT&T or something. We switched to another carrier, but decided to go back after a short time... only the first one couldn't get its act together and make it happen, so we just kept it that way.