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Like all the Bell companies, PacBell seems to be having a lot
of trouble making its DSL customers happy. You'll find the PacBell
DSL complaints in the Internet
Services section. Below are problems with PacBell's Plain
Old Telephone Service.
David of San Diego writes:
In December of 1998 I moved
my family from Ventura to San Diego, CA. Part of that process
was of course to transfer my Pacific Bell telephone service.
My new service went uninterrupted for ten months when I received
a letter from Pacific Bell that gave me some 10 days to pay
over $200 on an unpaid bill or have my service cut off. When
I called them they told me that my closing bill had never been
paid. They acknowledged that normally any closing bill on a
transfer is moved as well but that I had not paid the bills.
When I indicated how unlikely it was, given that my account
was current, that PacBell would allow a debt to go 10 months
uncollected and still provide services, the agent said he thought
there could be an error and we should be able to clear it up.
I told him I'm not inclined to write a check out of the goodness
of my heart for over $200 without some kind of accounting. He
said he understood and that I was not to worry about it,that
my service would not be cut off and that he would provide such
an accounting.
A little over a week later service was turned off. There had
been no other contact at that point. I called them again and
the lady representative I spoke with refused to reconnect my
service, wanted to add additional charges (still without some
accounting). I then ordered service with a new company that
was happy to get a good customer.
Pacific Bell sent my bill to American Agencies. I wrote them
a lengthy letter (on file) explaining the situation and disputing
Pacific Bell's claim. That letter went unanswered. Yesterday
I received another letter from American Agencies claiming that
since I never answered there last letter they assume I cannot
be trusted. They say they are searching for my current service
in my name and threaten to have that service turned off. Their
claim that they can do so is CIVIL LEGAL AUTHORITY UNDER ARTICLE
12 OF THE CALIFORNIA STATE CONSTITUTION that "allows termination
of existing services without benefit of legal or judicial review."
Well, I found our state constitution online and there is not
so much as even a close provision in any of the nine sections
under Article 12. This whole situation has caused my family
and me great stress and concern. Pacific Bell's disconnection
from before Thanksgiving through Christmas made my family miss
those memorable holiday phonecalls to and from loved ones in
addition to the inconvenience of not having normal phone services
at all. Now I'm greatly stressed about this ongoing harrasment
and their attempts to rob me of my current phone services in
their attempt to defraud me based on Pacific Bell's billing
error.
Tom of Visalia, CA, writes:
I recently contacted Pacific Bell to have a second phone
line installed in my new apartment. My daughter and I share
the apartment and the primary phone was in her name. I needed
a line for my own use which includes heavy internet usage.
Pac Bell charged me $120 for installation and I'm paying
the normal monthly charge for a totally separate phone line.
I've found out in the meantime that I didn't get an actual
second phone line.
The first thing I noticed was that my internet connection
speeds dropped from about 36-38k in my old apartment to an
absolute maximum of 25k in this one. Since everything worked
better at the old place and the only thing different was the
new phone connection I decided to look at the phone system
as a possible culprit.
That's when I found out that instead of an actual second
physical phone line, Pac Bell had tapped me into a system
whereby they are able to carry two different conversations
or data streams on a single copper phone line. It's called
frequency shift/multiplexing and it saves Pac Bell (and the
customer?) beaucoup bucks since they don't need to run in
an actual physical line for your computer.
According to several telecomm experts however, and as indicated
by my own experiences and those of dozens of message board
posters all over the net, it also creates a ton of line noise
and/or cross interference that effects both of the "lines"
involved. We have even heard it during voice calls when both
phones were in use, a crackling noise like the crumpling of
cellophane. Both lines do not have to be in use for this to
occur. This severely limits the modem transmission speeds,
in most cases down to about 25Kb maximum. This is not adequate
for even normal home use of the internet, let alone business
uses.
I called 611 and was told that their phone lines were not
"conditioned" for data streams, only voice transmission.
Their maximum transfer rate is less than 25Kb and they only
guarantee 4.8Kb. My contention is that they are charging me
the full amount for a private phone line as they are my daughter,
yet we are being forced, in effect, to share a single line.
We feel that Pac Bell should, when filling a request for
a second line, especially when it is going to be a computer
line, have to inform the customer of the degradation in service
inherent in this system over a real, physical second copper
line.
This is a complex subject that we could talk about all
day. Tom is not actually paying for a second line, he is paying
for additional service. How it's delivered is up to PacBell.
Although we all use POTS (plain old telephone service) for
data, the service isn't designed for that and the phone companies
are not obligated to provide clean data lines. The options
are DSL or a cable modem, if either is available.
Oh by the way, everything in the telecom world is "multiplexed"
or otherwise compressed -- regardless of how many physical
lines go into a residence. Nearly all "twisted pair"
copper today has four leads -- enough to write two lines,
just as was done at Tom's.
Dietrich of San Jose poses an interesting question:
I was billed on the same telephone bill for minutes for two
phone calls such that the calls would have had to occur at
the same time exactly:
SEP 6 5:10pm 3 minute call to 415 XXX-XXXX
SEP 6 5:11pm 2 minute call to 415 XXX-XXXX
How can a 2-minute call originate when the previous call
is still not finished? I have one line and no call waiting
or other services.
Possible computer problem or billing error?
The cost was inconsequential ($0.16), but it makes me question
the validity of my bill or other customer's bills. If this
type of error occurs thousands or tens of thousands or even
millions of times, PacBell collects much extra money. I don't
trust them now and think other parts of my bill maybe wrong.
The telephone company billing systems are incredibly complex
and engineered to prevent this kind of things. But it does
make one wonder, doesn't it?
Jan of Benicia, CA, writes:
I purchased caller I.D. equipment for $39.95 in mid-September
'99 from Pacific Bell that included a rebate for $39.95 after
you mailed the certificate that arrived with the equipment.
Allow 4 weeks for refund. Still waiting 12-3-99, I called
and was told they had no record of my form. I remailed a copy
of the copy I kept for my records exactly as I had done the
first time. Waited 5+ weeks for rebate. Nothing.
Called again 1-10-2000 and Antonia told me there was no record
of my form (again). There is a notation on this certificate
that it must be completed and postmarked by Nov. 30, 1999.
Am feeling completely scammed.
No refund, no help anywhere. Would never have accepted this
equipment had I known I was buying it for $39.95 when I could
have purchased it anywhere for $10.
T.L. in Spring Valley, CA, writes:
Area code listed in business section of Pac Bell's dirctory
is incorrect (619 should be 760) Therefore dialing the number
listed gives you a recorded message that this is not a working
number! Henceforth indicating I am out-of- business...
This error started mid 1998 when Pac Bell released their
phone directiory to the general public. Severe economic damages
have been incurred along with emotional damages. (Pac Bell
says) They will not offer a referral message to call the correct
number!!!!!
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