lobsterchick's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear AT&T: I received a bill the other day covering the time from December 3 until March 2. During that THREE MONTH PERIOD, I made only one phone call, on February 4, lasting ONE MINUTE. The charge for that call was thirty-five cents, yet somehow I received a bill for $23.72, an amount SIXTY-SEVEN TIMES the value of the call I placed. Normally (and obviously, smartly) I make my long distance calls using a calling card, but this was an emergency, and, to my folly and everlasting regret, I used AT&T's long distance service. After all, even though $.35 is 350% what I normally pay per minute, it's still within the realm of what a reasonable per-minute charge could be considered. However, despite the number of my brain cells that I'm sure took a permanent vacation upon haggling with your automated "service" line for 10 minutes, I still have enough mental capacity to realize that $23.72 per minute for domestic long distance is not, never has been, and never will be an acceptable amount to pay for ONE MINUTE OF TALKING TIME, no matter how many allowed charges, fees, taxes, or we-just-felt-like-its are added on. I am confident that your company, in its ongoing commitment to serve the customer through wild-goose-chase customer "service" lines and online "accidental redirections" to pages where I can mindlessly purchase more wildly overpriced services, will agree with me that $23.72 per minute of domestic long distance calling is price-gouging in its most extreme and adjust my bill accordingly, back down to the $.35 I actually SPENT ON CALLING. After all, if $23.72 per minute of long distance calls is the going rate (which, by the way, adds up to $1423.30 an hour), then $300 an hour for a lawyer sure seems like a bargain. 3:10 PM - 17 March 2004 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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