116 lines
5.9 KiB
Plaintext
116 lines
5.9 KiB
Plaintext
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| Pacific Bell's Corrupt Fun! |
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| August 16, 1989 |
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| CHiNA CHiNA |
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Welcome to CHiNA Educational InfoFile Series II, # 4. Enjoy.
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Sorry, no cutesy intro here...funny how Meg says CHiNA's dead, and we've
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only had four NEW releases in the past two weeks...mighty strange, eh?
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The following article is from the L.A. Times. It describes a claim by
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an operator of a local 'talking yellow pages' that Pacific Bell is
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intentionally disrupting his Centrex service. There have been other claims
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against PacBell, such as a telephone installer who claims PacBell
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intentionally botched his company's ad that was placed in the yellow pages
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for the past two or three years.
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Rival Claims PacBell Gave It A 'Virus'
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Owner of Talking Yellow Pages Says Phones Often Go Dead
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By Bruce Keppel, Times Staff Writer
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To Michael Amin, it seemed a natural: A 'talking' phone book for
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people who would rather deal with the operator than finger through the
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yellow pages.
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So, Amin set up a Los Angeles-based firm, Primex Talking Yellow
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Pages, to provide callers a choice of whatever category of company or
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service the request- for example, a selection of physicians of a given
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specialty and working in a particular area. The Primex operator can
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connect the caller with the doctor he or she wants.
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But the hang-up for Amin has been Pacific Bell.
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The phone company says it has been unable to find the electronic
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'virus' that, for 18 months, has bedeviled Primex. The result for Primex
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has been to have many of its 36 telephone lines go dead at crucial
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moments--such as right after broadcast of television and radio commercials
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inviting the audience to call for a trial.
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Don't Know the Cause
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--------------------
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At other times, Amin said, conversations are cut off in mid-sentence.
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And sometimes callers hear ringing while Primex operators hear nothing or,
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answering a ring, find no one on the line.
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Despite extensive testing by Pacific Bell technicians, who say they
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don't know the cause of Primex's problems, the company's phone troubles
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have persisted for 18 months. Amin said they now threaten Primex's
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pioneering venture, which competes with Pacific Bell's yellow page
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directories. He noted that Pacific Bell and other former Bell companies
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have repeatedly--and vainly--sought court permission to enter the talking
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phone book business.
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Last month, Amin lodged a formal complaint with the California Public
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Utilities Commission, whose consumer division expects to compete its
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evaluation this month.
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Meanwhile, the PUC's five members held a final in San Francisco on
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Monday to hear from businesses such as Primex before deciding to accept
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proposals submitted separately by Pacific Bell and GTE California, to
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change telecommunications regulation in the state.
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Amin and other telephone industry entrepreneurs have complained that
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giving the big phone companies more flexibility might clear the way for
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Pacific Bell and GTE to use dirty tricks and other unfair practices to
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drive competitors out of business.
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For instance, Dennis Love has testified before the Assembly Committee
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on Utilities and Commerce that his Marin County telephone-equipment repair
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service failed after advertisements bought in Pacific Bell's local phone
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books were botched in two of the last three years.
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In Amin's case, the business is still running, although the number of
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employees has plunged to 30 from a high of 70 when the company moved to
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larger quarters near Los Angeles International Airport. That day, Feb. 1,
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1988, the young company's local telephone service unaccountably went
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haywire, Amin said.
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Deliberate Tampering
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--------------------
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In it's complaint, Primex accuses Pacific Bell of indulging in
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'illegal harassment' and 'deliberate tampering' with the company's phone
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lines, most of which are attached to a Pacific Bell Centrex control unit.
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The goal, the complaint charges, is to destroy the company's business.
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Amin attached several pages of single-spaced entries chronicling scores of
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service irregularities and said he has many more on file.
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Pacific Bell spokeswomen Kathleen Flynn confirmed the existence of
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repeated complaints by Primex but said that 2400 tests have so far turned
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up no glitch in the phone company's equipment. Flynn said 99.8% of Pacific
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Bell's test calls went through without a hitch.
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'There's no reason for us at any time and at any case to disrupt a
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customer's business,' she said. 'That's just not the way we do business.'
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But Amin disputed the validity of that finding. When he asked Pacific
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Bell last month to monitor one day's phone traffic for his firm, he said,
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the utility found that 41% of the calls lasted less than 15 seconds--too
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brief, he said, to be completed business calls.
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Written by: Egghead Dude
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Golf City BBS
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CHiNA Node #5
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What do Mickey Leland, Elvis Presley, Len Bias, Gilda Radner,
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John Belushi, Mel Blanc, Lucille Ball, John F. Kennedy, Christie
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MacAuliffe, Marilyn Monroe, Doctor Reverend Martin Luther King Junior, and
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the boys from 301 have in common?
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** EASY, THEY'RE ALL DEAD! **
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