US West, DSL, and long distance ?

Edwards Finance > Phones

Q. I have DSL and my long distance service (AT&T) has again been switched to a business account. This has happened every month since June of this year. I have been way too patient (or lazy) in trying to solve this. US West says that I have residential DSL; you'll have to talk to AT&T. AT&T says we show you as having business local service; you'll have to talk with your local phone company. Has anyone with this problem been able to straighten it out? If so, how?

A. This kind of nonsense makes me glad I'm using Qwest as my LD carrier, since they merged with US West, I know the problem will get resolved. And I thought I was the only one. I called about this three straight months and supposedly every time it was all cleared up. Now I get the AT&T bill and throw it away. I am still paying my LD, because now I get a personal AT&T billing on my USWest statement, and I also get another bill from AT&T for some fictional business account. Soon I'm going to send them a bill and charge them for all those hours I spent trying to clear up their mistake. Not only that. Prior to this fiasco I was paying a fixed $5 a month and $.10 a minute anytime including in-state calls. Well that's all gone now. All their new plans charge more for in-state calls, which, of course, are where 95% of my LD calls are placed. I might be turning to Quest as well. I signed up with Qwest through American Express. The per minute rate isn't the best, but there aren't (for now anyway) any monthly minimum fees, federal and state taxes and charges excluded. The charges go on my AMEX bill. I don't make many LD calls and there were times when the total monthly cost for a $.90 long distance call would cost me over $10. AT&T has said several times in past that there would be no minimum monthly charge. And, then a month or two later, the charges start showing up. Qwest will be divesting its LD operations in the 14 states USWest is the dominant carrier due to FCC issues in not allowing the bells into long distance until many stringent unbundling rules are met. could happen as soon as 1Q00. It's quite possible that US West was responsible for telling AT&T that your line was changed to business class, and that they keep doing it every time they report your long distance useage to them. Since US West has only just now started charging me for my DSL service (even though I've had it since July), all signs at AT&T still show me as a residential long distance subscriber, so there's nothing to fix yet. One thing though, is that AT&T's business long distance rates aren't that terrible. There's a $7.50/month ->minimum

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