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Friday, December 3, 1976
University Daily Kansan
Ma Bell tries to help
Student telephone woes detailed
By MARSHA WOOLERY
Because Lawrence has a mobile population, telephone service can be a problem for Ma Bell and the consumer. For many people, they move more often than the general public, share phone service with other students in a variety of living arrangements.
The phone company tries to work out feasible solutions and generally caters more to its customers than other businesses because of the district manager for Southport Bell. It is
High installation costs are a primary student complaint, but Carter said the costs don't even cover the actual expenses to the phone company.
"INSTALLLATION COSTS have always been subsidized by monthly rates," Carter said, "and now the trend is for cost plus, not cost minus, as incurred. But we still not there yet."
Because the city added phone jackets to much off-campus housing last summer, Carter said, the cost to the customer decreased from $24 to $16. The customer placed his order, picked up the phone and slugged into the phone jacket at home. Service call corresponded when a phone call was placed to the company on the newly installed phone.
Another student complaint is the $40 deposit requested as a cover for bill payment when a student hasn't had service with the company in the previous year.
Carter said that less than one fourth of the installed phones had to have this deposit, and that the figure included those who avoided paying by having their parents or guardians sign a letter guaranteeing payment.
The deposits never fully cover unpaid bills, Carter said, "because usually the people who don't pay and who aren't paying them have a bill that exceeds the deposit level."
Carter said this year had been the best yet for bill collection, though the number of students' unpaid bills was as usual more than regular customers'.
Part of the success he credited to a new computer system that got the final May bills out within 10 days. Before, he said, it took almost 30 days.
Many students don't pay their bills in the summer because they are on the move so much that they never receive them, he said. "And undergraduate, several students."
**4b) understandable complaint student, have, Carter said, is the inconvenience of**
**4c) complain that the complaint is not correct.**
THERE IS A LAG period when bills aren't paid, but most students eventually pay theirs, Carter said, particularly because the phone company runs a cross-check on students returning to school in the fall.
To handle the school rush, the company hires eight extra people for its business office and borrows 10 to 15 installers from other cities, Carter said.
ONE PRACTICE the company uses to avoid a large number of wrong numbers in the fall is the reserving of phone numbers for returning students. Carter said that 1,500 to 2,000 telephone numbers were returned to students this fall.
After a phone has been disconnected, the phone company holds the number for at least three months and usually longer, Carter said.
"But when we keep it even longer its costs money in equipment that's being tied up just for the record. We have to, from an organization's perspective, use these and reissue those numbers," he said.
Students also complain that when they call an old number, the recording doesn't give them the new number and they end up having to call directory assistance.
CARTER SAID that if students gave a new number when they disconnected the phones, it would be included on the tape. Otherwise, it was impossible to keep updating the tapes until the next phone book was published.
Because five free directory assistance calls are given each month and another is added each time a long distance call is dialed directly to 913 area number, Carter said a student usually shouldn't have to pay for any directory assistance calls.
Phone company studies indicate that 80 per cent of the directory assistance calls are made by 20 per cent of the customers, he said, and the company just "put the cost where it belonged and decreased the abuse of the service."
Charging for the directory assistance calls has reduced them by 50 per cent, Carter said, because people now use the phone book more.
STUDENTS WITH THE most phone problems seem to be those living in sorority
Teri Gajewski, president of Alpha Gamma Delta sorority, said, "The main problem is we change rooms three times a day to accommodate all of 12 each room change moving the m艘.
"Two years ago, we had permanent phones provided by the house in every room, but there was problem with people claiming long distance calls."
The Sigma Alpha Episcoal fraternity has the same problem, according to Jeff Armstrong.
"The phone company makes more money every time we have to move the phones," he
Carter said, "The average cost is more like $45 to handle a new installation or move of a phone. The man you see is a tip on the iceberg. The real cost is incurred through a lot of people in as many as 19 work functions."
THE TELEPHONE company's records have to be changed and the central system rewired, in addition to rewiring the house, he said.
One sorority has complained that although it has regular house phones to call out on, collection policies mean that they are not allowed to use credit cards for longe distance calls.
But students can't obtain a credit card unless they have a credit record to establish it on. This usually charges calling to their parents' phone, and some students say they are unasy about their parents seeing their phone bills.
Carter said he saw no option except to have students establish their cards on a felt mat.
Carter suggested that fraternities and sororites reserve a block of billing numbers covered by the house itself, so each member would have a number and card. A master bill would then be sent the house, itemized according to distance according to the credit card numbers.
"Why would we want to underwrite everyone in a fraternity or sorority when the fraternities and sororites won't underwrite them?" he asked.
who stay in the same room throughout the year. Other houses work on a trust system, where members claim their long distance calls each month from the master bill.
Some houses find hassles, but others don't, because many have active members
Whatever system the houses use, the "telephone company really caters to players in a special fraternity president Mark Anderson. Fairway senior. "They've got to an art."
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