So the other day the Cranky Bastard started at a new job. Is not a bad one, pays well, workload is relatively light for the moment, will let me take off my 2 weeks in july/august., so all is good MOSTLY.
See the problem came up when trying to go home. Because I am currently a brokeass bastard, I have been regulating my gas usage to absolute minimum. Usually no huhu as I don't go anywhere anyway. Well I went to work, and my gas was low, but had enough if all went well to get me there and home again. RIGHT!
Now as some of you already know I dislike the way North Carolina marks it roads. In short they DON'T. So I got lost trying to find my way to this new job. Lost by about an hour on North Carolina roads. It is akin to the cloverleaf from hell only even THOSE has exits!So I get to work late, start new position and all is just ducky. Till the end of the day. I get on the road and after about 6 miles I get the put gas in me NOW bastard! light. The dreaded low fuel warning.So I dont panic yet, and pull into a parking lot. I figure I will call a friend, have them paypal me 5 bucks and im gold right?
I find I have a handful of quarters, no huhu, I will go make a call (I do not at this time have a cellphone, sue me). I mean a phone call only is a quarter right?
I FINALLY find a working phone and am shellshocked. The phone call costs FIFTY CENTS!! WTF!?! OK still no panic, I can get a hold of SOMEONE right?!
I try for almost FOUR HOURS to get someone, with no luck. Left a lot of voicemail. So now I am out of quarters. I start to sweat a bit. But WAIT! I can make a collect phone call right!?!
When I dial the operator and try to make a call, I get a hispanic operator who is NOT with AT&T but a another outfit who kindly tells me I CAN'T Make a collect call! WTF!?! So I Invoke the stranded motorist clause, NO cant do it. In short it came down to if you don't have cash you cant make a call! So If I have an emergency (which I did) and was out of cash (which I was) I had NO WAY of contacting help EVEN THOUGH I had a working payphone right there! Now please oh assembled readers tell me where the problem here is! If I remember correctly the FCC orignally had it so you could make a collect call to anywhere from anywhere on a payphone. When did this change? Or was this little piddling phone company who is catering to the immigrant population in the wrong? I really want to know, because if it comes down to you cannot even make a emergency call anymore there is a problem!
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1 comments:
Hey C.B. First off, finding a working pay phone was an accomplishment in and of itself. Widespread cell phone use has made it virtually impossible for anybody to keep from losing their shirts in the pay phone industry. But you did find one, and it worked. Next issue - the operator service you reached when trying to make the collect call is: 1) required to identify themself, and 2) required to tell you why you were not able to complete the call you were trying to make. It is possible that they are a small or regional outfit and do not have a billing arrangement set up with your called party's home phone provider. Thus, if they connected the call they'd have no way to bill your party for the charges. Even the established long distance carriers have trouble keeping up with establishing billing agreements now, since there are so many newcomers to the local phone supplier industry, including "fly by night" resellers, cable companies, etc. Or, it could just be that the operator service attached to this particular pay phone (as subscribed by whoever owns the phone) is incompetent. You should always (if in the U.S. or Canada) be able to call 1-800-CALLATT or 1-800-COLLECT to reach a nationwide long distance company. You may pay more, but the chances of getting your call through are better.
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