# Let's bitch about our phone bill, shall we?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-bitch-about-our-phone-bill-shall-we/14317
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [March 4, 2000, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-bitch-about-our-phone-bill-shall-we/14317 "2000-03-04T04:41:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 17
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2000, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-bitch-about-our-phone-bill-shall-we/14317/1 "2000-03-04T04:41:00Z")
We’ve just discovered, after calling Sprint, MCI ( our long distance carrier) and another carrier, that because our parents ( the people we talk to the most) are juuuust outside our calling area, THAT it is cheaper per minute for us to call Germany or England than 28 miles away from our house.
ARGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
Our local carrier, ameritech has a stranglehold on Michigan and we are screwed screwed screwed.
ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
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### Author:  [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2000, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-bitch-about-our-phone-bill-shall-we/14317/2 "2000-03-04T04:55:00Z")
Well, if it’s possible, try to get them on Instant Messenger or ICQ.
What happened to that whole “no monopoly” thing, anyway?
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JMcC, San Francisco, [JJTM’s new page](http://fathom.org/jjtm/)
If I were beaned with a fastball, fling my limp, lifeless body to first, cause, dammit, I earned it!
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### Author:  [@Shadowfox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shadowfox)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2000, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-bitch-about-our-phone-bill-shall-we/14317/3 "2000-03-04T05:02:00Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Originally posted by Shirley Ujest:
> **Our local carrier, ameritech has a stranglehold on Michigan and we are screwed screwed screwed.**
## I have noticed lately that I was paying something like 25 cents a minute to call my mother, who only lives 13 miles away, yet I could call my friend in Texas and only pay 10 cents a minute. WTF?? Ameritech must be the anti-Christ. But I got them. I switched my LD and local toll call service to Qwest just this month. I haven’t seen the phone bill since the LD carrier switch yet, but if I don’t see a vast improvement, I’m going to switch to something else.
Shadowfox
“The dead have risen, and they’re voting Republican!” - Bart Simpson
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### Author:  [@Demo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Demo)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2000, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-bitch-about-our-phone-bill-shall-we/14317/4 "2000-03-04T06:26:00Z")
AT&T has a 5 cents/minute for evening and weekends plan. Without that, I’d be sunk. 😉
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### Author:  [@Catrandom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catrandom)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2000, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-bitch-about-our-phone-bill-shall-we/14317/5 "2000-03-04T06:38:00Z")
Tell me about it. I make no long distance calls. None. And my phone bill is still a hundred dollars every damn month. And the only alternate carrier for local service here is MediaOne. So I signed up to switch to them, and made an appointment to have them install whatever they install. Then a week later I called to reschedule the appointment, only to discover they’d forgotten to write it down and had no record of me. Which was sufficiently idiotic that I stuck, dissatisfied and grumbling, with the extortionists at GTE.
Catrandom
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### Author:  [@Yankee\_Blue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yankee_Blue)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2000, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-bitch-about-our-phone-bill-shall-we/14317/6 "2000-03-04T14:46:00Z")
Okay, last year we lived about 15 miles to the west of my folks - a local call. Since then I moved about 15 miles to the east of my folks - a long distance call - but all the numbers are/were in the same area code - argh! I hear THEY are going to play area code roulette all over the state again. 10 years ago there were two area codes in this state now there are at least eight, plus ‘regional calling zones’. What a money maker that must have turned out to be for them.
I shall quote Ernestine: “We don’t care we don’t have to, we’re the phone company.”
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All you need to start an asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people.
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### Author:  [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2000, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-bitch-about-our-phone-bill-shall-we/14317/7 "2000-03-04T14:53:00Z")
I’m the other way around. The only calls I generally make in the area are to my best friend’s cell phone and to my ISP. My parents live in Cleveland (about two and a half hours away, still in-state) and Brian lives in NC. Guess who it costs more to call? If I call Brian during peak hours, it’s .10/min, and in the special hours (7pm-7am weeknights, all day weekends) it's .05/min. It’s always ten cents a minute to the 'rents.
Ridiculous, if you ask me.
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### Author:  [@Persephone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Persephone)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2000, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-bitch-about-our-phone-bill-shall-we/14317/8 "2000-03-04T15:25:00Z")
I need to start paying attention to my phone bill. I haven’t been, except to notice that it’s high. But my husband’s family lives in Arkansas, and his best friend lives in Owosso (Michigan, where I, Shirley, & Shadowfox live). My stepson & his mother used to live long distance too, but thank the deities they just moved to Flushing, which is local.
I never paid attention to the actual per-minute charges, because when I’d get the bill, I’d just see calls to Arkansas, Owosso, and Millington (my stepson’s former residence), and say “oops, too many long-distance calls,” and leave it at that. I’ve got Ameritech too. Guess I’d better take a closer look.
Here in Flint, there’s ben some talk that we might get _yet another_ freaking area code. That would be _two_ area codes for this city. This, my friends, would positively blow goats. The calls would still be local, but we’d have to dial ten or eleven numbers to call _across town._ Argh. I really hope this doesn’t happen. Flint is a decent-sized city, but it’s not so freaking big that we need two area codes.
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Changing my sig, because Wally said to, and I really like Wally, and I’ll do anything he says, anytime he says to.
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### Author:  [@Milossarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Milossarian)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2000, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-bitch-about-our-phone-bill-shall-we/14317/9 "2000-03-04T16:35:00Z")
I’m a Michigan phone bill sufferer too.
The thing that gets me is how now you get a $25-30 monthly phone bill _before the first long-distance charge._
They nickel and dime you to death with all sorts of charges, and if you have Caller ID, that tacks on a good $15 or more in and of itself.
While I’m ranting, those “Sprint Nickel Nights” and annoying AT&T commercials (Paul Reiser has just become a total cash whore, apparently) should be outlawed. There is a monthly fee for that per-call price. What, that doesn’t count?
I use 10-10-811 5 cents a minute, no fees. It seems to work every time.
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“You should tell the truth, expose the lies and live in the moment.” - Bill Hicks
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### Author:  [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2000, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-bitch-about-our-phone-bill-shall-we/14317/10 "2000-03-04T16:38:00Z")
Americtech is a baby Bell isn’t it? Do they offer long distance service? Because if they do, there has to be competition in the local service market. There may be competition even if Ameritech doesn’t offer LD, thanks to the 1996 Telecommunications Act. You may be able to find your intra-LATA calls at a cheaper rate.
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Sometimes you feel like a coconut, sometime you feel like a yak.
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### Author:  [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2000, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-bitch-about-our-phone-bill-shall-we/14317/11 "2000-03-04T16:40:00Z")
You hearing people can make free long distance calls using your computer. I talked about this before, [www.dialpad.com.](http://www.dialpad.com.) There are other sites. You call with your computer & the person you call picks up the phone the regular way.
Strange, I got my phone statement & it lists crap from AT&T, MCI & Sprint! WOw, Ive got three.
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### Author:  [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2000, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-bitch-about-our-phone-bill-shall-we/14317/12 "2000-03-04T16:41:00Z")
Also, for $100, you can get a little gizmo box at Office Depot that lets you do long distance calls free…as long as you have an ISP. These are black boxes, no, not that type of black box.
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### Author:  [@PurpleCrackwhore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PurpleCrackwhore)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2000, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-bitch-about-our-phone-bill-shall-we/14317/13 "2000-03-04T17:37:00Z")
Handy? Does that work for a Mac computer as well as a PC?
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I really try to be good but it just isn’t in my nature!
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### Author:  [@purrplebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purrplebear)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2000, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-bitch-about-our-phone-bill-shall-we/14317/14 "2000-03-04T17:57:00Z")
Okay, I’ll jump in here. You guys are complaining about yuor phone bills with in-country calls on them. Try calling halfway around the world. We have discovered that it costs my husband about $6.00 a minute to call me from UAE, and I finally found a company with good rates for me to call him. MCI Worldcom’s rates are $3.99 a month, and $0.55 a minute. That still adds up to a hefty chunk, believe me. So, a friend was kind enough to send me ICQ, I sent it to him, and now we can talk almost every day free. The time difference causes a problem though. SO, lately my phone bill, calling friends here in Tx, and Wis runs about $60-$140 a month.
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To dream of the person you would like to be is to waste the person you are.—Anon.
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### Author:  [@AzRaek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AzRaek)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2000, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-bitch-about-our-phone-bill-shall-we/14317/15 "2000-03-05T06:37:00Z")
We have 5 phone lines in our home/office. We are billed for 2 lines, then 3 lines. This month, the smaller bill is $185.
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I’m not a fallen angel, I’m a risen demon.
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### Author:  [@Brood\_McEto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brood_McEto)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2000, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-bitch-about-our-phone-bill-shall-we/14317/16 "2000-03-05T06:55:00Z")
PCW: it’s called Aglio. It’s crap as far as i can see. everyone you call has to have one. use dial pad. it’s free. I know, i work for OD.
Shirley: In state LD calls have always been more expensive than out-of-state LD. My dad could call me for 5cents on sundays in FL, but now he has to pay like 20 or so cents. Federal control over the out of state calls. Not so for instate…
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If you want to have cities, you’ve got to build roads.
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2000, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-bitch-about-our-phone-bill-shall-we/14317/17 "2000-03-04T19:20:00Z")
I got so fed up with the long distance services charging me a minimum $5 fee even when I DIDN’T make any calls that month, I told Southwestern Bell to cancel the service. I just get a long distance card from the local convenience store when I want to make a call.