Well, I'm tempted to never use a payphone again.

[skreidle]

Verizon raises pay phone rates to 50 cents
WEST ORANGE, New Jersey (CNN) -- The largest U.S. operator of pay phones announced it will raise its rates from 35 cents a call to 50 cents in most places as soon as Monday.

They blame the increase on increased cell phone usage resulting in decreased payphone usage. Duh. However, to their credit, 50c will buy unlimited local time instead of you having to put money in every few minutes. (But has anyone ever actually had to put in more money during a local call? I never have.)

Comments

[beracjade.livejournal.com]

i've done it before. had to put in a total of 60 cents before the call was done.

hehehehe, the first time i typed 69. oops. ;-)

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

Maybe I've just never had a long payphone call that wasn't to home (800#). :)

[beracjade.livejournal.com]

yes, well, when i'm in the straight, L says call, and she's off campus? and i can't get into the APO office (or i'm too lazy to go down all those steps and then come back up later)? i'll spend the money.

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

Well, I don't think I've ever been in a situation quite like that. :)

[six2.livejournal.com]

No more payphones then. How about offering some kind of improved technology as a balance for increasing the price - like the smart card-type phones of europe and canada. And how does europe do it there if cel phones are so absurdly popular there?

(got a cel phone myself today ... inherited)

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

Payphones are still useful just in case you don't have any portable communications devices on you.

Also, at least in France, the phone system is run by the government, not private companies; possibly the same for elsewhere in Europe and/or Canada--makes a big difference.

Re:

[six2.livejournal.com]

Yes, but less useful at $0.50 - next it'll be like the post office and increase by 5 cents every couple years.

At least around here, verizon is worse than many gov't agencies (less responsive, more controlling) and the only real reason they have trouble (here anyway) is they're AWFUL. Truly bad. Fired everyone with ability and hired unskilled labor.

Meanwhile all the CEOs and mgt are getting raises.

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

As an aside, last I heard (several rate hikes ago), the USPS was making record profits, and raised rates anyway. Go figure.

Verizon actually seems decent around here.. their costs may not be the best, and they had a hell of a time catching up in a collegetown after that strike at the beginning of a fall semester, but their service is actually decent.

Mind, all I use them for is local calling.

Re:

[six2.livejournal.com]

They insisted that the old second line in my folk's house needed to be physically reinstalled (it'd only been inactive a couple years since I was gone). They made my father wait a good long time until someone came out and did the physical installation work. They charged him some $100+ for the work and then after all was said and done it wasn't hooked up.

So they said they could come back and figure it out, but by that point my father wasn't willing to spend another $100+ just to finish installing, and wait to have them come out again, etc.

There was that and the fights between Covad and Verizon where each blames the other and nothing happens for months. We finally had to get direct lines to service folks at Verizon to get any real answers.

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

See, this is when you refuse to pay more and insist that they fix things, since they did it wrong the first time..

..or, convince them beforehand that they don't need to rewire a damn thing and to just try hooking it up on their end.

Re:

[six2.livejournal.com]

And my father tried. But nothing - he still has one phone line.

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

Man.. Verizon's much better than that around here..

Re:

[six2.livejournal.com]

Was it GTE before, or Bell Atlantic?

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

Bell Atlantic

Re:

[six2.livejournal.com]

Huh... well maybe the evil goes back to C&P telephone.

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

A lot of NoVA had GTE, though, didn't it/

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

Also, I can't justify the cost of cellular service given how little I use the phone at the moment--my monthly phone bill is less than $20, and I have et to finish the first of five 100min phone cards I was given for xmas.

Re:

[six2.livejournal.com]

Cell phone is not for everyone - no arguement there. Phone cards are a good deal.

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

My personal favorite calling plan is with USAdatanet.. you call a local access # and place your long distance call through them.. $0.10/min, but no call more than $0.99 in the northeast (VA-ME) and no call more than $1.99 from the NE to anywhere else in the US, regardless of call length.

If you want to check that out (or refer friends to it), their website is at www.usadatanet.com, and my reference # is 6072570913 (and both the signer-up and myself get $1.99 credit if they use that reference. ;)

Re:

[six2.livejournal.com]

That's a really good deal for any long calls. Better quality and accessability than dialpad, but without paying a premium.

I bookmarked it and read up on the tech they have - if I had a use for it now, I'd sign up. Would have come in handy for data calls back in the BBS days, and those long distance calls to caitlin when she was at school.

Hopefully soon I should have my cell w/unlimited evenings and weekends including nationwide long distance. I think they can only afford to offer it because it is a 'limited' offer - maybe a year or something.

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

It really works well--I've used it from Ithaca, Philadelphia, and NoVA, and my phone bills are way down. :)

I've gotten cell offers lately for "xx free minutes monthly", but I don't think I'd get anything that wasn't unlimited nights&weekends.

Re:

[six2.livejournal.com]

Most of the cell offers have been less than impressive. Basically, you have to be willing to pay a premium for it.

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

I'm not willing to pay more than about $35/mo for any phone service, and I'm currently paying about $10-$15/mo on my land-line phone (shared with one other guy).. hard to compete. I don't often need the mobility and accessibility of a cell phone.

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

Also, when I was BBSing back in middle school, all my calls were local..

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

What's the per-minute rate work out to?

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

That occurred to me, too.

"Oh, no! We're not getting enough money from Branch A of our service, despite a booming industry in Branch B! Let's increase prices for A instead of, say, reallocating funds!"

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

In the DC area?
That's almost unfathomable.

Also, that's why you should use Sprint/Cingular/AT&T :)

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

...except you haven't gotten a signal in 2 weeks, above-ground?

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

That bites.. where did you buy it from? What brand of phone?

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

Bah, you girls and your tears. Think it'll get you everything, do you? Well, ha! It won't! Never!



..at least, not 100% of the time. Maybe 95%.