Woman Has Been Paying AT&T $4.95/Month For A Rotary Phone - For 25 Years

[matcom]

<snip>

After she dumped her AT&T long-distance service, Paula Galaviz found it odd when the company sent a bill to her Watertown home.

When she looked at the fine print and learned what it was for, she was astounded.

"Leased equipment," it said. "Traditional rotary telephone."

Wait a minute, she thought. The one that's been in a box in the basement for the better part of a decade? That rotary telephone? The white wall-mount model that's turned more yellow over time?

AT&T wanted her and her husband, Sam, to send them $14.48 - that's $4.45 a month plus tax - for three more months of leasing the dinosaur of a telephone.

Paula Galaviz was paying $4.45 a month for an AT&T phone she hadn't used in years.

Hold the phone, Paula thought. I haven't used that clunky thing in years. Hey, how long have I been paying for it?

So she grabbed a modern touch-tone phone and called the customer service number on the bill.

"Would you like to discontinue the contract?" the woman on the other end of the line said.

Of course, Paula replied. I haven't used the phone in, like, forever.

OK, the woman said, then you owe us $17 for the telephone. It's an equipment recovery charge.

"I said, 'I didn't say I don't have the phone. I have the phone. It's in a box in the basement.' "

<snip>

Paula doesn't like to think about how much she's paid to lease this phone over the years. So don't tell her that if you multiply $4.45 a month times the 25 years that she estimates she's had the phone that you get $1,335. That's probably a little high if you assume that the monthly lease fee was lower back in the 1980s.


http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/jan06/388195.asp

[Montauk6]

1. OK, show of hands...

How many saw the subject and, for the briefest moment, considered ditching your touch-tone service?

[NoPasaran]

4. Me!

Hey, I still have a good ol' black rotary phone around here someplace.

[Squatch]

7. Me. I was thinking $5 a month for phone service?

Where do I sign up?

[Rob H.]

10. Right here.

:hi: That's why I clicked in!

[xchrom]

16. sigh -- me.

[azmouse]

2. I thought for a minute it would be about my mother-in-law.

She is still leasing her phone. I wonder how many others like her are out there. :scared:

[livetohike]

3. Mine!

But my brother helped her straighten it out last month! She was paying a monthly charge on a princess phone my sister had in her bedroom back in 1978!! No kidding.

It's a scam, that's for sure. My Dad died in Nov. 2004 and my Mom really needs to watch her money.....this is a shame.

[Left Is Write]

5. I remember when you had to.

You couldn't buy your own phone - you had to lease one from the phone company.

[lpbk2713]

8. I rememer when you could have any color phone you wanted.

As long as it was black.

[hyphenate]

15. I remember the first phone

where I could pick the color (it was a touch tone, though) when you still were leasing, and I, of course being a big TV fan, chose the red model. I envisioned myself making calls to the White House and talking about classified material. Of course, if I recall correctly, that was during the Carter administration, so the POTUS was a friendly sort.

[mcscajun]

17. Hell, that was NEW Phone when I was a kid.

Here's the one I remember from Way Back:



The dial was metal, and you could hurt your fingers dialing too hard. :) You could "clock" somebody with the receiver, too; it was HEAVY and SOLID.

[azmouse]

9. It wasn't all that long ago. I remember it too.

At least it doesn't seem that long ago but I guess it's 20+ yrs now. Scary how fast time flies!!

[momophile]

6. that's just screwed up. shame on AT&T nt

[underpants]

11. Side note-telephone tax = war tax

it started with the Spanish-American war (You would think that they have that paid off by now).

[dr.strangelove]

12. This was MY MOM!

Okay, not the same woman as the article, but we did the same thing two years ago. Her rotary phone broke and she called AT&T to fix it. They sent someone in to fix it. The repairman told her she was crazy to keep paying the fee. She bought the house in 1962 and had the same phone for 41 years. We figured out she paid over $1500 for the phone over 41 years. While that is crazy, it was a good product. It worked for 41 years before breaking. We bought a new phone outright for $72. She still has the rotary phone but stopped paying the fee. Since it has been 3 years, the savings on the fee has already paid for the phone.

[Rabrrrrrr]

13. Huh. Stupid woman.

People should look at their bills once every 20 years or so and see what they're fucking paying for. Sheesh.

:eyes:

[bleedingheart]

14. this is why I am a fan of paying by check...

you see when I have to write out a check for something...I scan the bill because I wanna know what I am paying for...

I know people who pay via automatic deductions of their checking account that literally throw out the bill immediately without even looking at the damn thing because "they know it is being paid for"...

what a way to scam people out of money....