Telecom Digest for Mon, 14 Nov 2022

---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.4.64.2211121916470.16095@panix1.panix.com> Date: 12 Nov 2022 19:17:36 +0000 From: "danny burstein" <dannyb@panix.com> Subject: Vonage pays $100 million for a Get Out of Jail Free Card Holmdel, NJ-based Vonage paying $100M in refunds after customers struggled to cancel service Vonage has been ordered to pay $100 million in refunds to customers who encountered obstacles and fees when they tried to cancel their service, the Federal Trade Commission said Thursday. As part of the proposed court order, the Holmdel-based telecommunications company agreed to stop using so-called "dark patterns," which are hurdles designed to delay or prevent customers from stopping recurring charges. ...... In numerous instances, customers who canceled continued to be charged. rest: https://www.northjersey.com/story/money/business/2022/11/04/vonage-paying-100m-in-refunds-to-customers-who-struggled-to-cancel/69616683007/ dannyb notes the credit card companies kept processing Vonage's slips even after plenty of customer complaints -- _____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20221113184036.GA792304@telecomdigest.us> Date: Sun, 13 Nov 2022 18:40:36 +0000 From: Bill Horne <malQRMassimilation@gmail.com> Subject: AT&T Operator and Directory Assistance is ending Operator and Directory Assistance is ending On or after January 1, 2023, you won't be able to use these services on AT&T Phones. Operator and Directory Assistance won't be available on AT&T Phone(sm) (formerly U-verse(r) Voice) starting on or after January 1, 2023. Because of this, you won't be able to dial 411 on AT&T Phone(sm) to request phone numbers or addresses. Also, when placing calls, you'll need to dial phone numbers directly as Operator Assistance won't be available. https://www.att.com/support/article/u-verse-voice/KM1511460/ ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20221113190627.GA792536@telecomdigest.us> Date: Sun, 13 Nov 2022 19:06:27 +0000 From: Bill Horne <malQRMassimilation@gmail.com> Subject: CA: 911 Landline Calls Unavailable To At&T Customers In Salmon Creek Area Nov. 12, 2022 Residents of Sonoma County's Salmon Creek community who are AT&T customers could not call 911 from a landline as of Saturday morning, according to the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office. The sheriff's office issued an alert at 10 a.m. Saturday saying that residents of the unincorporated community settlement, which is located between the towns of Jenner and Bodega Bay, couldn't call 911 from a landline. https://www.sfgate.com/news/bayarea/article/911-Landline-Calls-Unavailable-To-At-T-Customers-17580054.php ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20221113171937.GA791915@telecomdigest.us> Date: Sun, 13 Nov 2022 17:19:37 +0000 From: Bill Horne <malQRMassimilation@gmail.com> Subject: IA: 911 outage in Pottawattamie County for Verizon customers Nov. 2, 2022 at 10:03 AM EDT COUNCIL BLUFFS, IOWA (WOWT) - Verizon customers in Pottawattamie County received a notification on their phones Wednesday morning that they could not call 911. The Pottawattamie County Emergency Management & Homeland Security office issued a release saying there was no indication as to the cause [or] potential duration of the outage. https://www.wowt.com/2022/11/02/911-outage-pottawattamie-county-verizon-customers/ -- (Please remove QRM to use the "from" address) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20221113223019@telecom-digest.org> Date: 10 Nov 2022 18:59:55 +0000 From: "Marco" <mo01@posteo.de> Subject: Deutsche Telekom switches off public telephone stations in Feb 2023 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - End of an era: Germany will lose its payphones early next year. Deutsche Telekom has explained to the municipal umbrella organizations and the town halls that all telephone booths will be switched off by February 2023. This is reported by the Stuttgarter Nachrichten, citing the letter from Telekom. There are still 12,000 telephone booths in Germany. The last of this street furniture is expected to be dismantled by the beginning of 2025, Telekom has now declared. There are details (in German) at the following website: you'll need to certify that the cookies on the site are acceptable before you'll be allowed to see the content: it's the box on the left of the splash page. https://www.golem.de/news/rathaeuser-deutsche-telekom-schaltet-alle-telefonzellen-ab-2210-169283.html ************************** Moderator's Note ************************** My thanks to Marco: it took a while to get his post out of my spam filter, and I'm grateful for his help and patience. Bill Horne ------------------------------ ********************************************* End of telecom Digest Mon, 14 Nov 2022