Conference 7.286::digital

    Steve,
    
    My name is John O'Neil and I am DEC's AT&T business manager and as such
    I have ultimate responsibility to see that we get the proper level of 
    customer service from AT&T. Marjorie Blackwell from U.S. Telecomm
    discussed your note with me and we came up with the following procedure
    that should be used when seeking answers to AT&T calling card bill
    questions. DEC pays AT&T for the following services so it is important to
    try to use them and if we find they are not providing the information we 
    need I will raise this as a performance issue with AT&T's National Account 
    Team:
    
    STEP 1 - CALL THE 800 NUMBER ON YOUR BILL WHICH WILL CONNECT YOU TO
    AT&T'S ACCOUNT INQUIRY CENTER. THEY SHOULD BE ABLE TO PROVIDE AN
    ADEQUATE ANSWER TO YOUR QUESTIONS.
    
    STEP 2 - IF THE AIC DOES NOT GIVE YOU ENOUGH INFORMATION THEN YOU
    SHOULD CALL AT&T'S EXECUBILL CENTER AT 800-458-9409 AND TALK TO ONE OF
    THE FOLLOWING PEOPLE:
    	MAIN CONTACT - JULIE BLUMENSTOCK, HOURS 8:00-4:30 EST (M-F)
    	BACK-UPS -     JEFF SENER, HOURS 8:30-5:00 EST (M-F)
    		       LYNN BAYSHORE, 9:00-5:30 EST (M-F)
    
    STEP 3 - IF BOTH OF THE ABOVE FAILS TO GET YOU A SATISFACTORY RESPONSE
    THEN CALL ME AT DTN 223-5842 OR MARJORIE BLACKWELL AT 223-1115. I WILL
    TAKE YOUR QUESTIONS TO AT&T'S DEC NATIONAL ACCOUNT TEAM AND FIND OUT
    WHY YOU HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO GET YOUR PROBLEM RESOLVED IN A REASONABLE
    TIME FRAME. 
    
    	I hope this information is what you need to handle this and any
    future calling card problems.

    While we are on the subject of AT&T calling cards, let me explain
    another problem I used to encounter when I was on the road.  (If
    this has been corrected, please let me know.  I'm not using the 
    card that often anymore.)   
    
    Calling in for messages - into voicemail - using an AT&T card:
    
    The procedure that voicemail uses is to type in your password followed
    by the pound sign (#).  Unfortunately, that is the same key that AT&T 
    uses to indicate that you are finished with the call you made and want
    to place another call without re-entering the card number.  Sometimes
    the voicemail system recognizes the # and continues.  Other times (and
    I haven't found the pattern yet), the AT&T taped voice comes on and
    tells you "You may place another AT&T call now."  Thanks!  Now...I 
    have the option of redialing into voicemail and trying, once again,
    to retrieve my messages or hanging up.
    
    This has got be costing DEC $$'s.  Any solutions?
    
    Kelly

Yesterday I attended VoiceMail training the instructor brought up this point.
What we were told to do was to just "tap" the # key (as opposed to holding it
down).  This should get the VoiceMail system to recognize it but not the AT&T
system.  Apparently AT&T is looking for a longer tone than is the
VoiceMail system.

    Kelly:
    
    Simple solution is to wait for the finish of the first sentence
    in the voice mail message; " Hello, this is ........... ASPEN,
    DIGITAL's Automatic ................. Network. " At this stage
    if you press the # sign you should be able to get to your mail
    box. If your location is using some other voice mail system use 
    the same procedure. Credit card calls work on a timing format,
    press the # sign to early and you will be asked to dial the next
    AT&T handled call. Hope this helps, try it works for me.
    
    Ashim

Although this has nothing at all to do with the base note...

The "#" is only recognized by the telephone system as a way to start another
call

	BEFORE the call answers
and
	AFTER the call hangs up.

It has nothing to do with how long you hold the "#".  It will take less
than 1 second for the originating register that recognizes the "#" to drop
off the line after the voicemail system answers.  There is no equipment on
the line listening for tones after the call answers and until it hangs up.

The problem reported must be in someone's imagination.  Urban legend.
I won't believe it exists unless someone can actually demonstrate it
to me.  Contact me by mail if you think you can do so.

/john

    O.K., John.  My 'imagination' has experienced this at least five or six
    times.  If what you say is true, then for some unknown reason -
    voicemail must be hanging up on me around the time it asks me to enter
    my password followed by '#'.  I'd be happy to demonstrate it for you
    - however it doesn't cooperate that well.  As I mentioned, sometimes
    it happens, sometimes it doesn't.  When it does - I have been connected
    to and in the middle of a session with voicemail - not a dial tone.
    The only common denominator is the fact that I was at pay phones each
    time it happened.
    
    Has anyone else experienced this?  If not, I'll chalk it up to
    imagination.  Unfortunately, Digital pays the bill.
    
    Kelly
    

    Another vote for "it" happening as described in .2 above.  A few weeks
    ago I was at a customer, used my AT&T calling card to reach our
    voicemail (which requires one to press the # key to enter one's mailbox
    number), held the # key down (probably less than 1 second), and the
    next thing I knew I was being talked to by AT&T's computer ("you may
    now dial another.....").  The solution is as noted in .3, a quick tap
    of the # key to keep AT&T where they belong.
    
    Mark

    This also happens to me on a consistent basis.  If I press the # key
    within the first few seconds of voicemail answering I always get please
    dial your new number now.  If I wait just a few seconds, then it will
    let me continue into voicemail.

There seem to be two different things people are talking about here.  In one
case, the "#" at the very beginning of a call is causing the call to drop.
I'm willing to believe that some systems may take as much as two seconds
to register that the call has answered.  If you get the "#" in before that
you'll get dropped, but you also probably haven't been billed for the call.

Other people are talking about the "#" dropping well into the call.  This
is not supposed to happen.  AT&T's systems DEFINITELY do not have a Touch-Tone
receiver connected during a call.  They are simply too expensive a resource;
they are shared by all callers, and there are not enough to keep them on the
line during calls.  They are allocated and deallocated as needed.

I'd like to know the area code and first three digits of both the source
and destination of some of these calls.

If these are intra-LATA calls, then some local operating company may have
something wrong that should be fixed.

/john

    I have the same problem.  They made some changes to our voicemail
    system so now it also works with the * key. 

I've experienced the # ==> new call too.  I've found waiting for the full "To
enter ... press #.... " message to play before pressing # works for me. I've
never attempted varying the quickess of pressing the button.

In the voicemail system in Chicago, there's also a roundabout way. When you
first get into our voicemail, you can press * (instead of # to enter) to "send
a brief message".  Then you're asked to "Enter the address for your message".
If I THEN press #, it treats that as entry into the system and I can continue
with my mailbox address.

But as stated, since I started to wait for the time the full message takes, I
haven't had any problems.

(Calls from within the Chicago area as well as hotels in Nashua)

	/Marvin