20030618   

Michael considered fate at 17:36   |   Permalink   |   Post a Comment

Speaking of McGill Telecom...

man were they great.

Where most telephone companies like the idea of charging you more for the first minute of a long distance call (inevitably, the best way to make money) the kind people at McGill Telecom made the first minute of every call FREE.

Most of the lines on my phone statement that year read something like this:

09/27/1998 19:32:47 207-582-5555 Gardiner, ME...................... 1 min $0.00

I remember they would post a huge sheet in the dorm lobby with everyone's total phone charges for the month since it was automatically deducted from our tuition accounts.

Michelle.. $21.75

Joe.. $12.37

Alex.. $8.19

and then there was always me.

Mike.. $1.24

I don't think I ever cracked the $5 barrier.. even in Canadian currency. They dinged us 2.5 cents (CDN) per minute to the states.

There was even a few kids from somewhere in the Carribean who got free calls.. Somehow the island exchange had a local routing number in Montreal and every went through as a local call. Lucky buggers.

By my second year the regular phone companies had crazy flat-rate long distance plans. $20/month for unlimited calling within Canada. It didn't do anything for me but I knew people with three, four, and even five Canadians in a single apartment. At first the bills came with a little reminder of how much you saved. It used to say if you hadn't elected the $20 all you can gab plan, you'd have spent $XXX this month!..

I saw ones as high as $1,500...

Somehow this lovely idea hasn't made it, in it's purest form, down to the good 'ol states. I'm not sure if Americans could deal with it anyway. Their minds would most likely spontaneously explode. Down here in the states we are used, expect, and even encourage the telcos to screw us up the ass whenever they get the chance.

Then the federal government, realizing that it's people were being screwed up the ass, decided to start charging the telcos for the right to screw us up the ass.

The telcos, of course, passed the savings on to us...

Now not only do we have taxes and plan fees and minute by minute charges, we also suffer through universal charges and special starving children in ethopia fees and they don't even let us dial 0 for the time anymore.

I have to dial 411.

The telcos, in fact, are so lovingly run with the consumer in mind that they allow you to call 411 for directory assistance (or even to get the time, as the case may be) as many times in a month as you want...

For Seventy-Five-Fucking-Cents.