Call and Response Telephone Compilations (CRTC) issue 1, volume 1, September 2001 'Run DMS' ;-` # Staff: * Editor-In-Chief - The Clone * Contribution - Alan, Flopik, Magma, Nestor, phlux, RT, The Clone # Contact: * E-mail: theclone@hackcanada.com * IRC: irc.2600.net (#cpu / #hackcanada) * Web-Site: www.nettwerked.net/cpu '-; ;-' # Content: * 'A Brief Introduction' [ The Clone ] * 'A Detailed Look Into Prison Phone Systems' [ The Clone ] * 'Additional Tracfone Documentation' [ The Clone ] * 'To The Community: Boycott Telus Communications, Inc.' [ The Clone ] * 'BOYCOTT TRACFONE' [Nestor L Rodriguez] # Other Stuff: * The Canadian Phreaking Scene - NOW * Reader Feedback '-; You are currently reading the first issue of CRTC... Congratulations. Prepare yourselves for a monthly compilation of 100% telecom information. I assume this 'zine will be much smaller than K-1ine in regards to the amount of contributed content, however it doesn't mean that will always be the case. Call and Response Telephone Compilations was essentially developed by and for the presently active Canadian phone phreaks. CRTC is accepting all telecom related information - whether you're in western or eastern Canada, USA, or anywhere else in the world, we will add your article after it meets certain criteria. Certain Criteria: 1. Article must be original; written by you, or you and another writer. 2. Article must be telecom related. 3. Article must be proof-read before sent to me. Where to send articles: SEND ALL ARTICLES TO: theclone@hackcanada.com We will contact you if we decide to put your article in upcoming CRTC issues. (Note: please e-mail your articles in plain text format *ONLY*) - 'To The Community: Boycott Telus Communications, Inc.' Written by: The Clone Date: Tuesday, September 4, 2001 URL: www.nettwerked.net E-mail: theclone@fucktelus.com -- - Introduction - - Why Boycott Telus? - - The Alternative - - Conclusion - -- Introduction: If you've been living under a rock for the past week, you probably have not heard about Telus' plan to increase provincial wide residential coverage pricing by 10%. Well it's true; less than a year since Telus raised their rates a substantial amount, they go ahead and raise them up again... fuckers. In this paper, I am pleading with current Telus residential customers to boycott Telus Communications. Telus is a multi-billion dollar corporation who has a monopoly over not only the residential and corporate phone lines and high-speed Internet ('ADSL') as well. Telus took over BCTEL two years ago, has 25% ownership over Sasktel, completely owns Quebectel, has 25% stock in Verizon, and rumour has it they helped Nortel Networks (formerly 'Northern Telecom') out of their slump by buying a quantity of their company. Holy corporate control, batman! Why Boycott Telus? A couple weeks ago while I was enjoying my taxi ride home from the Money Mart after pay day, I was lucky enough to toon into a local radio station (630 CHED) here in Edmonton where they had an interview with the city marketing director for Telus Communications. The Telus employee's defense of the proposal for the 10% residential increase was this: "We at Telus want to allow [more] competition into the residential market place. By raising the rates, telecom companies who thought that getting into the local Alberta market was unprofitable, will now think otherwise. If the proposal goes through, regular local residential phone lines will cost, at the most, $35.00 a month." This just does not make any sense! Wouldn't raising rates to allow competition be a BAD thing on the part of Telus? If local residential competition is allowed in Alberta, then Telus will lose revenue rather quickly. My theory is that the Telus employee that was on 630 CHED was full of shit when telling us that raising rates would invite local competition. Telus is a very large corporation who's revenues are more important to them than say, quality of service (QOS) for Albertans - raising rates will not allow local competition. Telus leases it's own lines to local competition in the payphone market at a high cost, and will probably do the same for residential lines. And speaking of residential lines, has anyone even seen any other companies in Alberta offering local residential service to Albertans? Not I. The only other common carrier I've seen around is AT&T, and they offer business lines. The Alternative The best suited alternative for anyone wanting quality lines at a decent rate, if Telus decides to hike its local rates to $35.00 for a regular line is - AT&T Business. AT&T right now offers its business accounts for $27.95 per month, and includes a monthly centrex line, line hunting, call display, call waiting, call conference / transfer and call forwarding. Telus' business line right now is currently $34.18... what a rip off. Conclusion My conclusion: Telus' service, which was once a flaming pile of dog shit, is now turning into a flaming pile of horse shit. Go with the alternative, AT&T, if you can... or better yet, get a pre-paid phone from Rogers AT&T or FIDO. ENDZ. -- August 31, 2001 BOYCOTT TRACFONE To the victims and to the wise: I hear by declare war against TracFone, for crimes committed against the hard working people of this nation. Crimes committed are deceit, fraud, and wrongful discharge of hard working employees. This letter is to better prepare you in making important decision of purchasing or using TracFone Wireless. This descicion could mean the difference between good service and feeling of regret to being had by a mayor con. This information is true since I was an employee of this company. I know exactly what the truth is and can be proven if needed. This letter will contain information about TracFone service and information about the wrongful discharges going on inside, like what happened with me. I will start by stating how horrible and fraudulent TracFone is. If any of these comments that will follow sound familiar, then you know that what I say is true. Analog phones are the main products of TracFone, no services are offered other than call out and receive calls. You must first call TracFone before use of services can begin. You will have to wait no less than 30 minutes before you can receive assistance in programming of phone. A competent customer service rep will answer if you are lucky enough. You must endure a script read to you which can put a corpse to sleep, which mentions everything you must know about TracFone services. That's not always the case though, you might get a representative which will give you wrong information since most refuse to know the scripts. That is followed by the programming of phone, you do all the work following instructions, which plenty of reps don't have the patience for. Multiple lines of numbers (code) must be dialed into phone. If that goes through fine, then you have a 24 to 48 hour period in which you make test calls to and from your TracFone to see if its been activated and can begin using. It's doesn't always happen that way. ctivations freeze on the switch, serial numbers have been entered wrong in system, and carriers fail to run number through. This means 5 days later your phone is still not working. So, there you are holding again for 30 minutes or longer to hear a representative tell you he will assist you with the problem. You are asked to put more codes into the phone, which only works about 50 % of the time. Your phone still does not activate, you are on hold for yet another 10 to 15 minutes while the rep is on the other line calling Line Activations (inside dept which calls carrier or doesn't) they come back and tell you the phone will be working in 20 minutes if not other scripts are 4 to 6 hours, 6 to 8 hours, 24 to 48 hours. Sound familiar? Your phone still not working after another 3 days. You are waiting again for 30 minutes or so and you go through same steps, codes, holding, codes, holding, 2 to 4 hours they tell you. You are issued 10 units for inconvenience, trouble. Sound familiar? Thirty days go by and you want a refund of phone and minutes purchased. In store warranty does not apply after 30 days, and you find card of minutes which is in your phone is not refundable. Calling TracFone and on hold another wonderful 30 minutes or so. You put more codes into phone and finally they tell you the phone must be shipped in for repair. You pay shipping and TracFone pays return. 3 or 4 weeks later you haven't received your phone and call in for the wonderful experience of holding for 30 minutes or so. Phone has been shipped, they say, many of the times it's a lie, they look at screen viewing the case created which contains information and what they actually see is that it's still not been started yet. Sound familiar? 3 months later, you start slightly enjoying your phone until it hits past due. This is even more fun for you since it's been 3 boring months since you had the pleasure of calling TracFone; you look forward to this. Deactivations of phone for past due or other reasons make the activation of the phone virtually impossible, and I still have no idea as to why. Customers go through chaos trying to get their phones back up and running again and cannot. Customers go online to activate, reactivate, redeem units and all these fail online, which forces them to call our wonderful hold line to receive horrible service. Does any of this sound familiar to you? Do you think it's pure luck that what I mention here is so familiar to your experiences? Makes you think about a lot of things, doesn't it? Well, it's all true. I wish it wasn't. But it is. The views of management and other TracFone associates is that customers that use and own TracFone are just plain, unimportant people (low lives) which cannot for credit, money, age reasons, get regular cellular phone service. These are the hard true facts to their thinking. Why do you think it is so hard to get through right away to a customer/tech rep on the phone? So many unhappy customers with phone trouble every single day and minute. The calls are overwhelming and I believe, ridiculous that people must endure such abuse and horrible service. On a daily basis I was forced into lying to customers if I was unable to assist them. And believe me I did my best to help those customers in need of good service. y customers were all happy with me and those that called in outrage were satisfied at the end. When I lied was because I was told to lie and management down my throat making sure I did just that. To all those who have had bad experiences, I apologize. This company is truly amazing and perfect example to the fraudulent activities which industry are allowed to get away with in this country, especially in Miami. Cheap phones sold at outrageous prices and not to mention the minutes you buy. 10 minute cards-$7.99, 30 minute cards-$19.99, 100 minutes, with 20 minutes bonus-$49.99, 260 minutes with 40 minutes bonus-$99.99, and the new wonderful 1-year plan, 100 minutes and 20 minutes free given with every 30 minute card you purchase-$99.99. Do the math and see how cheap and convenient it is to own and use one of these phones with all the trouble that it comes with. Rebates are another thing, which makes it great to own one. You must first activate your phone, then maintain 90 days of active service (no de- activations) to then qualify to receive your rebate, which comes to you within 3 weeks after the 90 days are up. If you are lucky, your information was wrong, which led to TracFone sending your rebate to the wrong address. Or if you send in rebate and tell a friend promotion, you might be lucky enough to receive 2 rebates with the same PIN number, which causes you to wait another 3 to 4 weeks to receive a second PIN to replace the duplicate you received accidentally. Sound familiar? If any company has become successfully wrongfully, this has got to be on the top list. This company gets bigger and stronger on feeding off innocent and uniformed consumer. This was just the tip of the iceberg ladies and gentlemen. Inside are horrible injustices committed just as they do on to the outside. Employment with TracFone is like playing russian rulet with a .357 magnum. My story follows. TracFone employed me through a job fair in my school. The biggest mistake of my 35 years being alive. Let me just say that I am in Miami, Florida, where there are no laws what so ever to protect the employee. Florida is one of the few states, which has this and also one of the few states, which allows fraudulent companies to greatly succeed. Nine months I was employed at TracFone and have seen enough to say that there is something wrong with the US if such companies are allowed to exist. TracFone wrongfully discharged me and I have tried to send in proof to them, which Debra McCollough (Head of HR dept) told I that if I were to prove my innocence I would get my job back. This incompetent woman decided not to do what was promised to me and decided to keep me terminated not to tarnish her wrongful professional judgement. I was just given an opportunity to a new position on the 18th of Aug and on the 21st of Aug I was walked to Debra McColloughs office where call center director May Del Oro, call center manager Maribel and head of security awaited me. Debra confronted me with greetings and offering of her hand for shacking. Followed by straight accusation of me posting a letter at complaints.com, which talked bad about the company and also mentioned a happening at TracFone where they failed to pay me for 4 months backpay. I argued I did not post such and she insisted I e-mailed this to complaints.com. I was accused, convicted and tagged as guilty with no chance of me defending myself. Head of security to collect my things immediately escorted me and then escorted out in front of all my co-workers (friends) to the bldg. exit like I were a criminal, murderer, rapist. This was, needless to say, humiliating, devastating and wrong. This is common practice at TracFone, even Sonia Sinclair, call center manager, who resigned was escorted like a convict walking death row to her execution. What does this say about this company or others that practice it? I send all my proof including numbers, address and name of CEO of complaints.com ho found no record of me posting or my e-mail address in his database as a poster user and still they keep me out. There was no investigation to my accusation, which simply demonstrated my innocence. There was no post at complaints.com, which is the easiest fact to acquire to show my innocence and still I get labeled, accused and convicted wrongfully by Debra McCollough. I expected more from Debra McCollough, her being a career woman and an Afro-American at that. Two of the most persecuted, targeted and discriminated minorities in history. After all that women and Afro-Americans have fought so hard to accomplish this woman slaps them all in the face. All those who have been incarcerated, killed and tortured in history to make sure Debra McCollough got to where she is at right this moment. I have feelings, financial needs and future plans to achieve and this has set me back years. This does not cross her mind since Debra McCollough rather look good in her descicion rather than do the right thing and admit to the wrongful doing which was committed against me. The document I was accused of posting at this site was falsified which I easily proved with documents I sent to be presented in my defense. All of this was ignored and put aside to keep this woman in the light. Now, I ask you all this question. How are we going to stop these horrible actions from continuing or surfacing? One easy way is the oldest and most powerful ever used. That is to practice BOYCOTTING. Hurting them the only way it really does hurt and damage their ways of life. Money, the root of all evil. My advice to you all is to join others and me in the same position, victims of these horrible actions committed to the hard working people of America. The people. Right to protest freedom of speech, freedom of expression. Civil rights cannot be ignored; we the people must fight for what thousands have died for in making sure we have. They have fought for our rights, right to live, right to succeed, and right to pursue happiness. Join me in this quest to achieve what industries like TracFone believe we would fail at. Join me in making a difference. Join me in making sure the truth be heard. BOYCOTT TRACFONE WITH ME, WITH US. LET'S MAKE A DIFFERENCE Thank you, Nestor L Rodriguez (Ex TracFone employee) -- The Canadian Scene Now: This is a list of the following active underground h/p organizations in Canada right now. If you have any addresses to add, please feel free to contact me. All websites are reviewed by me personally for quality. Canadian Phreakers Union - www.nettwerked.net/cpu | VERY ACTIVE | Phreaking Hack Canada - www.hackcanada.com | VERY ACTIVE | Hacking and Phreaking Infowar - www.infowar.ca | VERY ACTIVE (NEW!) | H/P News Site, and More! Pyrofreak - http://www.multimania.com/pyrozine/index.html | ACTIVE | Phreaking The Grasshopper Unit - www.ghu.ca | ACTIVE | Phreaking and Urban Exploration - The Clone - theclone@hackcanada.com -- Reader Feedback: None As of Yet.