"Report charge" long distance [telecom]

Person-to-person calls were favored by bill collectors (and others
> searching for somebody) because the operator did all the work at no > charge (after report charges were discontinued) and there was no > billing if the search was not successful. One reason, probably, why > report charges have returned even after the P-to-P rate was much > increased.

Previously on this newsgroup people described the common practice of making a person-to-person call to one's self so as to discretely send a message back home (eg "I arrived safely") without incurring a long distance charge.

Apparently back in the 1950s or earlier AT&T imposed a "report charge". If a person to person or collect call could not be completed, there was still a charge imposed for the effort. I think they gave 24 hours to complete the call. This was back when toll operators did a lot more work to put a call through, indeed, almost acting as a secretary to search out the desired party. Part of this was necessary since back then calls might not have been completed right away due to limited capacity.

It was common way back to place toll calls by name, "Get me John Jones in Los Angeles" and the toll operator would have to call DA first to get the number. The Bell System literature urged the public to call by number.

People could also leave the long distance operator in advance a list of calls to be made at a certain time. (1949).

Would anyone know when the "report charge" was discontinued?

I also read of way back there was a messenger charge; where they'd send out a messenger.

Anyone know of other discontinued long distance toll services?