In discussing Western Union Public Offices in a previous message, I noted:
Lisa Hancock noted in reply:
Actually, the way this worked was:
If calling from your own telephone (presumably a private line) you either asked the operator for '4321' or in the event you were using a dial type phone you dialed (the EXChange)-4321.
The WUTCO clerk asked for your number, and applied the charges to your phone bill (actually the portion of your bill known as 'Other Charges and Credits'); the charges were identified as 'Western Union Telegraph Company' and the appropriate WUTCO ticket or serial number. WUTCO submitted the charges to telco, via Separations and Settlements, then in turn it was put on your bill.
If calling from a _coin operated phone_ one was to (dial the operator or otherwise ask) the operator for 'Western Union'. If you dialed it direct and expected to be billed direct, you were to go through the '4321' direction. Then, like now, going direct (via 4321) could not raise the operator as needed for money collection. Asking for 'Western Union' (by dialing the operator to start with) allowed flashing the hook switch to bring the operator back on the line as needed. I think the call generally terminated on the same incoming line(s) at WUTCO in any event. From a purely manual exchange, I do not suppose it mattered either way.
But if you were using a coin phone, then _your_ operator had to tell the Western Union operator 'COIN SERVICE! Flash me when ready for coin collection!', then she left the line, and you chatted with the Western Union clerk. Once the message was prepared and ready for sending, the clerk would say 'Will you now please flash for your operator to come back on the line?' and you would flash once or twice. _Your_ operator would come on the line, the Western Union operator would instruct her, 'collect 75 cents (or however much money was required)'. You would fish for the change, and deposit it in the coin box. When _your_ operator notified WUTCO the money was in the box, WUTCO would respond, "thank you, I am (ticket serial number); you are?" your operator would reply "I am (ticket serial number)at (date/time) on (coin telephone number)". WUTCO would copy this information on their ticket in place of your signature and money payment. That paper, went in to telco separations/settlements the same as the 'billed direct' paper (for calls via 4321).
Lisa Hancock continued:
Not only that, but the entire concept of '900' service (that is to say, services given over the phone and billed to your phone bill [i.e. sex phone, horoscope, etc]) had its start through that precedent originally set by Western Union. AT&T was originally not going to get all caught up in billing for sex, etc on the phone. The original vendors of same, MCI and Integratel (anyone remember that bunch of snakes?) knew that selling sex over the phone to a very dubious bunch of transient users would amount to collection rates via direct billing of almost zero. Invoices showing up in the mail would generally find their way to the closest trash can; MCI and Integratel both knew that; there would have to be a system of billing that the users would respect, or at the very least, be afraid to cross or ignore, presto, the phone bill. (This was the 1973-75 era). People will not just throw their phone bill in the trash, now will they? They approached AT&T and asked for the same arrangements 'as Western Union'. AT&T said no way, they would not get involved, and anyway, in those days, MCI was a nasty competitor to AT&T which was sort of inclined to say 'let there be a plague on both their houses' and stay out of it.
MCI told AT&T if that was their decision, then they were fixing to get themselves sued. (Remember, this was several years before divestiture however AT&T was quite familiar with getting sued by MCI and they suspected MCI would use the Western Union precedent to sue them and win successfully) so they agreed to use the 'newly created' 900 mass- calling system as a way to administer it. MCI and Integratel did agree to pay an 'administrative fee' to AT&T, just as WUTCO did, so it got installed, even though by that point WUTCO was in the process of getting out of telco direct billing.
AT&T, which for several generations had admonished their customers to 'never use profanity on the telephone; for one, it is an embarassment to our operators and for two, it is against FCC regulations' suddenly decided to bite the bullet and get into the sex business themselves for a few years (anyone remember those AT&T 'reach out' advertisements for a couple years in the 1970's and early 1980's ran in various gay newspapers and magazines: with an obvious S & M motif AT&T would tell us 'Reach Out and Meet a New Master/Slave/Friend/Lover/Whatever'. Just dial this number: (some international point, but the number was parsed in an odd way so as to decieve the users) and then we were cheerfully told, "no service charges for calling this 'bridge'; just pay toll!" as if that was supposed to be some bargain, and a little caraciture of 'Ma Bell' up in the corner of the ad telling us that toll would usually be 50-75 cents per minute.
PAT