Pat,
Are you descended from Don Quixote?
:-)
A disturbing post just appeared on BroadbandReports.com -- I have
> removed references to RocketVoIP from the Resources for Michigan
> Telephone Users web site until and unless this issue is resolved.
> "Hi all ... I have a problem with RocketVoip
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They
> said their service is unlimited ($24.95) and suddenly they sent me an
> email about a week ago, telling me that I'm not qualified as a
> residential user and they asked me to switch to business plan. Please
> read the attached email. ..."
>
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> How to Distribute VoIP Throughout a Home:
>
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> If you live in Michigan, subscribe to the MI-Telecom group:
>
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> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This sounds a lot like our friend
> Sprint's old "Friday Free" plan doesn't it? Remember that one? Sprint
> tricked people into signing up for long distance by lying to them
> saying their Friday traffic would always be free to _residential_
> customers. Soon thereafter we started hearing from folks who said
> Sprint had written them a letter saying they were not a 'qualified'
> residential account, so they would have to pay for their Friday
> calls. Sprint signed the letters with some phone name (I forget off
> hand what it was), and many folks, including myself tried time after
> time to reach the person to ask him what it was about, and what made
> persons 'qualified'. I don't think anyone ever did reach that person,
> and as to be expected, no one in Sprint customer service ever had any
> idea what it was about.
> If the original writer wants to send along the email saying they were
> not 'qualified', and assuming it has a good name on it, we will try
> to reach that person and ask them what it is all about, and to explain
> the qualifications required. PAT]
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I do not know about Don Quixote, but I do know that I was distantly related to Will Rogers. My paternal grandmother's mother, in other words my great-grandmother, had the maiden name of Rogers prior to her marriage to Mr. Martin. (My paternal grandmother's maiden name was 'Martin'). Anyway, great-grandmother Rogers-Martin was a cousin of Will's father, down in Oklahoma somewhere, so I guess that would make me a third or fourth cousin, once or twice (or even thrice) removed. My great-grandmother Rogers was born in Tulsa, Indian Territory about 1860, as was her daughter (my paternal grandmother Susie Martin in 1881, who then married Patrick Townson, my grandfather in 1915 (? I think).
Now, the Townson side of the family, they were something else. Patrick Townson's father was Thomas Townson, who was killed at a picnic about
1910 when he attempted to break up a fight between two teenage boys who had been drinking at the picnic. (Where have we heard that before?) Thomas Townson's father was Edward Townsend who himself was a heavy drinker; he killed a man it was claimed in self defense about
1880 and wound up going to (and dying in) the penitentiary in Georgia for several years. It left his family in disgrace and they moved up to Oklahoma where great-grandfather Thomas, and his mother changed the spelling of their last name and began to raise their family anew, before he, himself was gunned down at the picnic when grandfather Patrick was just a teenager, about the same age Thomas had been when his own father shot and killed the man.
Thomas Townson was a stage coach driver by occupation; he drove between Tulsa and Coffeyville; on the route that was the forerunner to today's Greyhound/Jefferson Lines Bus route. He married the woman who was the stagecoach ticket agent at Bartlesville, Indian Territory. Besides selling the stage coach tickets she also ran the telegraph machine and cooked the food for passengers and the drivers, when the stagecoach pulled in every afternoon at 2 PM. Her brother would come out and unhitch the horses and lead them to their water and food while she served the humans their dinner. When a fresh team of horses was hitched up, Tom would tell the passengers to finish their dinner so they could get back on the road. Anyway, he married that woman; before long they were the proud parents of baby Patrick, my grandfather. When Patrick was a teenager, he saw his own father get gunned down at the picnic. Much, much violence it seems from that side of the family. PAT]