As to PSC regulation, the 'rate of return' was not automatic, but
> rather negotiated. More importantly, it was only one of many
> critieria used to set rates. Further, the old Bell System was
> expected to provide good service, not just live off its fat.
> Contrary to critical myth, the PSCs acted upon receiving a complaint
> from an unhappy subscriber, even a residence, and the phone company
> responded quickly to such complaints. (Sadly, it was easier for an
> individual person to get assistance years ago than now.)
I can assure you this was true. I was a member of a committee which reviewed regulatory and higher management complaints and our duty was to see if there was something that could be done to prevent them from reaching that level. Most of them fell into two categories--somebody trying to defraud the company and who thought they knew how to work the company's system, and those that we could wonder how those telco people who had handled them at a lower level had screwed up...the ones that should have been resolved at a lower level. Wes Leatherock snipped-for-privacy@aol.com snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com