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Ameritech's Anti-Competitive Behavior

Nevin of Bellafontaine, OH, writes:
We are an independent payphone provider (IPP). What we do is set up payphones for events for groups that need them. We deal with many phone companies (Sprint, GTE, locals), but Ameritech is the worst.

We were contacted to setup for the Wynadott County (Ohio) fair. The secretary had used Ameritech and their payphone in the past, but Ameritech charged $600 to hang two phones, and most of the time did not give the fair board a commission.

How our deal goes, is that the fair board has to order the lines, which they did 4 weeks before the event (which begins September 12, 2000). On August 31st Ameritech payphone division calls up the fair board and said that the needed a deposit of $150.00 in their hands before they would even send a man out to make the lines hot.

My company and the fair secretary believe that Ameritech just then figured out that their payphones would not be used and did not like it. They knew that there would be no way for a deposit to be sent in enough time for those lines to be activated on the due date (Sept 6).

Here it is the 7th of September and Ameritech claiims that they have not gotten the check yet. We are looking at wasting at least 3 days on setting our phones up because from past experiences with all phone companies, the lines are not always correct. We will need to haul a trailer 2 hours from our corporate office, go back the next day to make sure the program in the phone is correct, and possibly another day to correct any more problems.

I feel that Ameritech is engaging in anti-competitive business practices by imposing the deposit, that mind you has never been paid in years that ameritech's phones were used, and not ours. and that Ameritech is dragging their feet on getting this done.

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