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From: "MCI Employee"
To: eric@wolfram.org
Subject: MCI Sucks Page
Date: Fri, 09 Jul 2004 03:21:12 -0400

Eric,

I am an MCI employee, and I could well be the person who answers the 800 # you advertise on your website. As such, I feel myself to be in a position to respond to your website with fair and accurate information.

First, let's get a few things clear. I'm not writing you because I disagree with you. On the contrary, I agree that MCI sucks. However, my reasons are much different than your own. Let me explain.

What you describe on your website is completely accurate. We have 2 different rates for overseas calls. The standard rate, which you were subject to, is incurred when the call is placed and you do not have an International Calling Plan (ICP) on your account. Is it high? Yes. The ICP itself runs $5.95 per month, and will reduce most Europe calls to $.13/min, from the $4 or $5 you pay without the plan.

Where I feel you are wrong is in your positioning. If you go to any other company, and do the exact same thing, you will probably be billed similiar rates. I actually spoke to a customer just 2 days ago that told me that MCI has the absolute lowest International Calling Card rates in the industry, and that 'no one else can play in your sandbox, because their rates are nowhere near as low as yours', to quote her directly.

Now, here's the reasons I feel MCI sucks:

Bernie Edwards and his accounting cronies cost 1000's or more severe losses. One associate of mine was prepared to build her dream house with MCI stock, to find out 4 days later it was worthless, going from $100,000 to about $25 overnight.

MCI continues to build and develop call centers all over the world....while closing down their US operations. There are 5 centers in Manila (Phillipines), 2 in Argentina, 1 in Mexico, at least 1 in India, and several in Canada just to name a few. In the past 4 months, close to or over 10,000 US employees have lost their jobs, supposedly due to the National Do Not Call list. Truth is, someone named Ping on the other side of the world is willing to do their job for a few grains of rice (last estimate is $6 or less per hour).

And if you really want to be pissed as a consumer, here's how MCI truly gouges it's customers. If you sign up for Plan ABC today, and do not change or update your plan for the next 10 years, your rates will slowly go up. These rate increases are approved by the FCC, and printed on the customer's invoice, but who truly reads those anyway? So, year after year, your rates are going up in **tiny** increments until you are paying $0.30/min on a call you agreed a few years back to pay $0.05/min for, while new customers are enticed with legimate offers of $.04/min. And the best part? If you call in to customer service, and I see you are paying 10 times what you need to for your calls, I AM NOT ALLOWED TO TELL YOU THIS!!! Only if you make mention of your rates can I proactively offer a better plan with better rates.

(And, by the way, had you agreed to add that International Calling Plan to your account, the representative could have rerated your previous calls to that $.13/min rate, and the following day you could have removed the plan...just an FYI).

But, sadly, we're not the only company who has horror stories like this. Do a Google search for "ATT Sucks" or "Sprint Sucks", and you will find much the same. Watch the news lately? It's gotten so rough for the phone companies to compete with each other and still retain a profit that AT&T is pulling out of the market in 7 states. While MCI just emerged from Bankruptcy, Qwest is currently in bankruptcy. And it seems everyone is moving to Voice Over IP (VOIP) and cell phones, further eliminating the need for long distance.

Guess it's a good thing I work for a company that owns and supports over 1/2 of the Internet's backbone infrastructure, so when phones do go flop, we'll have something to fall back on.

Feel free to use as much of this e-mail as you like, but I will withhold my name and location for my personal security.