I just wanted to weigh in on MCI local service.

YUK.

They marketed HARD in the Atlanta area, so I decided to give them a try, walking away from BellSouth, for really, no reason at all.

Instantly, I noticed a degradation in signal quality . . . callers telling me how it was tough to hear me . . . sometimes static on the line . . . I had my own mother hang up on me because she couldn't hear me!

At one point, I got really tired of the telemarketers, so I asked MCI to change my number. The representative was not the smoothest practitioner of customer service I'd ever had, and when I expressed my possibility of calling around to check the competition regarding a certain issue, she merely said, "Do what you gotta do."

THAT irritated me to the point I called back to speak to some management, who "cheerfully" took my incident report. Interestingly, it wasn't till this 2d call to a manager that I was informed it could take up to two weeks to get me a new phone number.

Wow, I don't remember a phone number change ever being such a challenging issue.

Suffice it to say, it's been a MONTH now, and I'm still receiving phone calls at my original number. Interestingly, however, the anonymous telemarketers and hangups have markedly decreased. I'm a bit suspicious now . . . wonder if they sold some info on me.

Anyway, AT&T is beginning to offer local service in my area, so I'm going to check them out. I can't handle MCI anymore.

[This message has been edited by useratl (edited 06-09-2002).]