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I've now spent an hour looking at Excel's plans, both what I could find on the Excel web site and from individual Excel rep pages (mostly out of date) for info on Premier III.

I'm guessing that what you call "Premier III" is the same as Premier Plus III? Am I right?

What I've found is that Excel hasn't done a very good job describing this plan... nothing really new, Sprint's learned how to do this too.

Premier Plus III is described as a "small business" plan rather than a residential plan, but for the sake of argument, let's assume that they'll let residential customers sign up for it.

It doesn't look very competitive... as described on the web site, the rate is either 12.5 cents a minute for all your interstate calls, or it's 12.5 cents a minute for your calls to Excel customers, and 30% off of Excel's "tariffed" rates (which aren't spelled out anywhere) for calls to non-Excel customers.

Oh yes, you get 6-second billing with a 1 minute minimum, and have to pay a $2.50 monthly charge.

As for the rates you're paying for PB4, I don't understand why you bother to mention them. PB4 is offered as a "commercial" plan, has a $100 minimum, and a term committment. But there's nothing about a 6 cent a minute rate for interstate calls

So all in all, there is either something wrong with the information you're giving me or there's something wrong with the info on the Excel web site. (Well, I know there's something wrong with the info on the web site.) Can you suggest a better source for Excel's rates that I can use?

[ I provided my mailing address ]

> The Intra strate calls vary, 10 cents in CA,NY,IL,GA,MD, NJ, MA.
> The Interstate are `12.5 with six second billing. This is the
> rate used by all of my reps in CA unless their bill is over the
> $100 and then they go to PB3 or PB4. If you make a lot of calls
> intrastate it brings the effective rate down quite a bit.

Six second billing isn't worth paying 25% extra unless most of your calls are under 3 minutes. I agree that for a lot of people, intrastate rates may be more important than interstate rates, but there are also lots of people who make very few intrastate long distance calls.

> I have a PB4 because my long distance is over $100, and so all
> of my outgoing and inbound calls are 6 cents.

I'd like to see the brochures on this... what I saw on the web site didn't seem to indicate this rate for interstate calls.

Looking forward to the brochures.

You wrote:

> Eli, I just went to the web site. You have all of the
> information there that I have. I really don't need to send you
> a brochure. PB3 is 6.5 cents a minute in California, inbound
> and outbound. PB4 is 6 cents a minute intrastate and look at
> the great calling card rates.

Okay, the way I see this, you're agreeing that it was all a mistake on your part to mention either the Premier Plus III or the PB4 plans with regard to the Long Distance Rate Calculator, as neither of these plans is competitive insofar as interstate rates are concerned. Is that right?

Don:

You wrote:
> The info is all on the web site. If you want anything
> clarified you can call customer service 24 hours a day:
> 1-800-875-9235.

Why don't you point me at the specific web page, because what I'm seeing on the web site is not what you've been telling me.

I called up customer service, and they said I'd been given bad advice to sign up for Premier Plus III.

You wrote:

> We don't really get into rates as much as you do except on
> commercial and we can beat most commercial rates.

As I recall, you initially contacted me regarding the "long distance rate calculator" on my Cagey Consumer web site, indicating you were "disappointed" that it included only the "dime a minute" Excel rate plan and not any other Excel plans, implying that certain other Excel rate plans might be more advantageous for certain people.

Additionally, you told me about rate plans such as "PB4" and how you paid just 2 or 3 cents for certain calls, and never more than 6 cents (presumably, per minute) for calls.

You at one point offered to send me a brochure, then declined, claiming the information was all available on the Excel web site. When I asked you to point me to the specific web pages on the Excel web site indicating these rates that are better than the "dime deal", you told me:

> FRANKLY, RATES IS NOT WHERE IT'S AT...

I'm at a loss to understand why an Excel rep would want me to include an uncompetitive rate plan on my long distance rate calculator. While these other plans may provide slight reductions in call costs for a small number of interstate calls, overall, they are more expensive for interstate calls than the "dime" plan.

As to intrastate calls, other Excel rate plans may be preferable to to the Excel dime deal, but as indicated on the long distance rate calculator page, only the costs of interstate calls are considered by the rate calculator.

Again, for reasons that I fail to comprehend, you have made misleading statements about Excel rate plans, and have persisted making such false assertions even after I have given you an opportunity to retract these statements. I would appreciate an explanation of this behavior. Thank you.

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