When the R.J. Adelmann family moved into their home at 1118 16th S., they soon had a telephone.

Adelmann had contacted New Ulm Rural Telephone Co. three weeks before the family moved into town Oct. 13, 1975. The phone was installed as ordered and all seemed well.

BUT THEN the Adelmanns received their first phone bill – and the trouble began.

On that first bill for October service the phone company had charged Adelmann for a number of long-distance calls made before the family moved into the home, from a time “when our phone wasn’t even installed,” as Adelmann explained.

Every month since then the Adelmanns’ bill has included long-distance calls they did not make. Each month they have complained about the billing, but so far to no avail.

THE ADELMANNS’ problem is one of several uncovered during a two-month look at the New Ulm Rural Telephone Co. and telephone service provided in the New Ulm area.

While there are other billing problems, far more frequent complaints about the phone service included:

-Often callers must dial more than once to place a long-distance call. Said one New Ulm businessman, “I dial once and then just hang up because I know it’s not going to go through the first time.”

If a caller dials too quickly even a local call won’t go through. “If you don’t hear a click after the third number (you dial), it’s not going to go through,”said Dana Postel, Rt.1, New Ulm.

-It takes too long to get a phone installed. Most persons interviewed said they had waited about three weeks to get home phones installed. One individual, who asked not to be identified, said his family had waited seven weeks for a phone after moving in even though the phone had been ordered a month before the move-in date.

-Often the phone rings 10 times or more before the operator answers.

-The phone company is impersonal and operators and phone personnel too often are short tempered or just plain rude. “The phone operators in this locality, they’re just plain nasty at times,” said Paul Brown of Brown’s Music Co. Another businessman suggested operators should be given “cheer-up pills.”

MAURICE ENGLUND,general manager of New Ulm Rural Telephone Co., says he and his people realize there are problems with phone service here.

Part of the problem is historical, he explained, and residents in the community must shoulder part of the blame.

“The company did swing too far back,” he said. “But you have to look at the people in the community, too. They want the low rates and they were satisfied with the service.”

ENGLUND ADDED that the company historical has been somewhat behind the times, but the bigger problems didn’t hit until recently. “They didn’t have the influx of people we have now.

“We can provide as good a service or as quick a service as the public is willing to pay for.”

(Efforts of the phone company to modernize its equipment and upgrade service will be detailed in articles four and five of this series).

Other major problems were uncovered during the probe into phone service.

In one incident, Mary Miller, 704 S. Jefferson, told of ordering a phone before her family moved into a new home on Labor Day last year. When she went to the phone office, she said, she was “thrown a catalogue,” then instructed to enter a phone booth in that office, pick up the phone and order the kind of phone she wanted.

“When I did go down there,” Mrs. Miller said, “they weren’t very friendly at all.”

SHE ORDERED a streamlined wall phone, with cocoa brown her first choice, ash her second color.The phone arrived in two weeks-it was beige.

“When I saw this beige phone,” she recalled, “I called them right away. Whoever I spoke to wasn’t very friendly to say the least.”

Mrs. Miller had talked to others who received the wrong color phone but who had let the disappointment die. She decided to press on for a different color.

“Every time I went down to pay the phone bill, I told them I was still waiting for my brown phone. I waited three months.”

ONE WEEK after having the beige phone installed, Mrs. Miller’s father-in-law suffered a coronary. His family contacted an information operator, but could not get the Miller’s listing, and finally had to wait until the next day to contact Miller at his work.

Mrs. Miller later checked and found the phone company had neglected to list the new number.

Herb Schuetzle said he also has experienced problems, but added it’s probably because of inferior or outdated equipment at the phone company. “I always have a hard time direct dialing,” he said. “You can sit there and let the long-distance number ring 15 or 20 times.

“It just seems to me we should get better service.”

SCHUETZLE POINTED out another problem cited by phone patrons. Bills arrive around the first of every month, he said,”and if you don’t pay by the 10th of the month you get a reminder.”Englund said other businesses also send out reminders for bills overdue. Unlike some other businesses, the phone company does not charge a penalty for late payment. But the phone bill reminders anger a lot of people.”We’ve got people who are really upset. I’ve received letters with more four-letter words than I’d care to mention because they’d been sent a reminder. I don’t see that getting a reminder should be an insult.”

MANY OTHER persons interviewed also mentioned problems with billing.

In one case, John Erickson, manager of Champion Auto Store, 16 S. Minnesota, said incorrect billings for his business began last June and were not cleared up until September. Erickson called the phone company soon after receiving a bill overcharging him for calls. A phone company employee told him he would receive a corrected billing.

Instead Erickson received a notice in the mail that his telephone would be disconnected because of unpaid fees. Erickson again called the phone office and again was told the billing would be corrected.

Instead a crewman showed up to turn off the phone service. This time Erickson called the New Ulm office in the presence of the serviceman to confirm that there had been a billing mistake.

FLOYD ALWIN,415 S. State, said that when a new pastor moved into the parsonage of the First United Methodist Church a few years ago, the new pastor was billed for calls made before he moved in.

Church officials complained.

“Yet they (phone company personnel) were insistent,” Alwin said.”They can do no wrong, I guess.”

ADELMANN, WITH his billing problems, has found out how really insistent the phone company, or its computer, really can be.

In November, when he first called to complain about being billed for long-distance calls he never made. Adelmann was told by a phone company employee,”We can’t do anything on the telephone, you’ll have to come into our office.”

At the office he was told simply,”Pay what’s yours.”

In December there were more incorrect billings. He paid for the calls he had made and informed the phone company he would not pay for the additional calls.

In late December, New Ulm Rural Telephone threatened to disconnect Adelmann’s phone because he hadn’t paid the full bill.

That problem was straightened out. But the incorrect billings have continued each month since Adelmann arrived in New Ulm. The latest billing, for April, included $12.68 in long-distance calls Adelmann did not make.

MOST CASES of incorrect billing, Englund said have been caused by persons dialing the wrong access code for long-distance calls. The access code determines who will be billed for the call.

However, the phone company expects to have a new toll system installed within the next month and the access-code method no longer will be used. The new machinery will automatically pinpoint the phone from which the long-distance call is being made, Englund said, and should end many of the billing problems.

Until then, people like Adelmann will just have to go on paying for those call they’ve made — “For our fair share,” as Adelmann puts it. And he will just have to wait a while longer for that day to arrive when his phone bill will be correct for the first-time.

New Ulm Daily Journal

May 16, 1976