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The price of distraction
Posted: January 8th, 2012, 10:47pm CET by Digg
IN 2006 the grandchildren of an 82-year-old Ohio woman discovered that she had been paying AT&T about $10 a month for a phone rental. AT&T changed a long-term leasing arrangement in 1985-86, letting customers buy a handset or return it—or continue to pay if they took no action. Millions ignored the note, and kept up with the lease payments. Hundreds of thousands were still doing so in 2006. The Ohioan's concerned progeny estimated that from the 1960s until 2006 their granny had paid over $14,000 for a pair of rotary-dial telephones. Of that, $2,000 had been unnecessary.