Posted on 03/26/2004 5:09:54 PM PST by El Conservador
McLEAN, Va. - Bankrupt telecommunications company MCI said Friday it is cutting 4,000 jobs — more than 7 percent of its work force — and closing three call centers because of cost-cutting pressures and fallout from the national Do Not Call registry.
The company had announced in January that it was expecting to reduce overall costs by 15 percent to 20 percent, but did not mention specifically that jobs would be cut.
The centers being closed are located in Denver, Phoenix and Niles, Ohio. Jobs are also being reduced at MCI facilities in Alpharetta, Ga., Colorado Springs, Colo. and Springfield, Mo.
"As a result of the impact of federal and state 'Do Not Call' laws, as well as ongoing telecom market trends, we need to take this action in order to improve our overall cost structure," the company said in a statement. "These actions will in no way impact our ability to serve our customers."
MCI, formerly known as WorldCom, is hoping to emerge from bankruptcy protection by the end of April. It entered bankruptcy in July 2002 after an accounting scandal that resulted in billions of dollars in overstated profits and criminal charges against its top executives.
MCI employs about 54,000 workers. In Phoenix, about 850 workers will lose their jobs. In Denver, about 950 will be laid off and 650 workers will be laid off at the Niles call center, according to the company. Layoff numbers for the other three centers were not available.
The cuts will take effect in May and June.
MCI still operates 15 telemarketing and customer-service centers across the country, a company official said.
MCI has sought to reduce its annual costs by 15 to 20 percent while in bankruptcy. Earlier this year, the company announced that it expects revenue to drop 10 to 12 percent in 2004 — including a drop of as much as 25 percent in the domestic long-distance market, where MCI is the nation's second-largest provider. Company officials said increased use of cell phones, industry competition and effects from national Do Not Call legislation all contribute to the decline.
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On the Net:
www.mci.com
That is why my number is unlisted. So anyone can't call me. It is a private phone, private home, private number only the people I give that number to should be able to call me. It is my personal private property. That the phone company owns the lines should not mean that anyone can call me any more then the fact that the county owns the roads means that they have the right to try to come into my house.
Once you get the government involved, you have turned phone service from an overregulated mess into a government controlled entitlement, a step in the wrong direction.
I think that is the problem here, you see it as some sort of "entitlement" I see it as allowing me to defend my property. I am willing to enforce it myself. I will be the one filing for compensation from that company who has decided to harass me. They are not entitled to do that.
The "leave me alone" list was just that. A list of people who did not want to be bothered. A closed and locked gate if you will. It costs them nothing not to call me. Just keep on going to the next sucker on the list.
That's one of the reasons I signed up for a cell phone (although I admit the regulators banned unsolicited calls to them in many cases long ago).
Do you honestly think that competition would have kept them from calling you if the regulators hadn't done that?
But the principle is that if air time is valuable (both to me and the cell company) they aren't going to let it go to waste on unwanted traffic and they will block those callers from coming onto their network.
Why should they bother? You are the one paying for it. The only way the wireless people would be moved to do anything about it is if they could no longer charge you for incoming calls.
Good ol boy Bernie is not out of the woods yet. Who knows, he may even end up as Martha's secretary's secretary at some country club prison or he may even qualify for the Who's Who list of Federal Prisoners....
I would switch to another provider that didn't charge me for unwanted calls. I believe in markets and this is a market problem, not a property problem.
That is why my number is unlisted. So anyone can't call me. It is a private phone, private home, private number only the people I give that number to should be able to call me. It is my personal private property. That the phone company owns the lines should not mean that anyone can call me any more then the fact that the county owns the roads means that they have the right to try to come into my house.
The county road allows people to shine their headlights in your window. The photons from my headlights are analogous to the electrons from the commercial callers. There are devices to block both, no government enforcement is necessary. If you really meant your statement that you only want certain people to call you, then your solution is caller ID.
As I explained to another poster, the protection of your personal private property is your responsibility, not the governments. It's very simple to put up a fence to complement my no trespassing sign. It's much more simple to add devices or purchase services that do the same for your phone line.
That's me! A big selfish baby because I got a couple of calls! Did you bother to read what I posted before? It wasn't just a couple of calls. It was 3 a day all from MCI and that was before I ever registered for the Do Not Call list. Your crappy little company, MCI, couldn't honor my request not to call again!
Turnabout is fair play mcihustler I'm delighted some of the telemarketers at MCI are being layed off. I only hope the creep that harassed me is one of them.
I pay for my phone service. I don't want you using my phoneline to harass me.
I would have been willing to allow one call so I could say politely "No, thank you" to telemarketer. But MCI would not take "No" for an answer. A year I lived with you guys harassing me. I was working swing shift at the time, you were calling me and waking me up just to push your no-good phone service.
Now I am not going to take it any more. No more calls. None. Ever. If you do call I now have the power to make your lives miserable. I will use it. Why not? It is not as if you showed any consideration for me.
So you want to know what caused people to get mad enough to push for a Do not call list? Look in the mirror.
And that is where we differ and why we will not agree.
If you really meant your statement that you only want certain people to call you, then your solution is caller ID.
I do mean it and I do have caller id. Doesn't stop unwanted calls. Neither do all those fancy gizmo's that you can buy.
Now I can hit them in the wallet. Suddenly I have peace. It is amazing.
No argument there. I got suckered into signing up for local phone service from them. It turns out they flat out lied about what I would be getting for the basic rate. I immediately dropped them and filed a complaint with the state public utility commision, which netted me a small refund. It was quite obvious from my conversation with the state people that I was not the only one they had heard from. MCI hasn't bothered me since with telemarketing calls, though I do get junk mail from them on occasion.
And if they stop shopping at Wal Mart and buy American, untold jobs will be created.
Will Americans choose to do those things?
That is what the headline would have you believe. Buried in the article you find the reason that the company is in trouble is that they were playing fact and loose with the books. Not the do not call list. That is just a convenient scapegoat for them.
MCI is just about as honorable and upstanding as the "Food for Oil" program.
I've heard many people say that. The facts speak differently. Many people immediately squander the savings at Walmart on non-necessities. There's a tremendous difference between using the savings from shopping at Walmart to spend on American goods or invest in American companies. If you do that will create American jobs. On the other hand, if you immediately spend the savings from Walmart on Chinese junk at Walmart you are accomplishing little. Your standard of living may rise temporarliy until the item breaks. At that point you have nothing and America has lost more manufacturing jobs.
That was before I got on the net and found out that there were a whole bunch of people that MCI had cheated and harassed. It was kind of a relief to find out that they were equal opportunity offenders.
Like I told mcihustler, if he want to know why there is a do not call list he should look in the mirror. They brought that one one themselves.
I can't say I will be sorry if they go under. Hopefully the company that replaces them will have better ethics.
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