Off the Hook

In addition to cold weather, term papers and upcoming exams, dead telephones greeted many Harvard students upon their return to Cambridge.

New England Telephone disconnected 110 Harvard Centrex numbers because the customers failed to make their payments on time, a supervisor at the company's Cambridge business office who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday.

Students whose phones were disconnected will have to pay $15.00 to have service resumed.

Several of the students said that the warning notifications that the company sent out December 16 arrived after they had left for vacation.

Richard F. Rowley '78 said. "It's really a sham to say that those notifications were adequate warnings that service would be discontinued." After lodging several complaints with the phone company, Rowley was told he would not have to pay for resumption of service.

The anonymous supervisor said the notification schedule was determined by computer and made no provisions for vacationing students.

The supervisor added, however, that New England Telephone had postponed interrupting service from December 23 to January 2 to allow students extra time to pay their bills.