The San Francisco call., 1898-03-17
On account of unSatiSfac- tory telephone service no or ders for seats will be received hereafter by telephone.

This announcement is the continuation of long list of complaints by patrons of the house, concluding with vigorous protest by John l. Sabin, the president of the telephone company, to Manager Leahy and his receiving a practical H. lustration of the unreliability of his ser vice. Incidentally it may be mentioned Mr. Sabin's protest will probably result in a suit for damages against his com pany.
 MT. Leahy explained the trouble to a Call reporter last evening as follows:
 box office for the convenience of our patrons but the telephone is gone now. and hereafter anybody wishing to secure seats l1 in advence ee somebody. At first the innovation worked sat isfactoriIy and was great convenience to peoc annoyance and the cause of frequent complaints against the employees of the house.
 flee and demanded why they were unable to call up by telephone, saying they had tried repeatedly and each time had been told that the line was busy Then again orders have been received for seats in a certain portion of the house. as the man in the box office un- derstood the order, but when the parties ar rived they declared they had called for entirely vinced that the misunderstanding was due to the telephone working poorly. Everybody who often he is switched to another line from the one he wants and his message goes astray, while he appreciates the dlfnc9lty Tn gettihtg it naughty young woman there to respond to his calls the average man knows he is is utterly uh h. wants until 1t suits her own sweet fancy to do so
 ed a climax one night last week, when Mir. Sabin, the president of the company, called me out of my office and proceeded to denounce the employees for what he termed, among other things their discourtesy and incivility. It ap- the box-offce by telephone and asked to have some seats reserved for him. The treasurer what row the seats were in. The reply was that there was nothing left better than the eighteenth row, which Sabin said would an- swer. When he came in and found where his seats were he raised a great fuss, declaring were in the eighth row. and when told that he must have misunderstood he claimed he had been treated dscourteously.
 I explained to Mir Sabin that his was only one in many where patrons had found the telephone service unsatisfactory and that plaints by having the instrument removed.
 The telephone we had in here was one of those profanity promoting devices known as the nckel-in-the-s slot telephone, from which the renter receives certain percentage of the receipts after they have reached a certain amount. Our contract called for the telephone up to the first of the month, but early the following morning agents of the company re- moved the telephone, taking with them all the cash in the box, portion Of which belonged 10 us For this paIpable violation of it's con tract we shall bring suit for damages against the company, and have already placed the matter in competent lawyers hands. The service was wretched, but my contract called for the use of the telephone to April ], and I intend to make MT. Sabin pay for his act. treatment by my employees, I told him he would do well to instruct his own employees be- fore finding fault with others. more un- civil set than the telephone operators it would be hard to find anywhere, in my judgment.
 Manager Frleolander of the Columbia, Baldwin and California theaters said he had received many complaints from pa irons of his houses about the poor tele- phone service, but he had not thought tfVatYJ JFlCr hn nj ceiving orders for seats in that manner. He had found it did not always work to the satisfaction of those who tried it; but as long as the public found it convent ence and was wiling to take chances on the poor service he was willing to accom- modate it.
 outspoken in his denunciation of the tele- phone service we keep one man In the box office most of the time." said he, "whose duty 1t is to answer the tele phone, and a Lard job he has of it. The trouble is, the service is operated on too cheap scale. The girls are underpaid and overworked, and, consequently, are switches. The greatest fault, however, is the lack of facilities Too many tele- phones are maintained on each circuit, and this causes great confusion and de- lay, besides preventing anything like privacy. Almost every time one uses a telephone he overhears conversations between others, while he waits in vain for the party he wants to answer his call.
 0The greatest complaint we have to make is the maddening persstency with which central rings our bell when she wants us Frequently the bell rings full minute after one of us removes the receiver from the hook. and all efforts to induce the operator to stop the din are unavailing.
 'T receive numerous letters from pa- irons complaining that they are unable to secure seats by telephone, but it is not our fault if the telephone company will not connect us.''
 The theatrical managers are not the only people to complain of the miserable telephone service. It has been growing worse steadily, until it has reached a stage where many subscribers are follow ing the course of the Tivoli and are dis pensing with the service altogether.