Answering service

WHILE YOU WERE AWAY,

LOCAL MESSAGE SERVICES OFTEN ANSWER TO MORE THAN ONE Call.

Relaying MESSAGE from a doctor to a father delivering a baby, notifying and taking a message WHILE YOU WERE AWAY the variety of messages Answering Services Inc. has handled during its 75-year history. The family-run firm has grown from an operation with three phones -- that had to be rigged with tags so the operator could tell which one was ringing by seeing the tag vibrating -- to computerized call.

Telephone answering services throughout the county got the bottom line on the new rates they face under Pacific Bell's "zoned usage measurement" (ZUM) system yesterday -- and it was bad news.With the system implemented last Saturday, PacBell added mileage fees to the flat rate of $5.70 per month charged for the use of telephone lines linking a customer with an answering service.