vex
05-05-2004, 02:06 PM
'Vent-Line' Irks Counselors
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=2 width=420 border=0><TBODY><TR vAlign=center><TD width="40%"><!-- Yahoo TimeStamp: 1083759180 --><!-- recent_timestamp 1083759180 24602 secs not stale 28800 secs -->Wed May 5, 8:13 AM ET
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BOSTON (Reuters) - Licensed mental health professionals are steamed over a Maine entrepreneur who charges angry people $1.99 a minute to listen to them rant and rave over the telephone.
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="1%" align=left border=0><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><TD width="99%"></TD><TD width=5> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Philip Doyen receives between 10 and 20 phone calls a week to "Vent-Line," a service he launched in February that allows callers to blow off steam -- at a price.
But some professional counseling services aren't happy about Doyen's business and are urging prosecutors to investigate whether he is breaking any state laws, the Portland Press Herald newspaper reported on Tuesday.
"For some people, venting is going to upset them more," Leslie Brancato of the Community Counseling Center in Portland, Maine, told the paper. "That he's charging $1.99 a minute is, in my opinion, totally exploitative."
Doyen, who works as a computer repairman when not operating Vent-Line, says he has dozens of customers along the U.S. East Coast.
"I'm in it for the money, like everybody else," the Press Herald quoted him as saying. "If it helps people, great."
hxxp://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040505/od_nm/life_anger_dc_1&cid=573
Yes, $1.99 is exploitative. But $200 an hour isn't.
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=2 width=420 border=0><TBODY><TR vAlign=center><TD width="40%"><!-- Yahoo TimeStamp: 1083759180 --><!-- recent_timestamp 1083759180 24602 secs not stale 28800 secs -->Wed May 5, 8:13 AM ET
</TD><TD noWrap align=right width="60%"><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="1%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD width="1%">http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/my/my16.gif</TD><TD noWrap width="99%">Add Oddly Enough - Reuters (http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/addtomy/*http://edit.my.yahoo.com/config/set_news?.add=ro&.src=yn&.done=http%3a//news.yahoo.com/%3ftmpl=story%26u=/nm/20040505/od_nm/life_anger_dc_1%26cid=573) to My Yahoo!</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- TextStart -->
BOSTON (Reuters) - Licensed mental health professionals are steamed over a Maine entrepreneur who charges angry people $1.99 a minute to listen to them rant and rave over the telephone.
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="1%" align=left border=0><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><TD width="99%"></TD><TD width=5> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Philip Doyen receives between 10 and 20 phone calls a week to "Vent-Line," a service he launched in February that allows callers to blow off steam -- at a price.
But some professional counseling services aren't happy about Doyen's business and are urging prosecutors to investigate whether he is breaking any state laws, the Portland Press Herald newspaper reported on Tuesday.
"For some people, venting is going to upset them more," Leslie Brancato of the Community Counseling Center in Portland, Maine, told the paper. "That he's charging $1.99 a minute is, in my opinion, totally exploitative."
Doyen, who works as a computer repairman when not operating Vent-Line, says he has dozens of customers along the U.S. East Coast.
"I'm in it for the money, like everybody else," the Press Herald quoted him as saying. "If it helps people, great."
hxxp://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040505/od_nm/life_anger_dc_1&cid=573
Yes, $1.99 is exploitative. But $200 an hour isn't.