Review your phone bills carefully!!!!
Jan. 25th, 2005 12:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sue_n_juliaSince September, we have been having never-ending difficulties with our phone bill. The first problem (and most aggravating problem) has been the Qwest DSL with MSN billing issue.
See, we had signed up for Qwest DSL with MSN (big mistake). The rep who set up the account put part of our phone number in the account name despite our objections. He told us that we could change it. Well, he was wrong. After spending two days talking to Qwest and the Qwest/MSN partnership team, I cancelled MSN as our ISP. I still kept Qwest for DSL as they are really the only game in town for it. Then I contacted our new ISP to finalize arrangments through them. They warned me that Qwest often bills customers for dialup access the next month.
That didn't happen. Instead, we were billed for Qwest DSL and for Qwest DSL with MSN (for two months -- Sept and Oct) on the bill due in October. I got that charge reversed. For November's bill, we were billed for both, as we were for December's bill. Each time I called and they reversed the charges. AND, told me that it wouldn't happen in the following month. And, no, there wasn't anyone else who could help me.
The bill due in Jan made no sense. It didn't have the payment I had made in Dec. (seems to have gotten lost in the ether -- according to the Qwest customer service person, not an uncommon occurrence) but had loads of adjusted charges with no explanation. And it charged us for Qwest DSL with MSN again.
I finally told them that until I was confident we had the real amount we owed, we weren't paying the bill. They said ok and they would work on it -- but never told collections. We got the amount worked out and were told we wouldn't receive a bill with Qwest with MSN again. I paid the bill. Two days later, we got a nasty notice from collections (for the wrong amount).
In addition to January's Qwest DSL with MSN billing issues, it had a third party charge that I didn't recognize from ESBI. The charge was from a company called Orbitz Telecomm. Qwest said they couldn't do anything about it because by judicial decree they were required to accept third party billing for telecommunications services (not quite true as I will explain). I told them that ESBI told me it was a setup charge for a shopping spree that I had not authorized or received and that I wouldn't pay it. They told me it would sit on my bill until I paid it or ESBI reversed the charge. I told them I wanted a flag on my account that I must be contacted for all third party billing, and they said they couldn't do it (not quite true). I explained that the judicial decree only applied to telecommunications charges and shopping sprees are not telecommunications activities.
Anyway, January got fixed. I get the February bill, with the floating ESBI charge and another Qwest with MSN charge (that we were told we wouldn't get). I called Qwest, went through the rigamarole about the MSN and asked them to flag third party charges. This time the guy told me there was no one in Qwest I could escalate this to (wrong) and I needed to talk to the state PUC about ESBI. I explained everything going on -- ESBI and MSN. The PUC put me in touch with the Executive office of Qwest (yup, I knew there was someone I could talk to). The PUC suggested calling the state attorney general about ESBI (I will).
The lady in the Executive office reversed the ESBI charges (see, I knew they could do it). She is also personally going to monitor getting the MSN issue dealt with. If it is on my bill next month, she will call me to let me know and let me know what the correct amount will be. She has also removed our name from a third-party list. I don't quite understand how this works, but she assured me this will offer us some protection. Of course, we are still on the "old" lists, so we are not completely assured that we won't get some billings, but it's a start.
What scares me about the ESBI billing is that I don't know how they got our phone number (and Orbitz claimed I set it up). They could have gotten it any number of ways -- surveys, Internet directories, web pages -- I just don't know. I do know that I would never have requested such a thing in the first place, especially if there was no text explaining that I would incur a charge. So, check your phone bills carefully. Be wary where you give your phone number. And don't let the phone company tell you their hands are tied -- a quick call to the PUC will quickly get them untied.
S
See, we had signed up for Qwest DSL with MSN (big mistake). The rep who set up the account put part of our phone number in the account name despite our objections. He told us that we could change it. Well, he was wrong. After spending two days talking to Qwest and the Qwest/MSN partnership team, I cancelled MSN as our ISP. I still kept Qwest for DSL as they are really the only game in town for it. Then I contacted our new ISP to finalize arrangments through them. They warned me that Qwest often bills customers for dialup access the next month.
That didn't happen. Instead, we were billed for Qwest DSL and for Qwest DSL with MSN (for two months -- Sept and Oct) on the bill due in October. I got that charge reversed. For November's bill, we were billed for both, as we were for December's bill. Each time I called and they reversed the charges. AND, told me that it wouldn't happen in the following month. And, no, there wasn't anyone else who could help me.
The bill due in Jan made no sense. It didn't have the payment I had made in Dec. (seems to have gotten lost in the ether -- according to the Qwest customer service person, not an uncommon occurrence) but had loads of adjusted charges with no explanation. And it charged us for Qwest DSL with MSN again.
I finally told them that until I was confident we had the real amount we owed, we weren't paying the bill. They said ok and they would work on it -- but never told collections. We got the amount worked out and were told we wouldn't receive a bill with Qwest with MSN again. I paid the bill. Two days later, we got a nasty notice from collections (for the wrong amount).
In addition to January's Qwest DSL with MSN billing issues, it had a third party charge that I didn't recognize from ESBI. The charge was from a company called Orbitz Telecomm. Qwest said they couldn't do anything about it because by judicial decree they were required to accept third party billing for telecommunications services (not quite true as I will explain). I told them that ESBI told me it was a setup charge for a shopping spree that I had not authorized or received and that I wouldn't pay it. They told me it would sit on my bill until I paid it or ESBI reversed the charge. I told them I wanted a flag on my account that I must be contacted for all third party billing, and they said they couldn't do it (not quite true). I explained that the judicial decree only applied to telecommunications charges and shopping sprees are not telecommunications activities.
Anyway, January got fixed. I get the February bill, with the floating ESBI charge and another Qwest with MSN charge (that we were told we wouldn't get). I called Qwest, went through the rigamarole about the MSN and asked them to flag third party charges. This time the guy told me there was no one in Qwest I could escalate this to (wrong) and I needed to talk to the state PUC about ESBI. I explained everything going on -- ESBI and MSN. The PUC put me in touch with the Executive office of Qwest (yup, I knew there was someone I could talk to). The PUC suggested calling the state attorney general about ESBI (I will).
The lady in the Executive office reversed the ESBI charges (see, I knew they could do it). She is also personally going to monitor getting the MSN issue dealt with. If it is on my bill next month, she will call me to let me know and let me know what the correct amount will be. She has also removed our name from a third-party list. I don't quite understand how this works, but she assured me this will offer us some protection. Of course, we are still on the "old" lists, so we are not completely assured that we won't get some billings, but it's a start.
What scares me about the ESBI billing is that I don't know how they got our phone number (and Orbitz claimed I set it up). They could have gotten it any number of ways -- surveys, Internet directories, web pages -- I just don't know. I do know that I would never have requested such a thing in the first place, especially if there was no text explaining that I would incur a charge. So, check your phone bills carefully. Be wary where you give your phone number. And don't let the phone company tell you their hands are tied -- a quick call to the PUC will quickly get them untied.
S
