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CenturyLink is totally shady. My wife just yesterday spent a significant amount of time fixing our phone bill. She decided a couple months ago to upgrade to a "

CenturyLink is totally shady. My wife just yesterday spent a significant amount of time fixing our phone bill. She decided a couple months ago to upgrade to a "fixed" bill plan (apparently they've been raising our prices $10/mo every year for the last few years). This plan price won't change until we change the plan. It's bundled with their internet though, but my wife told them to not send the modem because we weren't going to be using it and didn't want to be charged for it. Fast forward to yesterday and we had a modem in the mail a $200+ bill for our landline that should be <$60. She called and the guy on the other end was very helpful (surprisingly). He went through the bill line-by-line and almost every time said something to the extent of, "Why is that here?" "I'm going to have to talk to {previous sales lady who 'upgraded' us}". Some of the items he didn't even know what they were and couldn't remove them, so he instead gave us a permanent $10/mo discount or whatever it was billing. About the modem, he said, "You can keep it or mail it back. I can make a note on our software that you didn't want it and it shouldn't bill you for it. However, I recommend you mail it back because sometimes that note will disappear from our software and start charging you again". Wait... what!? Did he just acknowledge what some of us has suspected all along? That their software has intentional "bugs" that don't remember to stop billing someone for something? The whole thing feels like a scam to me. I don't trust them at all. This isn't the first time and won't be the last either. The reason we haven't canceled? No other traditional landline offerings in our area. Everything is VOIP or Cell. My wife wants something independent for emergencies. She's starting to question the value of it all though.

illumin8 8y ago
The quickest way to resolve all of these billing shenanigans: file a consumer complaint with the FCC. Magically, you'll almost immediately get a phone call from someone fairly high up in the company (typically executive relations or similar) that has the power to fix things and will make it right. The sad truth is that these telcos will systematically screw millions of customers with shady fees and fraudulent billing practices, but when the FCC gets involved, they are facing potential fines of tens of thousands for each infraction, so they'll bend over backwards to get you to drop the complaint. Try it sometime, it sucks that it's necessary, but you'd be amazed at the results.
- xur17 8y ago
  I recently ran into an issue with Spectrum where an agent signed me up for a new plan with lower pricing and shipped me a new modem, but the pricing didn't actually update in their system. Called back a few days later to correct this, and no one could find anything about the plan I signed up for, claimed I was lying, etc. After escalating several times and getting no where I emailed the first person from this list [0] and received a call back the next that solved the problem. [0] https://www.elliott.org/company-contacts/charter-communications-charter-spectrum/ https://www.elliott.org/company-contacts/charter-communicati...
  - pixl97 8y ago
    Yea, spectrum is scamming people with that. Got an online quote for 400Mbps internet (no modem) for price X. Signed up for service. Billing price was $X + $15. Called service. Oh, we don't offer that pricing, you could not possibly have a quote for that. I was like I do, and I will hold you to it. So they sent me to the local store. Even the store was like "We don't offer that price" and I replied "So you are illegally baiting and switching on customers and committing mail fraud?". After that they adjusted our rate to the quoted price.
- awful 8y ago
  Similar, except I went through Elizabeth Warren's Consumer Protection Bureau, the one Republicans want to kill off. I actually got a direct, hand signed letter from PayPal's chief legal counsel listing the ways they would, and did, to correct the situation. We need more power, not less, in regard to shady business practices.
- tech4all 8y ago
  Completely agree! Taking the time to pull in the regulatory body that sits on top of a misbehaving behemoth absolutely works! I've done this with PHH Mortgage who "lost" a payment when they took over the mortgage from another company, and also with Enterprise Car Rental when they tried to scam me in Chicago during a drop-off. In both cases I received 100% satisfaction very quickly. Other tips: * Take the time to find the correct regulator... It might be in a different state than yours * Prepare a complete document with as many facts and scanned copies as you can * Clarify your desired outcome * Send everything certified mail * CC the CEO of the company with which you are fighting * If sending a follow-up letter, included scanned copies of the certified mail receipt(s) from previous communications - they cannot then argue that they did not receive your previous communication. Nobody wants a call from the AG or a Financial Regulator! Yes, it is terrible that this needs to be done, but it works wonders.
krupan 8y ago
"My wife wants something independent for emergencies." Have you considered ham radio?
- xahrepap 8y ago
  I haven't thought of that. That's a good idea!
  - flurdy 8y ago
    With those inflating costs, maybe a satellite phone becomes economically viable...
lettergram 8y ago
I had a similar issue with comcast. I sent back a modem I didn't need, took photos and even had a receipt. After around 8 hours of phone calls asking them to remove it from my bill and them giving me the run around. They continued to charge me and sent my bills to collections. At collections, it continued like this for months, I sent photos, I even had a recording of a comcast manager saying "we shouldn't have billed you, and will remove the charge". After 18 months of fighting this $300 charge and around 30 hours of debates... I just paid the bill
- warent 8y ago
  You could just take the CEO to small claims court for the maximum amount in your area (usually $5000-$10000) for the charge + punitive. Some states make it so you can't have a lawyer represent you in small claims court, and since Centurylink does business in your area then the person you served (i.e. the chief executive) would have to show up in person. That's basically what I did with a shady property management company (AMC LLC, one of the largest in the US tried to steal my security deposit) and won, but I've heard that huge corporations like CenturyLink will even immediately follow up with a settlement offer to avoid spending an executive's time.
  - hopler 8y ago
    That seems absurd 1. If you sue the company, any non lawyer rep can show up. 2. If you can sue the CEO over a corporate matter to force a settlement, why isn't everyone suing every rich person over everything?
    - warent 8y ago
      1. That is true, but a sheriff can service an executive directly. 2. Your guess is as good as mine.
    - rhexs 8y ago
      I think in some states they can appeal from small-claims to non-small-claims court then you have to get a lawyer. Obviously a super pro-corporate court system.
mrdoops 8y ago
When municipal fiber started moving into Utah, CenturyLink was a big offender of paying off local authorities to restrict and limit deployment. Lots of cities and areas didn't get upgraded for that reason. Less customers for fiber meant less customers to payback the investment - ends up costing everyone else more. CenturyLink is textbook rent-seeking behavior. My advice to anyone moving into the Utah area is check the internet service provider options first. Last thing you want is to be in an area serviced only by CenturyLink.
- ClassyJacket 8y ago
  "CenturyLink was a big offender of paying off local authorities to restrict and limit deployment. Lots of cities and areas didn't get upgraded for that reason. Less customers for fiber meant less customers to payback the investment - ends up costing everyone else more. " This happened to all of Australia with Telstra/Foxtel and the NBN. We were all going to get gigabit fibre, then Rupert Murdoch and the incumbent corporations got involved. Now the 80% of us that didn't already get fibre yet are getting DSL or HFC that drops out ten times a day and can't reliably hit 15Mbit. That's right, new DSL being installed in the year 2020.
wlesieutre 8y ago
A friend of mine signed up for them on a promo, got charged 3x the price he was supposed to, then was told “We didn’t apply the promo, but that’s only for new customers and you’re a customer now so we won’t fix it.” Thankfully he lives in one of the few places with multiple providers, so he told them to stuff it.
otakucode 8y ago
An important bit of law to always keep in mind, as companies bank on consumers being ignorant of it: If a company mails something to your home that you did not expressly order - it's yours. End of story. They cannot request that you send it back, they can not charge you for it. It's yours. This includes if you ordered product A and they sent you product B by mistake. Legally speaking, in that situation you were sent a gift and the company has done nothing to satisfy their legal obligation to send you the product you purchased. If companies could just send you things and bill you without you ordering anything, we'd all be buried in mountains of garbage and steep debt. Keep the modem as a gift courtesy of CenturyLink. Watch your bill and if they charge for anything you haven't received, if you've got the time, file fraud claims in small claims court to recover the money.
- cmurf 8y ago
  Is this state law? Federal law or regulation?
  - illumin8 8y ago
    Federal law. https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0181-unordered-merchandise https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0181-unordered-merchan...
    - cmurf 8y ago
      Awesome thanks.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- eridius 8y ago
  This is definitely not true if they sent it to you by accident.
  - rosser 8y ago
    You'll have to clarify what "by accident" means. The FTC's rules on "unordered merchandise", linked else-thread, seem pretty unambiguous.
Jach 8y ago
Might getting a ham radio and learning how to operate it (getting a technician's license together) be an alternative to a landline for having something in emergencies?
- xahrepap 8y ago
  I'm going to have to look into that. Thanks for the suggestion!
  - vorpalhex 8y ago
    I got my technician license and one of the things that surprised me was how helpful the community was and how much they want you to get your license. KB6NU has written a nice guide for the technician exam if you have a background in basic electronics, and there are several nice sites to take test exams on.
    - zmw 8y ago
      The technician license exam is extremely easy, you just have to memorize a few hundred questions. Passing the exam and getting the license doesn't actually prepare you for real world operation at all... I think I spent a total of less than four hours going over the questions, and got full marks on the exam (which amazed everyone there... But I'm a physicist to begin with — just not very much into electronics). By the way, back when I took the exam, I made a tiny web app to help me with the question pool: https://hamradio.zhimingwang.org/ https://hamradio.zhimingwang.org/. It basically lets you quickly go over the questions, hide the ones you're confident with, then go over the rest again, rinse and repeat. The question pool might have been updated though.
aviv 8y ago
Among other things, we run residential VOIP networks for large ISPs and other operators, and it's ridicilous to see the prices CenturyLink, AT&T and others charge their home customers for just phone service... I regularly come across LOAs and phone bills for $60 to $120 single home phone lines - for absolutely no reason other than that they can get away with it.
- xahrepap 8y ago
  Yeah, we're paying $60. When we signed up it was $15/mo. Been creeping up ever since. It's a huge pain.
- lotsofpulp 8y ago
  Thats how everyone prices everything, including the pay you’re willing to accept from your employer.
c22 8y ago
Heh. I've mailed my modem back (twice) and I still get billed for two modems (!) at least once every year.
datavirtue 8y ago
This seems to happen with other ISPs and telcos as well. Most notably, Verizon. My theory is that the sales person gets commission on the sale so they just tell you what you want to hear on the phone and enroll you in whatever makes them the most money. I also think that the sales person that knocks it down or fixes it gets penalized since they often don't fix the issue even when they said they did. With Verizon we had to start holding on the phone with the reps while refreshing the website to make sure the correct plan changes were actually implemented. Then we took screenshots for proof. That cleared up the persistent mistakes.
stickdogg 8y ago
Of course. Companies stating that info has been misplaced, or taken over by a different representative, or whatever has been happening since the dawn of time. It used to be a kind of CYA. As tech has increased to where I can record every call made on my phone or line and specs about it. If you don't know that they have all your data, now you do, because they do. I believe this tactic will stay around for a bit as a last ditch bully attempt.
gmjosack 8y ago
Some states require carriers to maintain service for 911 on inactive lines. You could check if this works in your area. https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2009/05/update-about-911-and-disconnected-landlines/index.htm https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2009/05/update-abou...
- Broken_Hippo 8y ago
  One word of caution: I worked for a large phone company (GTE then Verizon) back in 99-01. I was in the call center for disconnections. Inactive lines are not equal to lines with no telephone service. IF there is no telephone service, 911 probably won't work. If your phone is temporarily disconnected (say for non-payment of a phone bill or the disconnect they do for folks that live in FLorida for the winter and up north for the summer), 911 will work for you. This was definitely true for some of the states on the list provided. I've long thought this was a sad state of affairs. Anyone with a physical phone to plug into a jack should, theoretically, be able to dial 911. I'm happy that cell phones generally allow this.
  - metildaa 8y ago
    Putting power down each linw costs money, ditto for maintaining cabling to each home. Setting an expectation of free 911 service is fine in the cellular world where its a minor nusiance to support, but in the context of a rapidly shrinking customer base (for incumbent telcos) its a very expensive burden.
    - Broken_Hippo 8y ago
      I'm not convinced it is an expensive burden comparatively. I'm fine using tax money to fund this. I'm fine with a 911 fee for mobile phones, and Im fine including it on prepayments for prepaid, though it would be more upfront if it were included in the price of the prepayment. I wish the world would put a bit more effort into the system so it is better than it is. These are things that let folks call 911 for a dangerous, possibly drunk driver. House fire, abusive husband, neglected kids next door. I've personally used it for car accidents, violent customers (one decided to huff canned air in a pharmacy), hurt co-workers, and random folks off the street needing an ambulance. 911 provides a public safety service. If it means that phone companies have to provide access from their equipment or their lines, I'm OK with that. Im OK with all or part of that being reimbursed, with the main exception of requiring a new mobile to be compatable with emergency services (no worse than requiring autos to have seat belts).
anoncoward111 8y ago
I work customer service for a large heating oil company. The system we have really does just have horrible "bugs" like this that make charges to the account. Not fun when you are on Auto Pay either. It's malicious. Some of us reps try to help you out and get it all reversed. Others don't give a shit at all. The main thing you can consider is not paying, blasting them on social media, or just keep calling until you get a nice rep who will fix it, hopefully permanently. Our system deliberately renews/adjusts prices per gallon and service contracts to pretty much whatever price the company feels like extorting. I've seen customers charged $4000 instead of $2000 countless times. Some even pay it.
- scarface74 8y ago
  Our system deliberately renews/adjusts prices per gallon and service contracts to pretty much whatever price the company feels like extorting. I've seen customers charged $4000 instead of $2000 countless times. Some even pay it. While I’m the last person to trust big business, it’s hard for me to believe that whoever is over the developers who create the billing system would put that in a spec - to deliberately overcharge people. I’m more inclined to believe incompetence and deprioritizing known bugs to create new features. How does intentionally writing buggy software even get communicated to the front line developers?
  - anoncoward111 8y ago
    In the case of my company specifically, I'm tempted to say the system is working as intended. A lot of the workflows are deliberately complex and obfuscated, though, so users are trying to enter $2000 but the system will always generate $4000 unless you know exactly which buttons to press. Who's to blame for this? The CEO and CTO I would say. They want to generate as many inflated bills as possible and then make it really hard for the customer service rep to submit an approval for it to be adjusted. They train the reps to say, "sorry sir, this is what my computer is telling me your balance is." The customer then either pays or leaves the company, at which point they are charged an early terminaton fee and threatened with small claims court. So yeah, I really feel this corporation directly desires a complex and costly process since it has a near monopoly on the market and the cheaper competitors are plagued with product quality issues as opposed to service/billing issues.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

illumin8 8y ago

The quickest way to resolve all of these billing shenanigans: file a consumer complaint with the FCC. Magically, you'll almost immediately get a phone call from someone fairly high up in the company (typically executive relations or similar) that has the power to fix things and will make it right. The sad truth is that these telcos will systematically screw millions of customers with shady fees and fraudulent billing practices, but when the FCC gets involved, they are facing potential fines of tens of thousands for each infraction, so they'll bend over backwards to get you to drop the complaint. Try it sometime, it sucks that it's necessary, but you'd be amazed at the results.

xur17 8y ago
I recently ran into an issue with Spectrum where an agent signed me up for a new plan with lower pricing and shipped me a new modem, but the pricing didn't actually update in their system. Called back a few days later to correct this, and no one could find anything about the plan I signed up for, claimed I was lying, etc. After escalating several times and getting no where I emailed the first person from this list [0] and received a call back the next that solved the problem. [0] https://www.elliott.org/company-contacts/charter-communications-charter-spectrum/ https://www.elliott.org/company-contacts/charter-communicati...
- pixl97 8y ago
  Yea, spectrum is scamming people with that. Got an online quote for 400Mbps internet (no modem) for price X. Signed up for service. Billing price was $X + $15. Called service. Oh, we don't offer that pricing, you could not possibly have a quote for that. I was like I do, and I will hold you to it. So they sent me to the local store. Even the store was like "We don't offer that price" and I replied "So you are illegally baiting and switching on customers and committing mail fraud?". After that they adjusted our rate to the quoted price.
awful 8y ago
Similar, except I went through Elizabeth Warren's Consumer Protection Bureau, the one Republicans want to kill off. I actually got a direct, hand signed letter from PayPal's chief legal counsel listing the ways they would, and did, to correct the situation. We need more power, not less, in regard to shady business practices.
tech4all 8y ago
Completely agree! Taking the time to pull in the regulatory body that sits on top of a misbehaving behemoth absolutely works! I've done this with PHH Mortgage who "lost" a payment when they took over the mortgage from another company, and also with Enterprise Car Rental when they tried to scam me in Chicago during a drop-off. In both cases I received 100% satisfaction very quickly. Other tips: * Take the time to find the correct regulator... It might be in a different state than yours * Prepare a complete document with as many facts and scanned copies as you can * Clarify your desired outcome * Send everything certified mail * CC the CEO of the company with which you are fighting * If sending a follow-up letter, included scanned copies of the certified mail receipt(s) from previous communications - they cannot then argue that they did not receive your previous communication. Nobody wants a call from the AG or a Financial Regulator! Yes, it is terrible that this needs to be done, but it works wonders.

krupan 8y ago

"My wife wants something independent for emergencies." Have you considered ham radio?

xahrepap 8y ago
I haven't thought of that. That's a good idea!
- flurdy 8y ago
  With those inflating costs, maybe a satellite phone becomes economically viable...

lettergram 8y ago

I had a similar issue with comcast. I sent back a modem I didn't need, took photos and even had a receipt. After around 8 hours of phone calls asking them to remove it from my bill and them giving me the run around. They continued to charge me and sent my bills to collections. At collections, it continued like this for months, I sent photos, I even had a recording of a comcast manager saying "we shouldn't have billed you, and will remove the charge". After 18 months of fighting this $300 charge and around 30 hours of debates... I just paid the bill

warent 8y ago
You could just take the CEO to small claims court for the maximum amount in your area (usually $5000-$10000) for the charge + punitive. Some states make it so you can't have a lawyer represent you in small claims court, and since Centurylink does business in your area then the person you served (i.e. the chief executive) would have to show up in person. That's basically what I did with a shady property management company (AMC LLC, one of the largest in the US tried to steal my security deposit) and won, but I've heard that huge corporations like CenturyLink will even immediately follow up with a settlement offer to avoid spending an executive's time.
- hopler 8y ago
  That seems absurd 1. If you sue the company, any non lawyer rep can show up. 2. If you can sue the CEO over a corporate matter to force a settlement, why isn't everyone suing every rich person over everything?
  - warent 8y ago
    1. That is true, but a sheriff can service an executive directly. 2. Your guess is as good as mine.
  - rhexs 8y ago
    I think in some states they can appeal from small-claims to non-small-claims court then you have to get a lawyer. Obviously a super pro-corporate court system.

mrdoops 8y ago

When municipal fiber started moving into Utah, CenturyLink was a big offender of paying off local authorities to restrict and limit deployment. Lots of cities and areas didn't get upgraded for that reason. Less customers for fiber meant less customers to payback the investment - ends up costing everyone else more. CenturyLink is textbook rent-seeking behavior. My advice to anyone moving into the Utah area is check the internet service provider options first. Last thing you want is to be in an area serviced only by CenturyLink.

ClassyJacket 8y ago
"CenturyLink was a big offender of paying off local authorities to restrict and limit deployment. Lots of cities and areas didn't get upgraded for that reason. Less customers for fiber meant less customers to payback the investment - ends up costing everyone else more. " This happened to all of Australia with Telstra/Foxtel and the NBN. We were all going to get gigabit fibre, then Rupert Murdoch and the incumbent corporations got involved. Now the 80% of us that didn't already get fibre yet are getting DSL or HFC that drops out ten times a day and can't reliably hit 15Mbit. That's right, new DSL being installed in the year 2020.

wlesieutre 8y ago

A friend of mine signed up for them on a promo, got charged 3x the price he was supposed to, then was told “We didn’t apply the promo, but that’s only for new customers and you’re a customer now so we won’t fix it.” Thankfully he lives in one of the few places with multiple providers, so he told them to stuff it.

otakucode 8y ago

An important bit of law to always keep in mind, as companies bank on consumers being ignorant of it: If a company mails something to your home that you did not expressly order - it's yours. End of story. They cannot request that you send it back, they can not charge you for it. It's yours. This includes if you ordered product A and they sent you product B by mistake. Legally speaking, in that situation you were sent a gift and the company has done nothing to satisfy their legal obligation to send you the product you purchased. If companies could just send you things and bill you without you ordering anything, we'd all be buried in mountains of garbage and steep debt. Keep the modem as a gift courtesy of CenturyLink. Watch your bill and if they charge for anything you haven't received, if you've got the time, file fraud claims in small claims court to recover the money.

cmurf 8y ago
Is this state law? Federal law or regulation?
- illumin8 8y ago
  Federal law. https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0181-unordered-merchandise https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0181-unordered-merchan...
  - cmurf 8y ago
    Awesome thanks.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
eridius 8y ago
This is definitely not true if they sent it to you by accident.
- rosser 8y ago
  You'll have to clarify what "by accident" means. The FTC's rules on "unordered merchandise", linked else-thread, seem pretty unambiguous.

Jach 8y ago

Might getting a ham radio and learning how to operate it (getting a technician's license together) be an alternative to a landline for having something in emergencies?

xahrepap 8y ago
I'm going to have to look into that. Thanks for the suggestion!
- vorpalhex 8y ago
  I got my technician license and one of the things that surprised me was how helpful the community was and how much they want you to get your license. KB6NU has written a nice guide for the technician exam if you have a background in basic electronics, and there are several nice sites to take test exams on.
  - zmw 8y ago
    The technician license exam is extremely easy, you just have to memorize a few hundred questions. Passing the exam and getting the license doesn't actually prepare you for real world operation at all... I think I spent a total of less than four hours going over the questions, and got full marks on the exam (which amazed everyone there... But I'm a physicist to begin with — just not very much into electronics). By the way, back when I took the exam, I made a tiny web app to help me with the question pool: https://hamradio.zhimingwang.org/ https://hamradio.zhimingwang.org/. It basically lets you quickly go over the questions, hide the ones you're confident with, then go over the rest again, rinse and repeat. The question pool might have been updated though.

aviv 8y ago

Among other things, we run residential VOIP networks for large ISPs and other operators, and it's ridicilous to see the prices CenturyLink, AT&T and others charge their home customers for just phone service... I regularly come across LOAs and phone bills for $60 to $120 single home phone lines - for absolutely no reason other than that they can get away with it.

xahrepap 8y ago
Yeah, we're paying $60. When we signed up it was $15/mo. Been creeping up ever since. It's a huge pain.
lotsofpulp 8y ago
Thats how everyone prices everything, including the pay you’re willing to accept from your employer.

c22 8y ago

Heh. I've mailed my modem back (twice) and I still get billed for two modems (!) at least once every year.

datavirtue 8y ago

This seems to happen with other ISPs and telcos as well. Most notably, Verizon. My theory is that the sales person gets commission on the sale so they just tell you what you want to hear on the phone and enroll you in whatever makes them the most money. I also think that the sales person that knocks it down or fixes it gets penalized since they often don't fix the issue even when they said they did. With Verizon we had to start holding on the phone with the reps while refreshing the website to make sure the correct plan changes were actually implemented. Then we took screenshots for proof. That cleared up the persistent mistakes.

stickdogg 8y ago

Of course. Companies stating that info has been misplaced, or taken over by a different representative, or whatever has been happening since the dawn of time. It used to be a kind of CYA. As tech has increased to where I can record every call made on my phone or line and specs about it. If you don't know that they have all your data, now you do, because they do. I believe this tactic will stay around for a bit as a last ditch bully attempt.

gmjosack 8y ago

Some states require carriers to maintain service for 911 on inactive lines. You could check if this works in your area. https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2009/05/update-about-911-and-disconnected-landlines/index.htm https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2009/05/update-abou...

Broken_Hippo 8y ago
One word of caution: I worked for a large phone company (GTE then Verizon) back in 99-01. I was in the call center for disconnections. Inactive lines are not equal to lines with no telephone service. IF there is no telephone service, 911 probably won't work. If your phone is temporarily disconnected (say for non-payment of a phone bill or the disconnect they do for folks that live in FLorida for the winter and up north for the summer), 911 will work for you. This was definitely true for some of the states on the list provided. I've long thought this was a sad state of affairs. Anyone with a physical phone to plug into a jack should, theoretically, be able to dial 911. I'm happy that cell phones generally allow this.
- metildaa 8y ago
  Putting power down each linw costs money, ditto for maintaining cabling to each home. Setting an expectation of free 911 service is fine in the cellular world where its a minor nusiance to support, but in the context of a rapidly shrinking customer base (for incumbent telcos) its a very expensive burden.
  - Broken_Hippo 8y ago
    I'm not convinced it is an expensive burden comparatively. I'm fine using tax money to fund this. I'm fine with a 911 fee for mobile phones, and Im fine including it on prepayments for prepaid, though it would be more upfront if it were included in the price of the prepayment. I wish the world would put a bit more effort into the system so it is better than it is. These are things that let folks call 911 for a dangerous, possibly drunk driver. House fire, abusive husband, neglected kids next door. I've personally used it for car accidents, violent customers (one decided to huff canned air in a pharmacy), hurt co-workers, and random folks off the street needing an ambulance. 911 provides a public safety service. If it means that phone companies have to provide access from their equipment or their lines, I'm OK with that. Im OK with all or part of that being reimbursed, with the main exception of requiring a new mobile to be compatable with emergency services (no worse than requiring autos to have seat belts).

anoncoward111 8y ago

I work customer service for a large heating oil company. The system we have really does just have horrible "bugs" like this that make charges to the account. Not fun when you are on Auto Pay either. It's malicious. Some of us reps try to help you out and get it all reversed. Others don't give a shit at all. The main thing you can consider is not paying, blasting them on social media, or just keep calling until you get a nice rep who will fix it, hopefully permanently. Our system deliberately renews/adjusts prices per gallon and service contracts to pretty much whatever price the company feels like extorting. I've seen customers charged $4000 instead of $2000 countless times. Some even pay it.

scarface74 8y ago
Our system deliberately renews/adjusts prices per gallon and service contracts to pretty much whatever price the company feels like extorting. I've seen customers charged $4000 instead of $2000 countless times. Some even pay it. While I’m the last person to trust big business, it’s hard for me to believe that whoever is over the developers who create the billing system would put that in a spec - to deliberately overcharge people. I’m more inclined to believe incompetence and deprioritizing known bugs to create new features. How does intentionally writing buggy software even get communicated to the front line developers?
- anoncoward111 8y ago
  In the case of my company specifically, I'm tempted to say the system is working as intended. A lot of the workflows are deliberately complex and obfuscated, though, so users are trying to enter $2000 but the system will always generate $4000 unless you know exactly which buttons to press. Who's to blame for this? The CEO and CTO I would say. They want to generate as many inflated bills as possible and then make it really hard for the customer service rep to submit an approval for it to be adjusted. They train the reps to say, "sorry sir, this is what my computer is telling me your balance is." The customer then either pays or leaves the company, at which point they are charged an early terminaton fee and threatened with small claims court. So yeah, I really feel this corporation directly desires a complex and costly process since it has a near monopoly on the market and the cheaper competitors are plagued with product quality issues as opposed to service/billing issues.

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