[Link]

Checking our landline/DSL bill:

$39 DSL line + taxes.. Check
$17 or so landline.. with 911 tax.. check..
$0.25 in long distance faxes... check
$20 Zero Plus Dialing... WHAT?!

They've done it again, second time since that $2000 phone bill, this one's for a 3 minute long "collect call" -- admittedly, my bro said he did one that day, because he left his phone at home... but not to that phone number (we have a second landline [actually, we moved that to vonage the minute we heard that SBC was buying AT&T].. but it was still in service at that time)..

So why the hell is SBC billing us for something AT&T should be doing, and why $20 for a THREE MINUTE LONG CALL?! -- this makes no sense, and I'm beginning to wonder if it's related, or if they're really.. screwed up like I think they are (as usual)

Damnit, if Comcast wasn't so stringent with their TOS and hadn't given me the run-around when I was offered cable service and then upon calling to sign up, was told it "wasn't available in that area yet but might be in the future", went back to SBC, and then get a thing in the mail 2 weeks later saying TRY OUR CABLE INTERNET NOW AVAILABLE!!



Reasons I hate SBC:
1. Their sales reps lye and sell you on plans that don't exist and cost 4x more than they say (once said a 'combo plan' with caller ID and all that for $4.99 a month, the first month and all others were $36)..

2. As far as DSL goes, we're "20,000 feet from the CO" -- but somehow I manage to qualify for a 6.0/608 line..

essentially I can get service from them because I'm on an RT but NO OTHER DSL provider -- speakeasy and sonic.net both noted that SBC wouldn't allow it..

3. Their billing place is about as good as the mafia -- you can't argue anything with them, basically if it shows up on the bill, gosh darnit, you're going to pay it or get your perfect credit score knocked down 100 points for it.

4. Their tech support (both DSL and phone) are fricken useless, phone support will deny things as obvious as an "accidental disconnect", their DSL support will fail to "make things happen" when they can, basically they're a bunch of stupid people in some third world company reading off a script.

It gets on my nerves because if the line gets knocked out, even if by accident, I have to wait 2 weeks for the DSL to be 'disconnected', a fake fee to be charged of $200 for breaking the contract, and then another 2 weeks to reconnect and for them to reverse the damn fee..

Did i mention the last time this happened they charged for the month of DSL service?



The only phone company I've ever come across that was worse was sprint -- my mom had this great idea to switch over to them one day, only took a few hours to get the SBC line shut off and the sprint line up, she makes a long distance call to another state for about 30 minutes..

This is supposed to be a 'good plan' according to the sales person, so an operator keeps cutting in and guess what happens..

$500 operator assisted call.

Geez it seems all the FCC is there for is to make sure you get charged the lousy damn 75 cent - 3 dollar taxes on your bill.

[DeathToWindows]

Where's the barabrian horde when ya need it?

[JustAnOl'Broad]

Originally posted by DeathToWindows:
Where's the barabrian horde when ya need it?

Sign me up for the barbarian horde too; SBC is the only game in town
for phone service here. Basic service is close to $30/month on our bill.
Recently changed our long distance to Qwest from ATT; I just
thought ATT was expensive.
May look into the Vonage packages. Need faster speeds for
access, lower per month bill, and decent reception.
Also, being alerted when a call comes in while on-line.

[mitchell_pgh]

$2000! (referencing the old call)

I would die...

Since the cell phone, I haven't had a bill over $30 here.

[Webscreamer]

I hate SBC and they are right accross the street from me. I'm gonna slap Vonage stickers all over the building late one night.


www.vonage.com

[G Barnett]

Well, sorta hate to derail a vent session about a large corporation, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to come to SBC's defense in this case. See, I work for one of the local bell companies (not SBC) and this is something I have tons of experience with.

That $20 or so on your bill for Zero Plus Dialing has absolutely nothing to do with SBC other than it's printed on your bill. Zero Plus is a third party service provider, handling collect calling among other things. They determined that a collect call made to your house was sent through their network, billed you their rates (which you'd have to contact them to find out as none of the local service providers have access to 3rd party billing rates) and then told SBC to bill you for them.

SBC cannot refuse to print charges presented to them as being associated with one of their customers. All of the major local companies (SBC, Qwest, BellSouth, PacBell and a couple others whose names escape me at the moment) are HEAVILY regulated companies, and are required by the FCC and state regulatory agencies to print charges presented to them.

What you CAN do, is call SBC and tell them you are disputing this charge. They'll note it, and set it so you pay everything but that charge and make sure your payment goes where YOU want it to. Then it's up to you to contact Zero Plus and tell them to remove or reverse the charges. If they refuse, you can contact SBC again and request they send the charges back to Zero Plus.

None of this is proprietary business info either; this is all the same sort of advice I give each and every day to the customers of the bell company that I work for.

The simplest way to look at it is this: if it's a charge listed separately from your home phone, dsl and long distance services that you see every month, it's from a 3rd party billing service.

G Barnett