Consumer Group Supports FCC Chairman's Call for Consumers, Especially MCI/Worldcom Customers, to Fight Long Distance Industry Plan to Kill New Anti-Slamming Rules
Washington, DC -- Responding to FCC Chairman William Kennard's call to action, the Telecommunications Research and Action Center (TRAC) has launched a campaign to mobilize a protest against the efforts by the long distance industry, lead by MCI/Worldcom in the courts, to block the FCC's new ban on long distance "slamming."
MCI/Worldcom has obtained a court order from a Washington D.C. appeals court that halts enforcement of new FCC "anti-slamming" rules.
"Slamming" is the practice of switching a consumer's long distance company without authorization. Already the most common consumer abuse in the long distance industry, "slamming" has become more frequent despite previous efforts for voluntary compliance and adoption of several weaker laws and regulations.
Under the new rules, consumers who are slammed does not have to pay the bill from the company that does the "slamming," if they take action within 30 days. If they pay the bill or do not take action, then the refund rules do not apply. Instead, the long distance carriers, as they did under the old rules, have to work out payment terms.
At the 100th Anniversary Celebration of the National Consumers League on May 17th, William Kennard, Chairman of the FCC, urged attendees to mobilize consumers to call MCI/Worldcom to protest its actions.
"TRAC fully endorses the Chairman's call for a consumer protest," said Samuel A. Simon, Chairman of TRAC's Board of Directors.
To help consumers tell MCI to "Stop the Slamming, not the Rules" TRAC is making information available on the various ways to contact MCI/Worldcom on TRAC's website, http://www.trac.org.
Here is how consumers can join the campaign:
1. Call MCI's customer service office at 1-800-264-1000 and tell them to "Stop the Slamming, Not the Rules!"
2. Go to the "Contact Us" section on MCI's web site at http://www.wcom.com/tools-resources/contact_us/index.shtml and tell them to "Stop the Slamming, Not the Rules!"
3. Write a letter to MCI's CEO Bernard Ebbers at the following address and tell him to "Stop the Slamming, Not the Rules!"
Bernard Ebbers
CEO
MCI Worldcom, Inc.
515 East Amite Street
Jackson, Mississippi 39201-2702
4. Go to MCI's Customer Service Center web site at http://www.wcom.com/cgi-bin/e-sales?for.home.service@mci.com and use the e-mail service to send them a message to "Stop the Slamming, Not the Rules!"
"The first time that consumers are given some direct rights against slammers, the long distance industry goes to court and takes those rights away!," said TRAC's Simon. "Their claim is that they are doing it for the consumer benefit, because they have a 'better plan.' This is truly outrageous. If these companies have a better plan, they don't need the government's approval to implement it. TRAC urges MCI/WORLDCOM and all of the other long distance carriers, AT&T, Sprint, Excel, Qwest etc., to give consumers whom THEY SLAM full credit for the illegal business they obtain from them, and to switch the consumers back to their preferred carrier at no cost."
"It is ironic and sad that the company that broke open competition in the long distance industry, MCI, is now leading a fight against rules that are designed to protect the choices made by consumers," said TRAC's Chairman. "We know that MCI and the other major long distance companies have an alternate plan, but that plan, even if adopted, would not give as much relief to consumers as the new FCC rules and would take six months or longer to be implemented. In the meantime consumers will be the losers. MCI should pursue its alternate plan while these new refund rules are in effect and the FCC should adopt the MCI plan only it provides superior protection to consumers. In the meantime, MCI, 'Stop the Slamming, Not the Rules!'"
ABOUT TRAC:
TRAC, a Washington, DC based consumer group, has been charting and comparing long distance rates for consumers since 1983. TRAC is the publisher of TeleTips™, a Residential Long Distance Rate and Small Business Long Distance Rate Comparison Chart. TRAC also produces a free Internet service at http://www.trac.org which features WebPricer, a joint service with San Francisco based Salestar, which allows consumers to get an instant call analysis by entering the calls from their bills onto a form and have the calls compared among various carriers.
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TRAC's ANTI-SLAMMING TIPS
Most consumers have a long distance carrier that they have chosen as their "dial-one" provider. When a long distance call is dialed from home with "1" area code and number, that call is then handled by the carrier the consumer has selected. That selection is also known as a "PIC." It is up to the local telephone company today to manage that "PIC" for the consumer. If the local phone company gets an order from a long distance company to switch the PIC for a consumer, it makes that switch. If the consumer, however, did not authorize that switch, the consumer has been "slammed."
What can consumers do to avoid being slammed? Here are some tips:
1. Freeze your PIC. This is the best way to prevent being slammed. Call your local telephone company's residential business office and tell them to put a freeze on your account so that ONLY you can authorize a change in carrier. In this way, if the local company receives an instruction from a long distance company to make a switch, it will not honor that request. You will have to make the change by contacting the local company yourself.
2. Don't Talk to Telemarketers. If a telemarketer calls to ask you to switch your service, you may end up getting switched even if you say "no." Telemarketers are judged on how successful they are at selling. Sometimes this creates an incentive for them to mark down that you said "yes" when you really said "no." The best way to deal with that is just hang-up on telemarketers for long distance service. Don't even talk to them.
3. Get off the Telemarketing Lists. If you write to the long distance companies and ask to be taken off their "call lists," they are supposed to take you off those lists. It will reduce the risk of being slammed.
4. Read the Fine Print. You may get contest entries and other solicitations in the mail related to long distance. Sometimes these are in the form of "checks." Read all the fine print, because often when you send the entry form in or cash the "check" you are authorizing a switch in your long distance service.
