TRAC APPLAUDS STATE REGULATORS OPPOSITION TO NEW LONG DISTANCE INDSUTRY PRO-SLAMMING PLAN.
San Francisco, CA – Attending the summer meeting of the National Association of State Utility Regulatory Commissioners, TRAC today renewed its "stop the slamming campaign." In May, the long distance industry lead by MCI/Worldcom challenged new FCC rules that would have, for the first time, treated consumers as the victims of slamming. The rules would have, among other things, let consumers refuse to pay slammers. Touted as "taking the profit out of slamming," the FCC rules were about to take effect when a court suspended the rules in a case brought by MCI/Worldcom on behalf of the long distance industry.
Since that time, the long distance industry has been promoting a new plan -- Third Party Administration or TPA. The TPA plan would set up a new organization and all slamming complaints would go to that agency. The agency would then decide if the complaint were "valid" or not. "What this does," said Samuel A. Simon, Chairman of TRAC, " is to put the fox in charge of the hen house, and consumers are going to be the chickens. This new organization is set up to challenge consumer slamming complaints, not to facilitate them. It is complicated, it is expensive and it is anti-consumer."
The FCC rules that were suspended by the court at MCI/Worldcom request would trust the consumer. Under the rules, a consumer who called their local phone company or their long distance company of choice would simply not pay the charges of the company that did the slamming and would be switched back at no cost. Under the long distance plan, they would be subject to arbitration.
Today, in San Francisco, a committee of State regulators considering the long distance proposal voted to recommend against the plan. The regulators found that the TPA would not remove the financial incentive to slam, would be expensive and add to consumer confusion. The regulators also called on the Court to reinstate the FCC pro-consumer rules. "TRAC applauds these actions and joins with NARUC Consumer Affairs Committee in urging all State regulators to oppose the TPA proposal," said TRAC’s Simon.
TRAC in May urged consumers to call MCI/Worldcom to tell them to "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.
###
SIGN-UP ON THE WEB! Reporters: Sign-up to receive TRAC press releases at http://www.trac.org.
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.
#####
