BUCKS WATCH
More Fee Hikes on the Way for MCI and Qwest Customers - It didn't take long for 2005 to start resembling 2004 for long distance users. MCI and Qwest will soon be raising fees and monthly minimums on a number of calling plans and services. Effective February 1, MCI will begin to charge long distance subscribers a flat 99¢ per month carrier cost recovery fee instead of the current fee structure in which the fee is equal to 1.4% of state-to-state and international charges. MCI long distance customers who also subscriber to MCI local calling plans (such as The Neighborhood) will continue to be charged the 1.4% fee instead of the 99¢ flat fee. For long distance subscribers who don't make very many calls per month, this will most likely result in an increase on their bills. Also on February 1, MCI subscribers who choose to receive their long distance charges on their local telephone bill (with a carrier besides MCI) will see their local telephone company billing option fee increase from $2.99 to $3.99 per month. Additionally, MCI long distance subscribers who use 1-(area code)-555-1212 long distance directory assistance services will see the fee for that service increase from $2.49 to $3.49 per call. Finally, the monthly minimums on all long distance calling plans except for MCI Nationwide Select will increase to $6.99. For more information on these changes, click here i . Qwest long distance subscribers will also soon be getting hit with a fee increase. Effective January 11, 2005, the fee for placing a calling card call from a payphone will increase from 25¢ to 55¢ per call in every state except Arizona, Colorado, and Washington. The fee will increase to 50¢ in Arizona and 49¢ in Colorado. The fee will not change in Washington. For more information in this change, click here ii .
The Never-Ending Search for Human Customer Service - One of the most frustrating things about buying merchandise over the Internet is how hard it is to find a phone number to call when something goes wrong with an order. Worst yet, when one actually finds a number, it seems an almost impossible task to decipher the order of buttons necessary to talk to a real, live human being. There are a number of tricks that consumers can use to outfox these customer service mazes. First, most people know to hit "0" before a recorded message even finishes playing to get to a customer representative. Unfortunately, many companies have gotten wise to this tactic and now require callers to press "0" two, three, or even four times before the call is transferred to a customer service representative. Additionally, popular online retailers often purposely omit customer service phone numbers from their websites to try and force customers to use online complaint forms. Here are the customer service numbers for some of the most popular online shopping sites which make it exceedingly difficult to actually find a customer service number:
- Amazon.com - (In the U.S. and Canada) 800-201-7575; (Outside the U.S. and Canada) 206-346-2992 or 206-266-2992 or 206-266-2335
- eBay.com - 408-376-7400, (Toll Free) 800-322-9266 or 888-749-3229
- Paypal.com - 888-221-1161
- Barnes & Noble (BN.com) - 800-843-2665
- BestBuy.com - 888-237-8289
- Borders.com - 800-770-7811
- Target.com - 800-591-3869 or 1-888-304-4000
- Walmart.com - 800-966-6546
WIRELESS WATCH
Verizon Wireless Continues to Top Lackluster Customer Satisfaction Ratings - A new study in the February issue of Consumer Reports magazine shows that Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile continue to lead the pack in wireless customer satisfaction. Overall, customer satisfaction remained low, with 35% of survey respondents considering switching to a different provider. Only 45% of respondents said that they were "completely" or "very" satisfied with their wireless service. Just 31% said the company's response to a service inquiry was very helpful and only 40% said responses to billing inquiries were very helpful, noted the survey. AT&T Wireless and Nextel were at the bottom of the survey with Cingular and Sprint PCS in the middle of the pack of major wireless providers. (Note: The survey was conducted in September 2004, before the Cingular/AT&T Wireless merger took effect). For more information on the Consumer Reports survey, click here iii .
TRAC IN THE NEWS
Broadband Adoption Driving VoIP Growth, But Regulation Could Add to Cost - The widespread adoption of residential broadband connections is contributing greatly to the rapid growth in popularity of Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calling, but pending regulation of the technology could add to the cost, noted TRAC research associate John Breyault in two recent Oregonian articles. "It's going to continue to become more user-friendly," Breyault said, "[but] don't plan very far ahead on this, because it's still very much up in the air as far as what kind of regulations are going to be attached to this, and how much of that is going to be passed on to consumers." Both articles can be read in their entirety by clicking here iv and here v .
Directory assistance charges are becoming increasingly expensive - TRAC was mentioned recently on Washington, DC channel NBC 4 in a story about saving consumers money. Local and long distance directory assistance charges are becoming increasingly expensive for consumers according to TRAC. Local directory assistance rates now run from 39-cents to $1.25 per listing depending on phone service. Long distance directory assistance can cost up to $2.49 per listing depending on service, and wireless directory assistance can run about $1.25 per inquiry. TRAC says you should consider cheaper alternatives before using directory assistance. Those include free online white and yellow pages, libraries with free directory assistance software, PDA programs offering computer address books, or even calling friends or relatives to find a needed number. To read a transcript of the story, click here vi .
INTERESTING LINKS
FCC Main Page: http://www.fcc.gov
FCC Complaint Form - http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/cib/fcc475.cfm
List of State Regulatory Commissions: http://www.naruc.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=15
What do you think? Got a tip you want to share? Nominate your "Scam of the Week" and your "Tip of the Week" - If we select your submission, we'll give you a one-year free membership in TRAC and acknowledge your contribution by name in TRACNotes. Send an e-mail to trac@trac.org to submit your ideas!
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©2004 Telecommunications Research and Action Center. TRAC grants unlimited rights to reproduce TRACNotes or any information contained in it provided attribution is given as follows: "Source: Telecommunications Research and Action Center. http://www.trac.org"
Endnotes
