USBI Long Distance Slamming
Today I got my home phone bill from Qwest, and found out I got “slammed” by a long distance company called USBI. In case you’re not in the loop, slamming is when they change your long distance provider without your permission.
If you go to any search engine and do a search for “USBI long distance” you will see that they have a long list of complaints ranging from slamming to other types of fraud, and I didn’t see anything in the first page of results that suggested they might even be a legitimate company.
I was charged $5.00 by Qwest for making the switch, and $5.15 by USBI for their monthly fee.
To top it all off, my long distance account is supposed to be “locked” by Qwest so that this sort of thing can’t happen. That means that USBI actually impersonated me to get the switch, or someone on Qwest’s side is in on it. Based on my previous and current experience with Qwest, I’m guessing the latter.
Look…don’t even get me started on Qwest because it will only raise my blood pressure to unsafe levels. I’ll have to save that story for another blog entry. All I can say is that the Qwest “Spirit of Service” and their “Promise of Value” are an ironic joke when it comes to taking care of their small business customers. If anyone from Qwest ever happens upon this blog and wants me to change it, tell Vice President of Marketing Mark Pitchford to give me a call and I’ll see what I can do. I once wasted an entire day trying to contact him about the three “promise-filled” letters he mailed to me.
According to Qwest customer service, it’s “not possible” to contact Mr. Pitchford. I am sure it will also not be possible to have them reverse the charges they just scammed me for on my long distance bill, but at least it’s only $10.15…plus another $5.15 for next month’s bill since I’m sure it’s too late to cancel…not to mention a cancellation fee from Qwest…and a couple hours wasted on the phone trying to get it taken care of….hmmmm, maybe I’ll just let those fraudulent scammers at USBI have my money.
December 9th, 2005 at 7:47 pm
I have been dealing with a similar problem involving USBI and BellSouth for several weeks. We were shocked when we received our most recent (November) BellSouth bill which included charges for USBI services. We had never heard of USBI, and we certainly did not sign up for their service, whatever that may be. I have been in contact with BellSouth and USBI regarding this matter several times since receiving my last bill, and they have informed me that this is not slamming, but they fail to characterize/label/explain the problem that caused my local toll service to be switched from BellSouth to USBI.
As a BellSouth retiree I have received a retiree concession benefit (free local toll service up to $50 a month) for over ten years. It would have made no sense for me to sign up to pay $15.25 per month for local toll service that I don’t even have to pay for. Somehow, USBI provided BellSouth with billing for services (not authorized, used or rendered) that BellSouth included on my bill and total amount due. I have spent many hours trying to find out how this happened. I have no answers from BellSouth or USBI at this point in time. We plan to pursue this matter with the Alabama PSC and Attorney General.
May 30th, 2006 at 12:05 pm
I just encountered the same thing - $15.25 a month for a service I never asked for nor received. I call USBI and the phone connection was one of the worst I have ever heard (and they are a long distance provider? - excuse me - clearing house). I have contacted the Attorney General’s office in PA.
July 7th, 2006 at 6:43 pm
I got slammed with a long distance bill of around three hundred dollars by USBI and my long distance carrier was ACN and I am going to be calling the attorney general’s office on both companies in the state of Nevada. I suggest everyone who has ever had a problem with this so called company do the same. I was charged $1.71 a minute for my calls
July 15th, 2006 at 5:08 pm
Wanted to add SBC in Ohio to the list of companies allowing USBI to slam its “valued clients.” AT+T bought SBC and then viola, slammed. After being told at USBI that they will credit my account, I was chaged a late fee by AT+T since my bill was not paid in full. I will continue to short my bill by the late fee and the USBI charge as we have never had long distance at this phone. Normally, most people can not do much against the big bad AT+T but I am in a position to evaluate contacts for my company. AT+T is one of those trying to get several contracts. I, being a good employee of my company, will consider all aspects of AT+T services, including their abyssmal billing support desk, to make my decisions.
July 18th, 2006 at 1:32 pm
To Whom It May Concern:
I am a consumer and after several times of requesting via telephone calls I have been unable to get them to stop charging me for a service that I dont even use.
I am wanting to know how to get this USBI stop charging me monthly on my regular telephone bill??Please give me information on how to stop this company from taking advantage of this consumer.
This information would be greatly appreciated quickly. jekgrosso@yahoo.com is where you may reach me.
Thanks
Elizabeth
July 26th, 2006 at 6:01 pm
Do you have an address for USBI? Thanks.
August 11th, 2006 at 1:16 pm
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: I HAVE 4 LONG DISTANCE CALL, FROM A COMPANY I DIDNT NEW EXISTED, THE PHONE IS ON MY NAME AND I NEVER AUTHORIZED LONG DISTANCE IN MY PHONE. I CALLED THEM TWO TIMES ABOUT, THE SITUATION, THE ANSWER I GOT THAT THAT I HAVE TO PAY FOR IT BACAUSE THEY CANNT GIVE CREDIT. I SAID THIS IS MY PHONE NOBODY HAVE AUTHORIZATION ON MY PHONE. THIS IS THE SECOND TIME I CALLED..CAN SOMEBODY HELP ME. THANKS
September 11th, 2006 at 10:53 pm
I also have been slammed by USBI…..I am a Verizon employee as a former MCI employee. My long distance was grandfathered over from MCI to Verizon which extended a $25 monthly credit for long distance. So in other words my long distance was free. I was switched to USBI without my knowledge or consent….why would I switch from free to a fee….Anyway you can file a complaint with the FCC, and you public utilities for the state you live in. Go to the following websites and click on consumers to file a complaint. http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/complaints_slamming.html. This is the only way to stop these types of issues.
October 4th, 2006 at 6:13 pm
I am in Salt Lake City and I too have been charged with USBI for $15.76.
I did not request this either. How do we get a hold of this company? My bill says that the charges are paid to “Mainstreet Telephone” I am going to research a little more and get to the bottom of this. That is a lot of money to me.
October 16th, 2006 at 9:41 am
I am in Richmond, VA and received a charge on my Verizon bill from USBI, “billed on behalf of US Telecom Long Distance”. According to the customer service rep I spoke to, my new telephone # was recycled and the previous owner never cancelled her long distance service so the ld service stayed with the phone #. I questioned the legality of transferring a service and bill into a different name without any approval, and the jerk gave me some song and dance about the previous person not being reponsible enough to call and cancel her serv ice. After waiting for them to contact Verizon to verify the date I got the phone #, this moron then tells me that he will credit my account but it will take 2 billing cycles for it to be applied and that I needed to call back in November to get a credit again! He then says I am “yelling” at him and he has done nothing but bend over backwards for me. He claims he gave me a “direct #” to call back in November, if anyone needs to annoy this company, the number he gave me was [edit].
October 21st, 2006 at 12:46 pm
On Oct. 21, 2006 we received a bill (over $400) through our phone company (Verizon) which included a billing from a long distance carrier called USBI. We had recently switched our long distance back to Verizon from Power Net Global and have not had further long distance charges from them (Power Net). We have never heard of USBI and have DEFINATELY NOT authorized this switch. In fact the reason we came back to Verizon was for the unlimited long distance. Why would we choose to switch to another long distance carrier when we just came back to Verizon for unlimited long distance calling included in our billing package. Why would Verizon not even contact us to inquire about such a obvious slam. It looks like this is a first for us but we are not alone. Thanks to the lady who sent the complaints form site. This is astonishing.
November 14th, 2006 at 8:51 pm
I have found out they have been billing me for months started in june and i just noticed it in october. I wanted a credit and I have to send them an email but I cant get the mail to go to them. help what can I do?? My phone service centurytel will go back three months on this and i have to do the rest. i never use long distance I always use my cell. my bills were small so I don’t have big bills it is the principle of the thing. I did not sign up for this and I don’t want to pay for it. please excuse my spelling
ann oakley
December 11th, 2006 at 2:07 am
Regarding your phone bills–I want to help you with information. If you read your phone bill closely—as you do see USBI which means United States Billing Incorporated. The actual phone company most likely is US Telecom Long Distance Inc. It may state billed on behalf of…..
Persist and insist with these folks. They were already sued in PA for I believe it was for the do not call list. This company is VERY shady. They are in Irvine, CA. I do not know what the LV address is for. I personally checked on another address that was on one of their business cards–was a dead end. It was a rented office within a larger office area.
http://kutv.com/seenon/local_story_314003722.html —– this link here is to a fairly recent story about this company.
Do an internet search on US Telecom Long Distance and place it within quotation marks. This will narrow down your search to the entire phrase and NOT each individual word when searches are done without quotes. this is the same research I have done.
Thank you
February 10th, 2007 at 10:30 pm
Back in Oct. 2006 we got our telephone there was an charge on it that has
USBI INTERNATIONAL TOLL
Inguires 1-800-300-6568
It said there was a call made for our phone line to 088-199-006 IRIDIUM AT 1:33 PM FOR 24 MIN. THE AMOUNT FOR THE CALL WAS $228.25 THIS CALL SAID IT WAS MADE IN 06/14/06 NO ONE WAS AT HOME THAT THE CALL WAS SIAD TO BE MADE AND IT DIDN’T SHOW UP UNTIL OCT.2006 ON OUR PHONE BILL.
WE ARE STILL FIGHTING WITH OUR LOCAL PHONE COMPANY ABOUT THIS MATTER WE DID NOT Make this call.
look up the word Iridium it has something to do with satelites and cell phones
why would we call a statelite .
besides we have cell phone service from other company rather than our local phone company where we can call anywhere around the workd for free with the plan we have.