Imaginary Conversations and Random Thoughts

. . . is a company involved in all kinds of crap. I was all energized when they screwed me over the first time. Figured I would slam them here where no one would see it. Did some research. Actually slammed them on a Citysearch page for San Antonio. Unfortunately, either they don't post the reviews, or I can't figure out how to access them, and I didn't save it. When I called, and they're only open during business hours, so I had to call them from work, they said they would correct the situation. It seemed somewhat acceptable, so I dropped the whole thing. You did know I'm a lazy bastard, right? But why was I so hot? What was the situation? Let me go back a little.

My phone bill comes every month. Since I hardly call anyone, it is always the same basic amount. Until October's bill. I noticed I was being charged $14.95 for a service called "Total Protection Plus Vmail Monthly Fee" and $.45 in Federal taxes on this service. As mentioned, when I called Enhanced Services Billing Inc, I got a message telling me they are only open during their business hours. Once I'm home from work, they're closed, and I leave before they're open. So I did the next best thing. Even though I knew I needed to call Enhanced Services Billing Inc, I went ahead and called Local Phone Corp to express my righteous indignation.

I was duly informed that I would in fact have to call Enhanced Services Billing Inc in order to have this situation resolved. My contention was that I had been a victim of what some have called cramming, in which services you don't order are charged to your phone bill by this or that unethical company. An unethical company such as Enhanced Services Billing Inc.

A careless bill payer might pay for this or that service without realizing it. If my bill hadn't happened to be the exact same amount for the last several months, I wouldn't have noticed it. It was the sudden extra fifteen bucks that caught my eye. What if I was in the habit of calling information a lot, and letting them dial it for me, making my bill fluctuate? This could have gone on for a while before I caught it. Fortunately, I did catch it.

Back to Local Phone Corp. Yes, I understood I would have to call Enhanced Services Billing Inc. Fair enough. My question for her was . . . well, let me dialogue it for you (you'll forgive the imprecision of recall, but this is extremely close):

Me: How can they attach this charge to my bill when I haven't ordered it?

Local Phone Corp: As a public utility, we are required to attach charges to my bill when requested to do do by companies such as Enhanced Services Billing Inc.

Me: So even though I had nothing to do with this process, you went ahead and decided to attach this to my bill?

LPC: We're a public utility, and we're required to accept charges regarding utilities when submitted to us.

Me: But don't you verify that a company, such as Enhanced Services Billing Inc, that submits the bill actually has a service contract with the person you are forwarding the bill to?

LPC: We don't have a process for that; we just attach the charges to the bill.

Me: So you're saying that anyone can just call you, say they have a bill for someone, and you'll pass it along, process the payment, and send the money back to them, and there's no confirmation anywhere in this process?

LPC: (Something about being a public utility and regulations, and blah blah blah) . . . yes.

This was not a conversation that elevated my confidence in Local Phone Corp or federal regulations. I'd just have to wait til the next day to call Enhanced Services Billing Inc.

And who are these guys? I did a little bit of research while I was stewing in my own juices, waiting for the next day to get here. I guess I have a couple of tidbits of info. For example, here's some company details from November 2002 listed in a sample contract form:

Enhanced Services Billing, Inc. (“ESBI” or “Company”), a Delaware corporation, whose principal address and telephone number are 7411 John Smith Drive, Suite 200, San Antonio, Texas 78229-4898, (210) 949-7000

The San Antonio Citysearch linked above (probably more recent) gives this info:

Enhanced Services Billing, Inc., 10500 Heritage Blvd Ste 200, San Antonio, TX 78216-3631, (210) 949-7000

Different street addresses, but same phone number, and coincidentally, the same suite number. Of course, this local number for Enhanced Services Billing Inc is not the same as the toll free number 1-888-298-3724 that is provided for customer service.

And I found this site about cramming to be helpful. It even led me to this pdf file here. While I was there, I could read all about Enhanced Services Billing Inc, and the settlement agreement they signed. More specifically, I might note that it was a "Stipulated Final Judgment and Order For Permanent Injunction and Other Equitable Relief." This enjoins the defendants (including Enhanced Services Billing Inc.) from "violating Section 5 of the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. [some squiggly "S" looking symbol I can't type] 45(a)." Where all the relevant parties have signed, I can see that a man named Joseph W. Webb, at the "John Smith" address above, is the president of the company. The agreement was likely signed by him either May 9th or May 10th of 2001, a date which also seems to fit with the "John Smith" address. You'll see his signature on Page 34 of the pdf. So thanks, FTC, I feel my tax dollars were put to good use.

The FTC comes through again with this article, also from 2001, about how the scam works. Turns out Enhanced Services Billing Inc is a billing aggregator. I'll let the FTC tell you what that is:

ESBI and BCI each served as "billing aggregators." Billing aggregators open the gate to the telephone billing and collection system for vendors, and act as intermediaries between the vendors and the local phone companies, contracting with the local phone companies to have charges on behalf of their client vendors placed on consumers' telephone bills and to have the local telephone companies collect those charges from consumers. Once the charges are collected by the phone companies, the billing aggregators, after taking their fee, pass the revenues back to their client vendors.

Referencing the pdf noted above, to which Enhanced Services Billing Inc stipulated, the FTC asserts the following:

-that ESBI falsely represented that consumers were legally obligated to pay charges on their telephone bills for web sites and other items they had not ordered or authorized others to order for them;

-that ESBI unfairly attempted to collect - or arranged for local phone companies to collect - payment of charges from consumers for web sites and other items they had not ordered and that consumers were unable to prevent ESBI from causing such unauthorized charges to appear on their phone bills;

Sounds familiar. Of course, government can't bear all of the burden. We have roles as citizens as well. Just ask Dr. Leonard Saltzman, whose eight year odyssey against Enhanced Services Billing Inc ended with an October 2005 settlement agreement from the company. To summarize, the fraudulent billings began in 1997. Enhanced Services Billing Inc got a claim for restitution dropped in August 2000. In October 2001, summary judgment was granted in favor of the company, because "knowingly receiving benefits from someone else's fraud was not covered under section 2 of the Consumer Fraud Act." Dr Saltzman appealed, leading to a reversal in June 2004. A fairness hearing for the proposed settlement was held on October 21, 2005. This information is from an attorney/law firm involved in the proceedings. I didn't find any more recent information. I'll keep checking.

Well maybe that was more than a couple of tidbits, but I was fired up. I did manage to call Enhanced Services Billing Inc the next day. The woman I spoke to was happy to credit my phone bill for that charge, and the next charge that was likely to have gone through since the time of the previous bill and my call to her. I asked her the same question I put to Local Phone Corp. How could this happen if I didn't order the service? Well, she says the order is placed not by name, but by telephone number. Chuck Somebody, who actually had ordered the service, must have accidentally given my number. When Enhanced Services Billing Inc sent the charge to Local Phone Corp, they identified the account by telephone number. The faulty phone number Chuck gave them meant I got billed. I was highly tempted to call BS on this, but the lady was crediting my bill. And I thought the matter was over and pretty much forgotten.

Forgotten, that is, until I opened my phone bill tonight. And there it was, right there in black and white, both credits do appear on my bill, $14.95 twice. And ninety cents back from the feds. Unfortunately, two lines below that was another charge, $14.95, and 45 cents to the feds. They billed me AGAIN!!!!! Well you can be sure I'll be calling them, and you'll hear the results here. And no holiday weekend is going to keep me from following up on this, even if I am a lazy bastard.