john@gatech.edu (John DeArmond) (02/09/89)
I just discovered this group. Great articles. I'd like to share some
information regarding the ripoffs being purveyed
by the Alternative Operator Services companies. First my qualifications.
My company contracted to an AOS who must, unfortunately, remain
nameless to design and implement their AOS system. This company should
be familiar to most folks who have been ripped off by motels or payphones
operated by these people. I was the person who designed and implemented
most of the system. (Sorry folks, but I did not understand the business
well enough to understand how these services were being applied in the
field until it was too late.)
In the process of getting up to speed on the project, I became very
familiar with most of the then-existing companies. Almost without
exception, the companys fit a standard mold - designed expressly
to get into the market quickly, extract as much money as quickly as
possible and get out, hopefully one or two steps ahead of the attorney
general of the state. These operators are a travesty of justice and
an embarrisment to the rest of the industry. they prey on people who
have little choice in the matter. Their targets are primarily hotels,
hospitals and airports.
These folks are for the most part unregulated. They work in conjunction
with the property owner. The owner is given a kickback or "commission" on
each call and further, are permitted to apply a "surcharge" of most any
ammount. I saw surcharges as high as 10 dollars for the first minute.
Other tricks involve intercepting the 10288 and other access numbers and
rerouting the call to one of their operators. The operator is prompted
by the system as to how to answer the call to convince the customer
he has reached his desired carrier.
Another common trick that is legally grey is the practice of always
rounding the minutes up to the next increment. For example, if you
placed a call that lasted 5 minutes and 1 second, you would be billed
6 minutes. A similiar practice that is clearly illegal is to add one
or more minute to each call. "Income enhancement" it's called.
So what can you do? Well the obvious thing is to avoid these services
and boycott the establishments that use them. But you cannot always
avoid them so you need to know a few things.
First, if you ever get a bill from one of these charlatins, call their
customer service number and BITCH. These guys play the averages. They
want to keep the level of unrest just below the point of official action.
They will give you credit for almost anything you complain about. You
don't have to supply proof, simply call and complain.
Most of these companies do not get line supervision from their long distance
carriers and so have a very hard time determining when to start billing
(as if it really bothered them too much). What they do is allow you a
fixed ring interval, say 15 seconds, and then start charging if you are
still offhook. So if you retry a busy number a few times, you will find
a bunch of 1 minute charges on your bill. since the motel collects its
5 or 10 bucks surcharge on each attempt, you should complain about EVERY such
charge to the AOS AND the motel.
Again, playing the odds, these guys accept almost anything that looks
like a credit card number and do not verify (check against a bank database)
the number. for some card, such as AT&T, Visa, MC, AMEX and so on, the
numbers are algorithmically validatable (as opposed to verifyable).
They generally apply these elemental tests but do NOT verify that the
number is active or belongs to you. Therefore, either from miskeying,
mistranscription, or intentional fraud, you can find calls not yours billed
against your calling card, your bankcards, your amex card, your
gasoline card or almost anything plastic with a number embossed on it.
These companies will (generally cheerfully) credit any call you complain
about so be proactive.
Lastly, it is likely that the AOSs are being sued in your state and or
under inditement for their practices. Investigate and find out what's
going on. Call the attorney's general office and find out about ongoing
investigations and/or prosecutions. I know that in Tennessee and Georgia
there are prosecutions and suits underway both from the state governmetn
and from consumer interest groups. You may be able to join any class-
action suits and/or contribute to the criminal prosecution of these
people. Be sure, too, to contact your legislators and public service
commission. These companies are regulated at the state level and can
be effectivly banned if enough pressure is brough to bear.
As a final note, you should be aware that ALL the LD carriers except
AT&T are in cahoots with at least one AOS. They've used this channel
as a mechanism to bootstrap into competition with AT&T in the 0+ market
while they build an internal capability. Speak with your pocketbook.
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