July 23, 2004
slamming
Slamming is the unauthorized change of a subscribers telephone service provider without the consent of the customer. The slammers hope the victims do not notice the change and proceed with payment of the bill. Often times the telephone charges are at a much higher rate. Although slamming most frequently impacts long distance service, it can also occur as a change to toll or local service.
To combat slamming, customers can request a freeze on their selected carrier. The freeze is free of charge and will assist in preventing any future unauthorized carrier changes.
well good luck with that, I got slammed again by a new company: excel communications this morning after switching back to SBC 3 days ago. I called excel to refute the service and they said I'd contacted them 3 days ago to dispute charges - but I had contacted vartec telecom - 2 dirty subsidiaries of the same filthy company slamming me 2 times in one week. another hour on the phone with sbc to switch back AGAIN and they let me know the freeze only works if an order is placed to switch the local and/or long distance service but does nothing to protect against an order to switch over the whole account (dial tone) which is what vartec telecom did to me. so basically this will be my new ongoing struggle instead of worry about comment spam. 
Posted by sugi_grl at July 23, 2004 10:14 AM
moral of story - don't hook-up your home phone service? what a nightmare!! by this point i would have already bought my ak47 and blown the phone corps to smithereens (sp?)
filthy bastards!!
cuz you have nothing better to do w/ your time
dude... that is out of control!
Contact the Better Business Bureau (www.bbbonline.org) and file a complaint with them (you can do it online). Oh wait... I looked up SBC Communications on their site, and they say "Based on BBB complaint files, this company has an unsatisfactory record with the Bureau... Because of the volume of complaints generated by SBC and the company's failure to take the necessary action to eliminate their cause. The BBB will no longer process their complaints. All complaints, as of June 20, 2004, will be forwarded to the California Public Utilities Commission, which is the government regulating agency under whose jurisdiction SBC operates. If you have a complaint against SBC, you may wish to submit it directly to: CPUC, Consumer Affairs Division,Room 2003, 505 Van Ness, San Francisco, CA 94102. "
Posted by: jendhi at July 26, 2004 03:38 AMyou can also contact the Foundation for Taxpayer & Consumer Rights (http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/). You can make a complaint (http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/ftcr/complaint.php3) and they might investigate it for you?
Posted by: jendhi at July 26, 2004 03:42 AMhere's the website for the California Public Utilities Commission: http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/
To file a complaint online go here: http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/static/forms/complaint.htm
They have a button you click "File Informal Complaint" and go to it! Let em have it!
Posted by: jendhi at July 26, 2004 03:45 AMgarimba garimbola
Posted by: snake at July 26, 2004 09:56 AMhere's something interesting from the SBC website regarding slamming:
http://www.sbc.com/gen/general?pid=1418
and i quote...
"SBC representatives never contact customers through outside companies to discuss changes in your accounts and will never make changes in your service without your permission."
their website says to contact the local public utilties commission to file a slamming complaint and/or the FCC (1-888-225-5322 or at http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/complaints.html#slaminstructions).
oh, the FCC site says california has "opted-in" to administer the FCC's slamming complaint rules, and california is one of them... so contact the California Public Utility Commission.
http://www.fcc.gov/slamming/states.html#California
Posted by: jendhi at July 27, 2004 04:20 AMthe Excel website has an anti-slamming policy. http://w3.excel.com/us/AboutUs/Slamming_Policy.asp
"Excel recognizes that slamming in the industry continues to increase at an alarming rate which robs consumers of their right to choose. We're committed to protecting consumer rights and want you to know how you can prevent this from happening. Let's slam the door on slamming.
1-888-888-9390"
uh huh.... so so committed.
Posted by: jendhi at July 27, 2004 04:27 AMhere's the FCC's rules on what rights you have if you've been slammed.
http://www.fcc.gov/slamming/welcome.html
Posted by: jendhi at July 27, 2004 04:34 AMJendhi,
are you working? Last time I checked you worked for DS2... says so in your paycheck... warimei balabalabala...
Posted by: snake at July 29, 2004 06:52 AMsnake... i am an expert at multi-tasking biatch! not my fault i'm so quick and efficient at my job that i make space for a lot of scheduled free time! quit bein' da man, man!
Posted by: jendhi at July 29, 2004 07:45 AMI love you guys
I contacted the fcc, they told me I have to file with my state, I contacted my state and they said management of the utility company should be able to resolve it. I apparently have no rights
Posted by: sugigrl at July 29, 2004 11:30 AMdude... that is out of control. what the eff!
by the way... love the new look of your site! digger is so cute!
Posted by: jendhi at July 30, 2004 06:07 AMjust submit an online complaint anyways with those bastards at the http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/static/forms/complaint.htm site.
and then submit one to that consumer watchdog group and tell them how the FCC said to contact the state and the state did nada... maybe they'll take legal action against the whole lot of gutter snipe!
Posted by: jendhi at July 30, 2004 07:05 AMI used to work for sprint. I resold local, local toll and long distance. Pretty much the same as Vartec and Excel. There is a requirement by law where all 3 services have to be authorized by the end user (you) to be taken. The authorization is done by a third party. A company not affiliated with the company doing the switching. If you are getting your phone service switched w/o this authorization, you need to contact your puc. 1 other way of getting switched is by signing something. For example we sold cell phone service aswell, and our customers had an option of getting 50 min free each month of home long distance as a promotion for having our cell. They would sign a form and we'd switch the long distance. A lot of customers forgot that they signed or didn't notice and were switched legally. Try and remember if you signed any promotional offer. :) Have a good day.
J
trust me, justin, I didn't sign up for anything at all, but humor me:
if it's so hard to switch someone why is it happening so much there's a term for it: slamming?
how did you end up here? did do a search for slamming?
why did sbc tell me that freezing my account won't stop the slamming?
Posted by: sugi_grl at August 3, 2004 08:49 PMlet's remember:
1) the definition of slamming is "UNAUTHORIZED change of a subscribers telephone service provider without the consent of the customer."... i.e, what is happening here (especially if it's how many times in the time span of a couple of days?)
2)the volume of complaints generated by SBC and the company's failure to take the necessary action to eliminate their cause.
something's rotten in altadena and i think it's SBC!
