Warning! Read Your Phone Bill Before You Pay it!

This month our phone service was switched from Verizon to Frontier, although that may have nothing to do with what happened...

When I opened our first bill from the new provider it was about $15 more than my normal bill, so I went looking to see why. And I found a charge from a company called Email Bundle. Why?

There was a notice - for billing questions call 888-934-7750 to reach PayOne Billing, so I did. I got a recording that told me everyone was busy and that I needed to wait. Then I got a brief busy signal and a message saying I was being transferred... and then a "looped" recording telling me a web address over and over and over.

Obviously, PayOne billing was not going to answer my call.

So I called Frontier. After 10 minutes or so of recorded messages I finally made contact with a live person... who said I just wouldn't believe how many people had called this week over the same issue.

But it wasn't a Frontier issue at all. She said I had been "slammed."

Apparently, third party providers can simply send their bill through your phone company - giving you the convenience of making one payment rather than several.

But in this case, the third party provider is bogus. I have no idea if the bogus company is Email Bundle, who is sending charges via PayOne billing... or if PayOne billing is bogus and the Email Bundle name is fictitious. But tomorrow I'm going to try to figure out where to report it.

The lady I talked with removed the charge from my bill and put "Bill block" on my phone numbers, so it isn't going to happen again. But I thought of all the people who simply get their bill and pay it without looking it over carefully, and it occurred to me that these crooks are probably making a bundle of money.

My bill is the same every month because I pay a flat for unlimited long distance. But other people have long distance charges and their bill is different each month. They might not notice a $15 discrepancy - especially if they're running a business and have large phone bills. And especially not since phone bills are generally so convoluted that it takes a puzzle expert to figure them out.

 

So that's my message for the day... read your phone bill before you pay it. And if you don't want "Third party providers" to add charges to your phone bill without your permission, call the phone company and tell them to add "Bill block" to your account.

 

 

 

marte@copybymarte.com

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