SCAM ALERT -- QWEST and GTC Telecom / myGTC.com Slamming Scam
Jim McLaughlin
If you get your local dial tone service from Qwest in Oregon, and s get
your "dial 1" long distance service from GTC Telecom / myGTC.com out of
Costa Mesa, CA., watch out for the following variation on the "slamming"
SCAM --
GTC Telecom, a long distance wholesaler, changed its backbone provider
from MCI to SPRINT sometime in July, 2004.
SPRINT shipped billing and switching notices to QWEST to change over the
GTC Telecom customers from the MCI backbone to the SPRINT backbone.
QWEST billed its Oregon dial tone customers for a $ 5.00 "Change of Long
Distance Company" switching fee on the customers' August bills.
Neither QWEST, nor SPRINT, nor GTC Telecom have any written
authorizations or oral consents to change the customers over from MCI
backbone to SPRINT backbone.
Most customers will not notice the $ 5.00 charge buried in the QWEST
bills. For those who do, QWEST initially refuses to discuss the matter,
referring the customer to GTC Telecom.
Contacting GTC Telecom is a joke. Twenty or more minute waits on hold
to "Customer Service", which is in India. The response when finally the
phone is answered is an instruction to fax, and only fax, your Qwest bill to
GTC Telecom in Costa Mesa and in 6 to 8 weeks GTC Telecom will issue a
"refund" of the "Long Distance Company Switching Fee" initially imposed by
QWEST without any authorization from the long distance customer.
For folks without dedicated fax machines or scanners, that means a
separate trip to Mailboxes, Etc., / UPS Store, or Office Depot or whatever
and sending a fax with coversheet and 4 page QWEST bill to a number in
area code 714. You get to spend $ 5.00, plus the $ 5.00 QWEST added to
your bill, to get your $5.00 back.
The Oregon Attorney General has opened an investigation into this scam
under file number FF 127-04.
The Oregon PUC has also had complaints about this scam, but it is
unknown if a formal investigation has been opened.
ply key.
Remove the obvious from the address to reply.
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