Some common themes that were found in the official telecommunications audit report were that phone line inventories were insufficient, the organization lacked formal control over approval of telecom invoices each month due to staff reductions and lack of efficient telecom management.   According to their Comptroller, George Maragos, “”There must be greater oversight and control of the Verizon telephone billing.  The I.T. Department will need to double its efforts to bring telephone service under control and save millions for the taxpayer.”

According to the telecom audit report, some of the individual departments were utilizing phone lines as follows:

The Planning Department with 136 lines for 37 employees;

The Department of Social Services with 1,558 lines for 968 employees;

The Treasurer’s Office with 75 lines for 38 employees.

The County of Nassau should be applauded for commissioning the audit and putting a stop to wasteful spending and attempting to get a handle on it.  The $1.2 million in savings would be a great way to invest in better controls for the organization.

One of the greatest areas of cost savings for telecom audit company clients is the phone line inventory, which often results in the largest payback for the project.  I.T. managers are often shocked to find that they’ve been paying for unused phone lines for years.

BottaBoom Consulting LLC has been in the telecommunication auditing business since 2000, helping hundreds of companies with their telecommunications cost savings.   If you would like a telecom audit for your organization, contact us here: Telecom Audit Contact

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-West Virginia, says a law protecting phone customers from unauthorized charges is needed.

Washington (CNN) — A key Senate chairman says Congress needs to pass legislation to protect customers from unauthorized third-party charges on their phone bills because the telephone industry has failed to prevent the practice.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-West Virginia, said a one-year study by the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee shows about $2 billion a year in “mystery fees” show up on the landline phone bills of Americans, a problem known as cramming.

In a Wednesday hearing, Rockefeller asked an industry representative why major companies like AT&T haven’t stopped unauthorized third-party charges from going onto their customers’ phone bills.

“It’s illegal, it’s wrong, it’s scamming,” Rockefeller said. “Why haven’t you cleaned up your act?”

“The industry has taken significant steps,” replied Walter McCormick, president and CEO of the U.S. Telecom Association. “Even the report that you issued today indicates that there has been improvement, but it remains a very, very significant, very pervasive problem.”

Phone companies such as AT&T, Verizon and Qwest do not have a process to determine if the charges were authorized by their customers.

The third-party billing system was a result of the AT&T divestiture when the FCC required companies to bill and collect for companies that provided long-distance or specialized services, McCormick said. It’s no longer legally required, but many people like the single invoice system, he said.

The Commerce Committee’s report says phone companies receive a small fee — often just a dollar or two — for allowing charges from third-party vendors to appear on their bills. But due to the large number of customers the charges eventually add up.

AT&T, Verizon and Qwest made $650 million during the past five years, according to the report.

The state of Illinois has brought a number of lawsuits to fight cramming. Attorney General Lisa Madigan told the panel people are unaware their phone numbers can be charged almost like a credit card and her investigations indicate customers are not even getting services in return.

“My office has yet to see a legitimate third-party charge on a bill,” said Madigan, who added most customers don’t detect the charges on their bills.

When third-party vendors are contacted they claim the charges were authorized by customers and they often say they have audio recordings of the customer giving the OK, Madigan said.

However, when her office obtained audio recordings, the voices turned out not to belong to the consumers who were billed, she said. She called for federal and state laws banning the billing practice.

A Georgia woman who handles accounts for 32 quick-service restaurants told the committee about her personal experience involving cramming.

Susan Eppley said she found noticeable differences in the AT&T bills for the various restaurants and that she called AT&T. According to Eppley, an AT&T representative explained the charges were from third-party vendors and that “customers were responsible for blocking such third-party charges.”

Eppley said she called the third-party company and was told Eppley’s company had OK’d the charges and there was an audio recording to back that up. Eppley asked to hear it but the company never provided the audio recording.

Ultimately, the company refunded all the money it had charged the restaurants.

Eppley said she spent about 15 hours resolving the issues and also setting up blocks on accounts to prevent future cramming. She said she was particularly upset the bonuses of restaurant employees could be adversely affected if their stores did not meet their financial targets.

Rockefeller praised Eppley, calling her a bulldog for her determined efforts.

David Spofford, founder of a communications expense management company in Virginia called Xigo, also testified before the committee.

A review of three years’ worth of bills for about 200 clients showed 40,000 instances of cramming, Spofford said.

The average charge was $18 a month, he said. Many businesses would not expend the manpower necessary to find the unauthorized charges and stop them, he said.

His company has identified several major third-party billing consolidators, Spofford said, but they bill under about 600 names, which he theorized was a method to avoid detection.

According to Spofford, the descriptions for the services include voicemail, directory services and web hosting. He said in 99% of the cases the services had not been authorized and the customers were not receiving the services.

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, expressed shock companies were able to bill to a phone number without proving they have authorization from the account holder.

McCaskill said phone companies should follow the example of credit card companies and add identifying PIN numbers to all customer accounts.

McCormick, the industry representative, said he would discuss the PIN idea with members of his association.

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All businesses should get a telco audit on their services to ensure that cramming and unauthorized third party billing does not occur.  In most cases, companies can save thousands of dollars on their telco services with a telecom cost audit.  The audit usually costs nothing out of pocket as fees are paid only from savings actually realized.  To talk with a telecommunications consultant about a telco audit, contact the telecom audit pros at http://www.bottaboom.com/contact-us/ or call 1-888-487-5326.  You may be surprised at how much telecom cost savings can be found because of fraudulent phone charges and telecommunication errors.

The Los Angeles city cell phone bill audit was conducted internally. What would the results have been had the audit been conducted by an independent professional telecom auditor?

The LA city controller comes up with some common sense recommendations that professional telecom auditors have known for years. Changes promotions often, consider giving employees a stipend to use their personal cell phones for business, limit features, and turn off unused cell phones and wireless devices when employees leave the company or government agency.

Isn’t it about time that you had a professional telecom audit or a cell phone bill audit for your company? Contact the telecommunications audit professionals at 1-888-487-5326.  Or click here: telecom audit pros.

10. Phone fraud and hacking-phone fraud still exists and criminals are finding ways to tap into business Voice over IP services. Cramming continues to be a huge telecommunications audit recovery item and concern.
9. Telecommuting-Working from home is still a great way to cut telecom expense, particularly in the call center environment.
8. Telecom expense management software (TEM)- management of telecommunications audit with software continues to grow, particularly for larger business consumers. Make sure you shop around for the right telecommunications audit software.
7. Carrier mergers-we see no reason for the carrier merger trend to stop in 2011, in fact, we see it growing.
6. Data migration, IP telephony post migration, inventories-many companies have migrated to data centric calling technologies for cost savings.
5. Cellular optimization-wireless technology continues to boom, however, managing users and plans can be a major headache for IT managers.  The cell phone bill audit and wireless audit and recovery process has proven to be a huge telecommunications audit savings item.

4. Telecommunications Taxes & Surcharges-continue to be mistakenly charged to U.S. businesses and many non profit educational institutions, credit unions and government agencies continue to erroneously pay taxes. There is no statute of limitations for reclaiming overpaid taxes.

Do you like what you’re reading?  How about a telecommunications audit for your business?

3. Local and long distance telecommunications auditing-continues to be a huge telecommunications audit cost recovery item.
2. Telecom Audit Inventory-companies continue to pay for circuits, phone lines and locations that they simply no longer use. When they migrate to newer networks and VOIP, they often continue to pay for their old copper telephone lines and centrex services!
1. Contract reconciliation-contracts continue to auto-renew at higher rates, telecom carriers continue to make mistakes by entering incorrect contract rates into telecom billing systems and we keep getting huge refunds for telecommunications audit clients. We estimate this issue to result in billions of dollars in lost expense to American business in 2011, as was the case in previous years. This has been the first and foremost way of saving our clients large amounts of money during our telecommunications audit projects.

Is your business ready for a telecommunications audit? We offer no-out-of-pocket cost gurantee. If we cannot save your business money, you owe us absolutely nothing. Contact the telecommunications audit pros today.

How in the world does one get any results from the telephone company in the way of refunds, much less make a living at it?  It is often difficult enough just calling in on a simple service or repair order with the carrier to get action!  There is no easy answer to getting carrier results; however, the process of external telecommunications escalation is a powerful tool that often brings a more successful outcome to a client than simply being a nuisance or squeaky wheel to the carrier representative.  Having an effective escalation technique is often the key to the golden kingdom of telecom cost savings, the ability to get great refunds and savings from the telecom carriers.  Moreover, getting justice in the way of telecom refunds and monetary savings is attainable even when the carrier sales team is not cooperating with your efforts or is totally ineffective.  Gaining real refunds and savings for our clients through effective escalation is a necessity and doing it correctly allows us to have more confidence in getting results during the project.  Having confidence and a good plan fosters carrier respect and carrier respect accommodates monetary results.

In a perfect world, justice with the telephone companies would be served with a simple phone call and immediate acknowledgement that a mistake was made on the client’s telephone bill and a complete refund is quickly forthcoming.  Sometimes, to our utter shock and surprise, that kind of quick result actually can occur, particularly if your telecom audit client is a very large customer with a lot of monetary clout.  However, in the real world of telecom audit,  and in most cases, gaining quick credits for telecom overbilling and quickly solving billing errors just does not happen that easily.  In most cases, when we escalate a telecom billing issue to the carriers, we have to make countless calls, are given numerous delays and excuses as to why we cannot get a refund for a reasonable back credit.  We also have to be a telecom billing engineer and technical expert to enable us to translate the error on the phone bill to the telephone company representatives.  Then we must follow-up with seemingly hundreds of emails and phone calls to fix the issue (stop the bleeding) and get the refund, even when we are clearly in the right.  Next, we are taxed with digging up the history of the account, trying to dig up old email verifications or meeting notes and other documentation to prove our point to the carrier.  Moreover, even when we win and are assured that the refund or correction is in the works by the telecommunication carrier, it is often forgotten about or someone forgets to enter the case, which prompts us to have to again make even more calls months down the road.  Sometimes, we then have to open another case to enable us to again try to receive justice on something that was “already resolved.”  Most people (clients) aren’t persistent enough and get totally frustrated with the refund process and simply give up.  However, a good telecom auditor does not give up; he simply uses the tools in his escalation arsenal to gain carrier cooperation and results.

So what can we specifically do to escalate?  How can we make the process more effective?  There are a number of steps that a telecom audit specialist or business manager can take to get results.

In my search for information, I interviewed Bob Schwartz, one of the best in the cost recovery and TEM business, an expert in external telecom company escalations and a well renowned and highly effective 27 year telecom audit expert.  As the Vice President of Bill Correctors of California http://www.billcorrectors.com, Schwartz has accumulated a wealth of targeted experience in the telecom escalation process.  According to Schwartz, the public has various consumer protection agency tools at their disposal that they can use to gain better results from the carriers.

Schwartz emphasizes that first and foremost; one must understand the value of the Communications act of 1934, which sets the statute of limitations at 36 months for back telecom refunds from the carriers.  Also, every state has defining retro-active recovery points which must also be considered.  When considering refunds, you should also be aware of date of occurrence and date of discovery rules for each state.  The carrier may argue a particular state regulatory agencies’ position of date of discovery on a refund, which would only mandate that the carrier back date a refund to the date that you discovered it, not when the refund actually started.  This discovery ruling could dramatically reduce your refund so it is important and one that the carrier might try to use so be aware of it.

Schwartz says one of the most effective ways to file a consumer complaint and gain action against the carriers is to file a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). There are three ways to file; an informal complaint, a formal complaint, and declaratory rulings.

The most commonly used action against carriers to gain telecom refunds is the informal complaint process with the FCC and it is very easy to do and is quite effective.  In fact, Schwartz has successfully filed numerous informal complaints on behalf of Bill Correctors’ clients over the years with the FCC, and has never lost an informal telecom escalation case with the FCC.   Schwartz explains that filing an informal complaint can be easily accomplished in two ways; it can be done by simply filling out a form online at the FCC website https://esupport.fcc.gov/ccmsforms/form2000.action?form_type=2000B or by copying the FCC on your escalation letter and refund request to the carriers.  Be sure that you have all of the facts and required documentation in your FCC complaint.  The FCC will then contact the telecom carrier, present them with your case and your argument to them for resolution, then follow back up with you at a later time to ensure you are satisfied with the outcome offered to you by the carrier.   The carrier (usually their legal department) is obligated to give you an answer within a reasonable amount of time of your filing the complaint, normally 30-45 days.   Informal complaints are somewhat monitored in bulk by the FCC and from time to time they can force action for correction by the carrier (s) if enough complaints are received.

Formal FCC complaints are rarely used by private companies unless there is a huge amount of monetary refund at stake (millions of dollars) but they can serve a purpose in that the process exists for those kinds of rare cases.  One must also have a specialized attorney that is well versed in the formal process to file the paperwork and work the case.  One should be prepared to spend a lot of time and money on the formal complaint process.  Also, according to Schwartz, most companies don’t want their legal issues aired to the public so they rarely file a formal complaint.

The final type of FCC billing escalation is called a declaratory ruling which has no formal format and are also rarely used.  Declaratory rulings are normally only used when one carrier makes a charge against another carrier, therefore, a telecom auditor or business owner would rarely use this action, if at all.

There are other agencies that can also be helpful, according to Schwartz, and one can also file escalations and complaints with then, depending upon the type of service.   For example, in most cases in California, for a local service billing problem escalation, consult the California Public Utility Commission because they regulate local service items.  In the case of a long distance billing issue, the FCC would be best suited to file your complaint because long distance service is regulated by the FCC.   Once again, you can copy the appropriate agency at the same time you file an escalation with the carrier as a way of keeping the carriers on their toes and gain a better chance of obtaining satisfaction for your escalation case.

Other agencies and organizations that can help in your telecom audit refund are the state attorney general, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and better business bureau.  I have found both the FCC and the FTC to be most helpful in combatting telephone bill cramming and gaining refunds from crammers.  FTC complaints can be easily filed online at this link: https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/FTC_Wizard.aspx?Lang=en.

In summary, the effectiveness of the telecommunications escalation process depends on how well we use the proper regulatory rules and agencies.  If you know the rules of the escalation game, the process can be fairly easy.  There continue to be billions of dollars waiting to be recovered by U.S. businesses because of errors by the telecommunication carriers on their invoices, let’s get started. Contact a telecommunication audit specialist today.

Bing 411:800-246-4411

1-800-FREE-411
1-800-YellowPages (800-935-5697)
1-800-2ChaCha (800-224-2242)
1-800-411-SAVE (800-411-7283)
1-800-555-Tell (800-555-8355)
1-800-Call-411 (800-225-5411)
1-800-Call-Dex (800-225-5339)
1-800-Free-411 (800-373-3411)
1-800-Info-Fast (800-463-6327)
1-800-The-Info (800-843-4636)

Are you interested in a telecom audit for your business? It costs nothing for our company to review your telecommunications bills. We are only paid if we find actual telecom cost savings on
your telephone bill. Contact the telecom auditing professionals today and we’ll start getting you savings.

/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ –September 23,  ”The U.S. House successfully passed the ‘Small Business Jobs Act,’ H.R. 5297, by a vote of 237-187.  Included in it was language from the overwhelmingly bipartisan ‘MOBILE Cell Phone Act of 2009,’ (Modernize Our Bookkeeping in the Law for Employees), or the House and Senate companion bills (S. 144 and H.R. 690).  The package now heads directly to the President’s desk for signature into law.”

“The measure would remove cellular telephones, smartphones and similar wireless communications devices from application of the Internal Revenue Service (I.R.S.) “Listed Property” rules under section 280F, and alleviate a burdensome tax measure imposed on business and employees because of their employer-provided wireless devices.  Under the existing I.R.S. regulations, employees receiving a work-provided wireless device for day-to-day usage are required to keep a detailed phone call log on any personal use (calls, emails, texts, tweets, etc.) of that cell phone provided for under the work plan, and should pay income tax on that ‘benefit.’  The ‘MOBILE Cell Phone Act of 2009′ eliminates that archaic regulation, providing relief to American workers in companies of all sizes.”

Read more: http://www.bradenton.com/2010/09/23/2601672/mywirelessorg-applauds-us-house.html#ixzz10ZM33dWe

What does this mean for telecom audit clients?  Companies no longer have to distinguish between business use of wireless devices and personal use of those devices nor do they have to train their employees and mandate them to keep meticulous records of wireless usage.  Previously, company cell phone policies had to mandate that any personal use of business cell phones be documented by time and cost.  With the passage of the new legislation, that is no longer a mandate by the IRS.  This will make cell phone bill audit projects much easier.

The outdated requirement was put into effect in 1989 when cell phone devices were not commonly used and were considered a luxury, used mostly by upper management in some organizations.  Therefore, they were considered subject to a luxury tax when employed as a personal tool.  However, with the explosion of wireless devices by most consumers, the old law and mandate became outdated.  Many companies simply disregarded the requirement, however, many companies took it seriously and mandated that their employees strictly comply with the cell phone usage record keeping and rule as it was still a requirement by congress and the IRS.

Again, the legislation will make cell phone audits and cell phone policy much clearer and easier to administer.

Do you need a cell phone audit or cell phone policy for your company or organization?  Contact the cell phone bill audit professionals today.

Free Telecom Audit Savings

Businesses in need of cost savings are hitting the jackpot as they submit their phone bills to BottaBoom for a free telecom audit review. The treasure hunt is on; it’s that time of year again when Boom’s telecom auditors help businesses find end-of-year expense reductions on their telecommunications services.  BottaBoom offers  companies a free preliminary audit, which allows them to determine if they need a full telecom audit for cost savings.  According to Mark Evans, the Principal and founder of BottaBoom, “Prospective clients fax, email or mail us some of their telephone bills and we give our them a very good idea of the amount of savings they can receive from the full blown telecom audit project.  There is no obligation to do business with us, although most companies that contact us see a 30 to 50 percent savings on their telecom expense right off the bat and that is huge for them.  I’m always amazed that so many businesses are still paying telephone companies like AT&T 70 to 80 cents per minute in default long distance charges  and don’t even think about it!”  Also, Evans continued, “during the month of September, we usually get a huge influx of telephone bills coming into our office for our free audit promotion (usually thereafter, most clients opt for a full blown audit because they want us to procure the telecom cost savings for them.”  The last financial quarter of the year for the telecom audit business is kind of like the busy tax season for Accountants, we see a lot of new clientele.   Moreover, we’re seeing   more blackberry audits and cell phone audits for business cost savings than we’ve ever experienced before, they are becoming quite popular and a very important part of our telecom expense management and telecom audit business.”

For example, the state of New Jersey recently realized 3.5 million dollars in telecommunications cost savings from their telecom audit.  The state of Virginia just realized over million dollars in six months’ recurring savings on their cell phone bills, just from unused cellphones.  We estimate based on data from research firms like Gartner Group and Aberdeen Research that U.S. companies can save close to 40 billion a year on telecom costs with a telecom audit.  These are telecom cost savings from telecommunication billing errors and inventory that continues to be wasted month after month, year after year.   This year, all we want is about 1 billion of that 40 billion dollar potential market from telecom audit savings.

In addition to free preliminary telecommunications audit specials, BottaBoom also offers telecom expense management (TEM) software and free presentations for companies interested in TEM software and services.  Contact the telecommunications audit experts today for your free introductory telecom audit.

Do you need smartphone policy consulting, a cell phone bill audit or a telecom audit project?  Contact the telecom audit experts at BottaBoom today.  You can call them at 1-888-487-5326 or visit this link at telecom audit contact page.

The comptroller audit said more than 19,000 phone lines, or nearly one in every six in 2009, should be disconnected because they go unused or are no longer needed. In addition, some telecommunications contracts have been renewed without the competitive bidding process as required by law, the audit said.

“The state is paying hundreds of thousands of dollars every month for phone lines that are not even being used,” said state comptroller Matthew Boxer. “Examples of government waste don’t get much clearer than that.”

Responding to the findings, state departments disconnected or suspended each of the phone or data lines at an overall yearly savings of more than $3.5 million.

One example of waste found by auditors included the state continuing to pay for the wireless line of a former employee for almost six years after her resignation. They also found:

• Over the course of one year, the state paid more than $250,000 in directory assistance fees when toll-free assistance was available.
• The state is owed more than $43,000 for data lines that were disconnected in 2008 and 2009. The state continued to be billed for lines even after they were disconnected.
• Many departments were not documenting the justification for paying for wireless devices for employees; about 19,000 devices — cell phones, Blackberrys and air cards — are currently assigned to executive branch employees.

Adel Ebeid, the state’s chief technology officer, said keeping track of unused lines is more difficult than it seems.

“Unfortunately we have no way of knowing which agency personnel are being hired, transferred, or terminated which is why the current policy places the notification responsibility with the individual designated by an agency to coordinate and manage their respective telecommunication services,” Ebeid wrote.

He said he has asked human resource managers to become involved with the issuance and termination of phone lines because they are familiar with the employment status of workers.

Ebeid also said memos have been sent in previous years, asking state employees to stop using the pay-per-use directory assistance service. He said he has contacted Verizon Wireless and asked them to block 411 directory assistance calls from all New Jersey state-issued phones.

The audit also found that the state renewed some of its major telecommunications contracts for more than a decade without opening the contracts up to competing bids as required by law.

Of four contracts reviewed, auditors found that each was extended at least seven times without going through the bidding process; one was extended 22 times without competitive bidding.

“The state has prevented fair vendor competition in its telecommunications contracts for more than a decade and essentially handed out a no-bid contract with each extension,” Boxer said. “As a result, the public cannot be sure that the state is getting a fair price.”

Ebeid said contract extensions were sought only after significant discounts were offered. As a result, he said, the state pays $12 million less than it did in 2007.

The comptroller’s report suggested that telephone coordinators in departments be required to periodically justify the need for all land lines not being used; review zero-usage reports and justify the need for those lines; and better monitor bills to make sure the state is not being billed for disconnected lines.

Information source: Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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Is your company ready to save millions of dollars in telecom cost savings? Does your company or government entity need a contingency-fee based telephone bill cost savings audit?  Call the telecommunication auditing professionals at 1-888-487-5326 or contact us at Telecom Audit. Get a free initial telecom cost savings review.