Pacific Bell Enforcement of Tariff

In its Opening Brief, Greenlining urges this Commission to aggressively enforce existing rules and laws against cramming, particularly the rules and laws designed to safeguard customer choice and to protect customers from unauthorized charges. Among the existing rules and laws are the tariffs under which Pacific Bell provides billing and collection services.

Pacific Bell's billing and collection service business generates substantial revenues, and Pacific Bell's shareholders benefit from this business. The tariffs approved by this Commission, as well as the statutes, require that Pacific Bell bill only authorized charges. We insist that Pacific Bell enforce its tariffs to the letter to afford customers the level of protection mandated by those tariffs and statutes. We also insist that Pacific Bell enforce its tariffs in a timely fashion. We note here that Pacific Bell took almost two years to suspend USP&C's billing contract. During this time, USP&C continued to have access to end-user customers' local telephone bills and to bill them over $ 51 million. Prompt termination of noncompliant billing agents is essential to proper enforcement of this tariff and these statutes.

We also direct Pacific Bell to change its tariffs to preclude another subterfuge that USP&C attempted. When confronted by Pacific Bell with its excessive refund rates, USP&C announced that it was attempting to secure clients that billed for "1+" calls. According to USP&C, these billings traditionally have a much lower customer refund rate, and USP&C wanted to use these billings to "dilute" their other billings with higher refund rates. A billing agent whose activity results in excessive levels of refunds and end-user customer complaints must address the cause of those refunds and complaints. USP&C's subterfuge was intended to enable continued "business as usual" with the service providers whose unauthorized charges were causing the complaints.

To prevent any other billing agent from indulging in a similar subterfuge, we hereby direct Pacific Bell to revise its tariffs to preclude this practice.