I was a victim of Talent and More too. I was billed $20.00 a month for a service I did not sign up for and did not even know about. I called the number I was given by the phone company when I called to complain. The first number simply referred me to a second number which was answered supposedly by Talent and More. They were very evasive and when I asked for their address I was put on hold. After 20 minutes I hung up.
I never paid one cent of these third party charges and sent a letter along with my monthly payment (less the $20.00) tell them why.
My question is this "How Libel is the Phone Company?
All phone companies have been aware of Talent and More for well over a year. This is a nationwide scam and and worse yet the choice is completely out of the consumer's hands.
When I called the phone company and asked them about this I was told that it was their responsibility to simply add on the third party charges to the customer's bill at the request of the third party company. I asked the phone company rep how much money the phone company collected for doing this and was told that the phone company did this as a favor to the companies billing for the charges.
A favor? In other words the phone company is going to use manpower to add the charges to customer's bills, collect the third party charges, and mail them to the third party company all for nothing... All for a favor? I think not. No company does something of this magnitude as a favor.
When I asked about this I was told the phone company has an obligation to these third party companies to do this. My question is just who do the phone company have an obligation to? It seems to me the first obligation is to protect their customers. I am sure they don't handle long distance charges from phone companies for a favor, and I am sure they check them out before they deal with them.
Were Talent and More a one time thing it might be forgivable but this scam has been going on for a long time and phone companies have gotten thousands of complaints. I can'[t but wonder if their "Thank you" from companies like Talent and More is a percentage of what they collect and if they have weighed this against the cost of handling customer complaints. If so, then then they are banking that there are a lot of people out there who do not check their phone bills and just pay whatever is due.
There are millions of phones in America. If just 20,000 customers paid that $20.00 a month for a year that would bring in close to $5,000, 000.00 a year. With a population of over 300 million it's a sure thing that far more than 20,000 people have paid and are still paying these third party charges with no idea what they are paying for.
This is too big and too long lasting a scam for phone companies to ignore and I believe that their first obligation is to the consumers. If, as they claim, they must do this "favor" by law, it is my feeling it is their obligation to check out the companies they are dealing with and this is especially true because of the number of complaints they receive about Talent and More.
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