I was contacted on May 07 by Deb, "on behalf of Verizon" (so she said), stating that next month they were the new "bill provider" for Verizon, and needed to inform me directly, about the appearance & procedures of the new invoice. Several times during the conversation she told me not to worry b/c they *only* compiled & processsed invoicing on Verizon's behalf.
Low & behold my next phone bill was completely out of whack, a half an inch thick & we had a new long distance provider, effective May 07, and they were charging me more than double. My average telephone bill (for 4 lines & a fax), prior to May 7, was in the $300-500 range... This telephone bill was for over $1400!!!
I called the contact number for USBI, and asked, "Who are you and why are you my new long distance carrier?" Sarah informed me that the change had been authorized by me on May 7. I disagreed, since I had taken the time to write all this down, and that I had been contacted about BILLING, not LONG DISTANCE. Sarah responded that they do not do any billing out of that office. I told her that she might want to consider a new job b/c her employers business practices were shady, bid her "Goodnight", and hung up.
I immediately called Verizon (while Sarah called me back on the other line, informing my co-worker that the only way I could only cancel service was directly with USBI) and Shelia at Verizon informed me that Customer Service had been inundated recently with complaints about USBI, and yes, indeed, I had been slammed.
Shelia was very kind & refunded $1100, put a freeze on my account, reinstated my previous plans & long-distance carrier.
On my phone bill, USBI was listed in the heading, another spot said USBI was the clearinghouse for Network Service Bill, and in another spot it says I have selected Alliance Group as my long distance provider.
I am familiar with & have heard the warnings about slamming, and I am usually very careful about any telemarketing call, but this company flat out lied about their intentions.
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