My phone bill was approximately $15 higher than my previous billing has been. I got to checking the itemized list of charges and noticed that under "Billing Summary" ILD Teleservices was charging $14.95. I wondered what in the world is this! Finally on page 4 of 4, I found under Current Charges I was being billed on Behalf of Voice Mail Professionals, Inc a monthly fee of $14.95. Calls to several different numbers finally got me to a living person.
ILD, the billing service for AT&T informed me that they had been notified by Voice Mail Professionals that I had signed up for their service. I finally got a number to call for VMP. I called them, got a live person and asked why I was being billed. The associate said that the records showed that I had applied on line and she gave the email address that was given.
It was an address that I had two years ago and was not valid. When I asked if they validated the address to see if it was even good, she said that they didn't do that. So, anyone could give any address. Apparently the other information was correct, at least enough for me to get billed for something that I didn't order myself.
I have no idea who or why someone would do this, other than to be a jackass and cause old people fits and cause them to be out financially. What a shame. I asked that the order for them to record voice mails coming in on my phone to be cancelled immediately.
AT&T does not check with the customer when a third party charge comes up. I was told that they couldn't do that because of Federal Regulatory Laws. There is no telling how many hundred of people, especially the elderly who are being ripped off, and have been ever since AT&T started using ILD to handle their billing.
I hope that AT&T can, if I request, not to add any third party billing to my bill. They should be happy to do anything possible to stop unauthorized practices like Voice Mail Professionals is doing. If anyone can contact them and give an email address, name and any other false information for personal gain of some sort, and people be charged for something they don't want, surely the FCC or some Federal entity overseeing the communications world can do something.
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