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Review 3/3/2011
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I've had an experience quite similar to the other reviewers. Our business has 2 branch stores in other cities and I am the accounting manager for the corporation. United Telecom claimed to have received authorization to assess charges for an unlimited long distance plan that were billed to us through a 3rd party (USBI) and appeared on our AT&T bill. However, it was obvious that the "authorization" they claimed to have received was fabricated. The recording was "pieced" together from a conversation they had with a delivery employee at one of our branch stores. Each affirmative response by this employee on the recording sounded exactly the same as all the others as if it had been recorded and then "inserted" over and over again in the places they needed an affirmative response. Additionally, the recording played had him stating his position at that branch store as "Manager." He was not the manager and even if he was, the manager of a branch store does not have any authority to make changes to ANY billing at all for our corporation. Only corporate officers can do that. The fact that this company fabricated the recording is proof enough to me that they are engaged in completely unethical business practices. However, let's just say for arguments sake that this delivery employee of ours actually spoke to them and lied about his position and really agreed to everything as it was portrayed in the recording. Shouldn't United Telecom have a responsibility to ensure that the people they are getting "authorization" from actually have the authority to grant such authorization?
Well, let's say they aren't required to do that either. At the very least, I know that a business is required to actually provide the services they are charging you for. United Telecom was charging $92.33 (total with taxes, fees, and all) per month for an "unlimited long distance plan." Well, our corporation has documentation on our AT&T bill of each and every long distance call made and they are itemized with charges per minute for the call. We have copies of our canceled checks showing where we submitted payment to AT&T for the per minute charges for all long distance calls. So, we obviously weren't benefiting from ANY sort of unlimited long distance plan. Our bill was not reduced in the slightest; It simply increased $92.33!
Thankfully, if these charges appear on your AT&T bill, as it did on ours, AT&T will credit the "3rd party" charges, but it is not without some very time consuming effort. In our case, this has been a 6 month long battle. AT&T's 3rd party blocks are not always effective (as evidenced by our experience) and you may be stuck with having to spend many frustrated hours on the phone trying to track the originating company that is billing the charges and then trying to get things straightened out.
The ONLY good thing I can say about this company is that they have allegedly agreed to credit back the charges in response to our BBB complaint. I can not confirm that they have done so yet (since they claim it will take up to 60 business days for the credit to appear) so I am still waiting to see if they live up to even ONE claim they make. However, they behave as if this credit is a "favor" they are doing for us; they called it a "courtesy & good will gesture." I call it reimbursement for unauthorized charges that were billed unethically in the first place. I really believe reimbursement is not sufficient and restitution should also be paid to compensate for the enormous amount of time and resources we wasted trying to track the source of these charges down and then making complaints to have them ceased and the previous charges credited. United Telecom has not even responded to any of the accusations of unethical practices and fraud we have made against them, they simply ignore that part of the complaint.
United Telecom is a prime example of unethical business practices and most likely even fraud. Even their company website is a warning as it looks like a haphazard template quickly pieced together and is incomplete in several areas: http://www.utelinc.com/ I believe they absorb what losses they sustain through conciseness consumers' complaints and still turn a profit on the back of the unsuspecting customer that isn't as vigilant about checking the details of their bill and/or is unaware of how to stop them/seek reimbursement. If I had any clue how to seek legal justice against this company, I would. I have serious concerns as to how a company like this is allowed to continue these obscenely unethical practices, especially when they have working phone numbers and a business address that can be tracked.
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