25 March 2008
Adeline LevineYour call is very important to us...
The other day, I glanced over my most recent Verizon telephone bill and it seemed higher than the previous month’s by about $14. First, I noticed a charge for “busy redial” for 75 cents. I was puzzled because we never pay to have numbers redialed, it’s a waste of money and we can hit the redial button on the phone quite well, gnarled as our fingers may be, thank you very much.
Then I saw a charge for $12.95 on a section in the phone bill that I had never seen before, titled OAN. Under OAN services it stated that on 1/15 at 8:34 and at 8:35 AM we had called “Dir Assist NV”, 1 minute for each call and each one $5.49. The result, $10.98 was topped up by a $1.65 “USF Carrier Admin Fee” for a total of $12.95. Curiouser and curioser. I had absolutely no idea of what we were being billed for.
I phoned Verizon. Ah, the joys of the automated answering service! After a wait of some 22 minutes, interspersed repeatedly by a canned message about the importance of my call and instructions to stay on the line or risk starting the entire process over again, I finally heard the voice of a live human being (L.H.B.). I almost wept with relief: help at last. After I convinced her that neither I nor anyone else had ever requested redialing services, she agreed to remove the 75 cent charge. Turning next to the larger problem, I told the L.H.B. about the OAN billing of $12.95, and she expressed some bafflement. Why was I calling Verizon about this matter? Why? Because Verizon was asking me for $12.95 and I wanted to know why was there was a bill for services from some place called OAN added to the Verizon bill. She told me that Verizon routinely puts bills from other phone services on their bills. When I asked who or what OAN is she replied that she had no idea what OAN was. “Ma’am” she explained, “we have over 2000 long distance phone companies and we cannot keep track of every one.” The L.H.B. recommended that I call OAN directly -- their number was on the Verizon bill.
Now I felt hot on the trail. Soon I learned that OAN stands for “Operator Assistance Network” or maybe “Operator Assisted Network.” OAN is not a service provider, but a billing agency which sent the charges to my local phone company from some company which had provided us a service. “Charges for what and from whom?” I asked. The OAN person did not know so I asked for the supervisor. The supervisor told me that we must have called 10-15-15-800 and twice asked for directory assistance. Now, this could not have happened because of an accidental slip of a finger onto a wrong key. In addition we don’t even use Verizon for long distance calls. She was unconvinced about the possibility that OAN could have made a mistake, but she was willing to expunge the charges.
The OAN supervisor did divulge the name of the source of the charges. The company’s name is “Calling 101515800”; they had submitted the charges to the billing agency, OAN, who then sent them on to Verizon. I phoned the number the OAN supervisor had given me for “Calling 101515800” and was told that it is impossible for them to make an error and that someone definitely had used our phone to get directory assistance (at only $5.49 per minute plus $1.65 for billing charges, I must have invited the neighbors in to make the calls.)
When we complained to the Federal Communications Commission, they snapped into action by sending an e-mail response: a screen with 3 pictures of the FCC logo. When I clicked on the appropriate spot, the three logos circled around each other, period. I am losing hope that we will get to the bottom of this mystery. Meanwhile, check your bills; I plan to from now on.
Copyright 2008 by Buffalo Report, Inc.