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Qwest Phone Bill Scam

7th March 2006

One of our Portland web hosting customers got this on her home Qwest bill this past month.

The following transaction is billed on behalf of:

GLOBAL YP

GlobalYP GldBizPlnMoFee - $34.99  The Billing Resource Misc Charge and Credits 

Since PDXTC is her web host, she called to see if I knew anything about them, which I did not - However, here’s what she found out by calling Qwest -

Qwest will remove the charge if asked. That’s it!  Isn’t that nice of them?  This should not even be legal, in my book.

Check your phone bill immediately, and call Qwest and tell them that you would appreciate no charges ever get added to your bill without your advanced knowledge and approval. what a ripoff! 

This is the company - (http://www.globalyp.net/)  that has somehow worked out this scam with Qwest. The phone number is a call center located in India.

GlobalYP.Net
1540 Market Street Suite 435
San Francisco, CA 94102
US and Canada:1.800.672.9588

Is this another good reason to dump Qwest forever and use Vonage instead?


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8 Responses to “Qwest Phone Bill Scam”

  1. Dan Says:

    I received this on a business phone bill. I wrote Qwest and asked them to remove the charge. They wrote back saying “regretfully we cannot answer questions about their portion of your Qwest bill. Please call your carrier directly at 1 888 296-8079 for prompt resolution of this matter.” I haven’t had a chance to do so yet, but in the meantime they charged me another 34.99 for a service I never ordered, AND had the audacity to charge interest on the 34.99 that I didn’t pay on the last bill.

     

  2. Scott Says:

    Yes, that’s right! It will continue to charge interest on unpaid portions, and coul;d eventually disconnect your phone.

    The company to be upset with is Qwest. They are billing, obviously getting a cut of the money, yet won’t answer questions?

    That’s another reason why I use Vonage at home, with my Comcast internet service and have dumped Qwest for good.

    Unfortunately, businesses might be stuck with Qwest DSL or phone lines.

    After Qwest removes the charge, watch for it to keep coming back…

     

  3. John Says:

    It is really unfortunate there are people like you guys talking, when it is painfully obvious you are not aware LEC’s like Qwest are REQUIRED to bill for these long distance providers.. You see, companys like GlobalYp use LD carriers or billing groups to do the billing, I would suspect that the billing companys are recieving some cut of monies charged. Qwest will not turn your service off for non-telecommunication bills un-paid. I agree it is a pain to call month after month. But persistance is important once it starts to prevent future billing. I would also suggest that any of you business owners out there to educate all of your employees to be careful to never never never verify ANYTHING over the found when someone calls them.

     

  4. Scott Says:

    Okay John, let me get this straight…

    You say that it’s “really unfortunate there are people like you guys talking”. Huh?

    What’s unfortunate about me alerting people that they may be paying for unwanted services?

    If you’re pointing out that someone may have agreed to this over the phone, I can’t fault your logic there, but to suggest that it’s unfortunate that we’re discussing it is absurd. Are you, a majority stockholder or employee of GlobalYP or something?

    And OF COURSE Qwest is getting a piece of the action. Why else would they do it?

    While we’re on the subject…
    Who is it that REQUIRES Qwest to bill for someone’s online yellow page ad? For that matter, what even gives them the RIGHT to bill for something like this? We’re not talking about long distance here.

    Is it the State or Federal government? The FCC? Who does the small business owner complain to? They can’t be expected to call Qwest every month!

     

  5. Chameleon Says:

    Thank you for this information… It confirmed what I already suspected; that these calls we’ve received are a scam.

    Each time I’ve asked them some questions about what it is they are actually providing and such.

    They claim that they are simply updating our existing record in their directory, yet when I asked her to give me the website so I could look for myself, I did not find any entry for us there.

    I’m going to demand they remove us from their list to call on.

     

  6. Amos Picker Says:

    ATT is a partner to this scam. The include it in their billing, with their logo. Time we all join in a class action suit to get these thieves out of business. I intend to file action on my own for $50,000,000.00 to get them out of business. But the culprits are not the scammers.The phone companies which hostes them throught innocent looking billings are the sources for the scam.
    510-793-8600

     

  7. Amos Picker replier Says:

    Amos,

    I hope you are sincere in your intentions.

    So you will file a class action of
    $50,000,000.

    Will you pocket $49,000,000 and give the rest
    to the people you are “protecting”?

    Is that your intention?

    Or are you different?

    Tell us…. how will you distribute this $50,000,000?

    How much will you charge for your “services”???

    Tell us.

    I think you are one of the honest folks. But can
    you please reassure the readers?

    If you are strictly pro-bono, I think that would be best,,,, yes???

     

  8. Scott Says:

    Why not just call Amos and see for yourself?

     

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