Cramming and Slamming

Your telephone bill can include charges from service providers other than the phone company. For example, your broadband Internet bill may be included although the company is unrelated to the telephone company. If your bill includes charges from other companies for services you never ordered, you have been "crammed." Notify the phone company immediately. You are not responsible for unauthorized charges.

TIP: Some telephone companies have the ability to "bill block." You can request bill blocking, which prevents extra services from being placed on your bill without direct confirmation from you.

"Slamming" is the illegal practice of changing a consumer's telephone service without the consumer's authorization. Both local and long distance services can be "slammed" by another phone company. Under FCC rules, consumers have some protections against slammers, including:

• the right to withhold payment from the slamming company and your regular phone company for 30 days; and
• if you did pay the slammer, the right to a refund from the slamming company that amounts to 150 percent of the charges.

What should we do if our telephone service has been slammed?

Call the slamming company and inform them you will not be paying for the first 30 days of charges (per FCC rules) and tell them to transfer your telephone service back to the original company.

TIP: You must notify your original telephone company and inform them you have been slammed. Request that you be reinstated to your original plan without any change of service charges.

SIDEBAR: To file a slamming complaint with the FCC, go to www.fcc.gov/slamming/.