Calling for better cell phone service Remember the Lily Tomlin character Ernestine the Operator? She responded to callers’ complaints with, "We don't care. We don't have to. We're the phone company." The Ma Bell monopoly may be gone, but too many consumers still have to deal with an Ernestine the Operator attitude in the deregulated telecommunications market. Kathleen Brooks of Medford, Ore., said she was exhausted after "slogging through a customer service nightmare" with her cell phone company. Her $65 monthly bill inexplicably shot up to $350. Brooks says she talked to a number of customer service representatives, most of whom were unable to help her understand her bill. In the end, she paid $734 for what she says were largely erroneous and unexplained charges before switching carriers. Last year, telecommunications consumers filed tens of thousands of complaints about local, long-distance, and wireless phone service with state and federal regulators and consumer protection agencies. Complaints regarding billing, advertising, fraud, and service quality top the list of problems reported. Consumers Union is advocating reforms that will improve service and enhance competition in telecommunications markets. On the federal level, we've endorsed the effort of Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) to enact legislation that would help consumers who have problems with cell phone service. The bill would address add-on fees and service-coverage maps. In California, we support a Telecommunications Consumer Bill of Rights that could become a model for states, the traditional enforcers of consumer protection laws. It would require all telecommunications companies, including wireless carriers, to disclose service and price information fully and in plain language and readable type, provide accurate bills that clearly label fees, and provide prompt and fair resolution of billing problems. It is no surprise that telecommunications companies, especially wireless carriers, oppose these reforms. What look like common-sense good business practices to us, the wireless carriers call unjustified. They even commissioned a report that says, "There is no evidence of consumer harm in the wireless market." But consumer pressure does make a difference. A case in point is the federal ruling that will allow consumers to take their cell phone numbers along when switching carriers (known as "number portability"). In surveys conducted by CU and others, many consumers indicated that what stopped them from switching carriers for a better deal is the fact that they would have to change their phone number. After winning more than four years of delays, wireless carriers continued to lobby regulators, Congress, and the courts to push off the ruling's November 2003 implementation deadline. But five months before number portability was scheduled to begin, Verizon Wireless broke ranks with the industry and said that it would no longer oppose--and would support--number portability. Why the change of heart? "Our customers tell us they want it," CEO Dennis Strigl said. It's time now for more telecom companies to lose the Ernestine the Operator attitude and give consumers what they are calling
for: Better service and more competitive offers. We'll be watching.
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