Consumer Telcom

U.S. Billing contacted me by phone selling some kind of long distance plan that would save me on my phone bill. They assured me that all I had to do was enjoy the benefits of a smaller phone bill.

I have my telephone bill deducted from my checking account and very rarely look at my bill unless it appears to be much higher than usual. When I finally sat down to analyze my bill, I noticed that I was being charged for two long distance carriers AT&T (my original carrier) and U.S. Billing (the one that promised all the savings). I looked back on all of my previous statements and noticed that I had never even used U.S. Billing as a carrier. I was paying for two long distance carriers.

I immediately contacted U.S. Billing and they tried to talk me into staying with them. I refused and they said they would call me back after they spoke with my local carrier. That never happened. I called again to cancel for the second time. They gave me some song and dance about how I would see them on my bill several more times even though this was two months after I first tried to cancel. l then contacted my local carrier and they said that they would credit me for some of the charges.

Three months later, I receive a bill in the mail from Consumer Telcom, Inc. saying that I owe them $82.45 for services that I never used. I contacted them again. They are very well trained and do not deviate from the SCAM. This cancellation process has been going on for over six months.

I will never again do business with anyone associated with this company. I will never again trust anyone seeking my business by phone. They have taken advantage of me and wasted countless hours of my time.

I switched my service to a bundle pack from AT&T U-verse. (Great Service by the way.) Consumer Telcom, Inc. continued to bill even though I no longer use their service at all. Whose responsibility? Consumer Telcom, Inc. will say it's you, the consumer. (Mind you, the whole PDF form states that in a widespread, lawyer talk way. Do they inform you prior to a billed invoice (which they take advantage of the 30-day only billing)? No. Then to cancel, I see that may be in question, too. Remember that whole 30-day thing, no prorates no days usage. I get it at least. Yes, and talk about rude service. Well, like they say, if you shop at a $1 store you get what you pay for, which to most of us is junk.

Want to be a better company, better service and no. 1, then inform your customers in writing (like you want us to) about your services before anyone signs on. My only mistake was trusting my original service. You said they referred you to me. Wrong. Anyone can do that. I let them know your practices. Like any legal document, it can be written but if you don't follow it, who cares. Consumers are going to care. You're saving people money you say, I say, even though with these times, I'd rather pay for Great service. Thank goodness for professional service I can see clearly how this all went. And your one that I would have not went with in the first place. (kind of like a bad blind date).

On 4-18-08, AT&T contacted these people to tell them to stop putting a charge on my bill. They had redirected my long distance to themselves, and it was billed under USBI. I am 86 years old, and thought it was AT&T giving me a better deal and they let me think that.

They resumed this same billing in June 2010, and billed for the months of July and August 2010, as well. My bill kept getting higher, so I called AT&T on 8-19-2010, to see why, and she pointed out the USBI charge on my bill. I spoke with Ms.**. A 3-way call was placed to the TelCom # and a man named Jose answered the call and was very rude. We ask for a supervisor, and he placed us with Andrew, whose ext. # was **. After much conversation, he said he would cancel the service and gave us the cancellation # **.

I just received my October bill and it has a charge of $11.62 for the month of August. Please help me get rid of these people.

This customer switched her long distance. Our company re-sells long distance. There is a third party verification which is recorded, and not affiliated with CST. The customer is told that this is a switch in their long distance. If the customer says no, then there is no switch. What confuses the customer, is that they continue to received their AT&T bill with the charges for all the long distance they use from CST. There is a billing portion from your local telephone company called "Other Providers" where CST's charges are integrated onto the bill.

A customer cannot call AT&T to cancel CST's service, as we tell our Customers clearly, (and you can hear on the third party verification tape if you call in and ask us to play it) that we are not affiliated to your local phone company! Most people do not remember having gone through the authorization until they hear the third party verification.

This is a limited use Long Distance program for people who use 30 minutes or less of long distance in a month. It is not for everyone. Some people use more. When a customer disputes our charges with the local phone company, the phone company rejects the charges, returning these valid charges to our company. Once we received these charges back from the local phone company, (usually a few months after they were removed), we send out a separate bill to collect those charges that were removed.

Anytime you want to cancel with CST you can call directly, and cancel. However you must call CST not AT&T. AT&T cannot reimburse or remove charges. They can only dispute them. Have a rep from CST audit your bill and tell you if they carried any of your calls. Trust me they do. This is not a scam or a rip off. This is a legitimate company and we actually help a lot of people save money on their phone bills. Now if you use a lot of long distance, this is not for you.

I have tried to cancel my service with them since last September telling them that I do not need long distance service and would like for it to be removed from my ATT bill. AT&T sent the request to them and they honored the dispute. AT&T took the charge off the bill. Each month that followed, I kept receiving the charge on my bill, were I called repeatedly month after month to cancel the service.

I called AT&T, I called USBI, then I received a bill from consumer telcom for $17.98. When calling the number questioning the bill, I was told rudely if I would have just paid my bills I would not have this problem. They were rude and say that they do it to customers all the time.