From: Ehud Gavron <GAVRON@ACES.COM> "No bible-toting fool who won't pay his bills will be in business long." - Ehud (look it up, it's in the same book.)
Enough with the Bible (and person) bashing. He said they were a charge for circuits never ordered. I've seen a bit of the same myself, and thus I believe him. I've also seem multiple installation charges for the same order, charges for interior cabling when I personally did the wiring from the network interface, and a fair number of other shenanigans. However, in this litiginous world, the correct approach is to pay the disputed billing, give them 5 days notice to refund the overcharge, and then sue them, including fees and costs. (Although I've never had to do this over $300K, which isn't exactly pocket change.) Fortunately, the Uniform Commercial Code gives a reasonable rate of return on the interest: 1% a month from date of filing. Somewhat better than I can get at the local bank.... I usually take plenty of time to conclude the dispute after filing, for that very reason. The big guys hold their very bigness over your head to force payment, so you might as well take advantage of their natural slowness. :-) Hopefully, he has a good lawyer. WSimpson@UMich.edu Key fingerprint = 17 40 5E 67 15 6F 31 26 DD 0D B9 9B 6A 15 2C 32 BSimpson@MorningStar.com Key fingerprint = 2E 07 23 03 C5 62 70 D3 59 B1 4F 5E 1D C2 C1 A2
On Tue, 26 Aug 1997, William Allen Simpson wrote:
However, in this litiginous world, the correct approach is to pay the disputed billing, give them 5 days notice to refund the overcharge, and then sue them, including fees and costs. (Although I've never had to do this over $300K, which isn't exactly pocket change.)
Side note on such carrier goofs, from a US West Fast Packet customer feedback seminar I attended the other year: the AZ Court System has a Frame Relay network of several hundred sites...they have an accountant on staff, working full time, who does nothing but catch and file claims on circuit billing errors....who more than pays for it in the refunds they get each month...although, of course, they bitched **endlessly** about it the whole day. This should give anyone who hasn't gotten hit by this yet a moments pause <<the moments pause is for remembering where you have all your old bills filed>> I personally have yet to do business with ANY telco carrier who hasn't screwed this kind of thing up on at least a quasi regular basis for data circuits. My last emplyer made disputed payments to various MCI units for almost a year to keep the pipes on (we were being double billed for most network elements, seems 2 different branches of MCI thought they were responsible for collecting payment for the same circuits....) When our initial contract was up and they tried to not renew it, our attorneys had a REAL nice talk with them, and refunds, favorable contract terms and a free install or 2 were forthcoming. (We didn't threaten court earlier due to capital issues, and yes we did sign an agreement such as the one Nathan mentioned, that the payments were in dispute, and were being made to continue service, NOT to settle the invoices in question). -David Mercer infiNETways, Inc. david@infinetways.net
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David Mercer -
William Allen Simpson