Errors Make Millions for Phone Companies

DOYLESTOWN, Penn. – Business owners and managers regularly analyze their expenses and find ways to reduce costs, but even though telecommunications represent a major expense they are at a loss to be able to find the many errors that are on phone bills.

There are now over 1,000 different long-distance companies and over 500 local phone companies, and the variety of services and costs have never been more confusing. Companies typically sign up for a service they carefully select and then assume the bills they receive are accurate and correct.

The phone companies have a vested interest in waiting for you to complain before they tell you about errors on your bill. Most people and companies never spot those errors so the companies make an additional profit,” explained Frank Stoczko, telecommunications expense consultant.

Statistics show that only about 2 percent of companies discover errors on their phone bills, but one study showed that at least 80 percent of bills have errors. Phone companies quickly resolve the errors that are reported to them, but they wait for customers to discover those errors on their own.

I have often seen the same error from the same phone company on the bills of more than one of my clients. Even though they have corrected the error when we make the request, they clearly make no effort to determine if their other many customers are also being billed the wrong amount,” said Stoczko.

There is no risk or expense for a company to receive a complete analysis of all telecommunications bills. Most companies do not have time or knowledge to search for these errors, so it makes good business sense to let a specialized consultant do the work on a contingency fee basis.

Stoczko said he finds savings or error reimbursements on at least 80 percent of the bills he examines, and his clients typically recover 20 percent or more on their past and future bills.

Stoczko is not associated with any telecom vendors and does not try to sell clients new services. He is an independent consultant and provides more information on his web site at www.LowerPhoneBills.net.