Best of the ISP-Lists

Bad Bills From Bad Companies

Members of the ISP-Marketing list share bad billing experiences with companies whose managers are now behind bars, such as Aldelphia, or under indictment, such as WorldCom.

[August 15, 2002]

On the ISP-Marketing list in July, PJ inquired,

"I'm looking for information on Adelphia: anything good, bad, or ugly?"

JH summed up their current situation in one sentence:

"They are in bankruptcy, their stock has been delisted, the founders have been arrested, and there are criminal investigations into their dealings."

A number of respondents added that Adelphia's billing practices have been particularly frustrating:

[PF warned] "Not only are they bankrupt and firing people left and right, but their billing is terrible. I've had billing issues since 1999, and of the 5 to 10 people I know that have used Adelphia, all have had at least one major (over $1000) billing issue. Many of them have used billing issues to break contracts: they are that sloppy with billing."

[PS recalled] "On several occasions, they sold us services that they were unable to provide, then billed us for these un-provided services for months or years afterwards. All in all, they were able to convince me that their organization does not possesses any redeeming qualities."

Others contended that WorldCom's billing issues easily exceed Adelphia's:

[BK asked] "You think $1000 is a major billing issue? I'll trade you that for our $30,000 billing issue with WorldCom. When I heard newscasters say there were allegations that WorldCom was over-billing and billing for circuits that had been disconnected for years. I fell off my chair laughing: that was me! I disconnected five DS1s before they were even installed, and then they turned up my DS3 two months before the contract date—and they are still billing me for all of that, even after I've talked to five different billing/sales/collection employees. They all confirmed that I didn't owe anything, and yet it's still there—no doubt they are showing this on the books as income!"

[GC recalled] "Three years ago, I finally had a $81,000 taken off my WorldCom bill: they were billing me for frame relay circuits that had been turned down for years. It took me forever to get that taken off my bill."

[RK laughed] "Wow, that's a first: a billing dispute resolved with WorldCom? Last time I checked, I had two boxes full of disputed invoices. I made the unfortunate mistake of switching local service to them, and they charged us per minute on every local call. The sad thing is, when dealing with WorldCom, I came to find out 12 departments were involved in generating my consolidated bill, and no rep could look up what I was billed. I told my business partner years ago that I saw a train wreck in WorldCom's future: if you can't properly bill your clients, your business is doomed."

— End