National one telecom?

the other day in the mail i got a bill from national one telecom, telling me i accessed one of their pay per view sites. but inever did. the day and time specified, there was no one even at my house. and there is no number to get back to them or anything. never once on my computer did a site say it was pay per view, nor did i go to a site out of the ordinary...is this a scam? i dont really know where else to ask on this board.

 

Hello,

I am the customer service manager at National One Telecom, Inc. Although there is no phone number on the bill, there is a website url where customers are supposed to gain access to our customer service system to have any billing questions answered.

If you prefer please post your invoice number here and I will have someone call you within 72 hours to answer all your questions and resolve any problems that you may have.

 

There you go....... of all the forums ! Customer Manager arrives

 

This is a SCAM!!! DO NOT PAY!

I got a bill too. Asked for web site and name of software. They gave me the website, not in history. Would not give name of software, checked to see if there was anything new... Nothing

My phone bill DID NOT have add'l charges on, like they said it would. Checked w/my phone company, they said I wasn't on the phone at that time. In addition they said MOST phone services DO NOT ALLOW third party billing, which this is!!! They wouldn't have let this go through. They advised me to contact FTC, State Attorney General's Office, and the credit bureaus. I did just that and contacted my local news station and sent an e mail to Bill O'Reilly about it!!

Also, used prepaid phone card to call the number listed on the bill. Wonder what I heard at the other end. THIS NUMBER DOES NOT EXIST!!!!

Looked up the company list in Dallas, not there, not anywhere!!!!

As soon as I sent an e mail stating that I had contacted FTC, State Attorney General's Office, Credit Bureau's, etc. I promptly got an e mail back saying they made a mistake.... DARN RIGHT YOU DID!!! Keep in mind their website says they almost never make mistakes. They only make mistakes when a phone line has just been switched over to another. Most phone companies leave numbers inactive for 6 months before reassigning.

It was also OBVIOUS they got my name out of the phone book b/c it is misspelled in the phone book, but correct on my actual phone bill. HAD IT ACTUALLY HAPPENED, THEY WOULD HAVE HAD THE RIGHT INFO.

I cannot stress it enough, when you get a bill from someone you don't know, google it, check FTC website, call anyone else involved. These people try to blame it on kids or grandkids. Check with your phone carrier. Tell them you have to investigate on your own to make sure it is really real. A good company would POLITELY give you all the info you need.

I believe in capitalism and entrepenuerism. But this is STEALING!!!

Even if you paid this bill you can go back to the FTC, etc. with your canceled check.

 

Kirsten, I just got a bill in the mail very similar to yours and have been fighting with some jerk over emails about the charge. Whatever happened with your battle? I couldn't get one piece of info. out of this guy.
Thanks, Kudraet.

 

I'm not sure where you got your information from, but we are not a scam. Furthermore we are incorporated and do business in New Hampshire. If you want look up our corporate records with Experian. Our PO BOX in Dallas is simply a lockbox for collecting payments, nothing else.

A refund has been issued to you, so why are you making a big deal about this on a public forum? You do realize that calling a legitimate company a "scam" on a public forum is libel right?

Please cease such statements immediately or we will have our legal counsel contact you in regards to this.

If you are using a CLEC or are with a LEC that we do not have billing agreements with, we do use alternate sources to pull up your billing info. These sources may contain billing errors, so if someone brings them to our attention we do try our best to correct them.

Do you happen to have your ticket number handy? I would like to review exactly what one of our customer service rep said so I can find out what exactly caused this misunderstanding. I do apologize for the frustration.

As for "Kudraet" have you received charges on your local phone bill or an invoice from us? If you received an invoice please give me your invoice number. If you received charges on your local phone bill, please contact the customer service number listed for more information.

In both cases you may also got our website www.nationalone.com

 

Is that more to your liking Telcom Guy. That is a FACTUAL statement. I have it in writing for your company. The rest of the post was my FACTUAL experience with your company. So there, I retract my "scam" statement. But the facts REMAIN.

No! I am not going to give you my ticket number!! That is PERSONAL acct information....

My phone company has MY NAME correct. I fail to see how you could have possibly gotten the wrong info when you supposedly went through the right company.

So, I got my bill written off... I should be happy... how many other incorrect bills did you send out??? People have every right to question bills from companies for services the never received. Haven't you noticed all these people say they didn't receive any service. I am inclined to believe them over your company, since my experience tells me they are telling the truth.
I am making such a BIG deal out of this b/c it has happened to me before... Or rather my husband. Remeber the "Jamaican" fortune teller that used to advertise in the middle of the night??? My husband got a bill from her company. Right from the word GO they were threatening legal action, on the first billing (just like Y'all do!). Here was their problem: My husband has NEVER had a phone, or any other utility in his name. (Yet they claimed to use the same technology as you.) He has no bills in his name. Second problem, the phone number this was billed to had been SHUTOFF 4 YEARS BEFORE the transaction was said to have occured. So, lets ask ourselves a question, where else would they have gotten his name from?? Hmmm, MAYBE a telemarketing list seems real obvious to me!!!

Now I wonder where that Jamaican woman went to??? JAIL for BILLING FRAUD. It was on the national news. I DID get a letter from the Florida State Att. Gen.'s office stating that this would not be on my husband's credit report AS IT DID NOT HAPPEN.

To Everyone else on this that reads this:

ask yourself these questions:

what time of day was this transaction said to have happened and what day?

Weird time on a work night?

How many other companies threaten you with legal action on first contact?

For me, only these two.

Double check YOUR phone carriers bill. Is there a corresponding charge?

not for me.

Call your phone carrier. Was this call made, maybe it hasn't been billed yet?

Nope.

What do they suggest you do about it?

Mine said to contact the FTC, State Attorney general, and credit Bureaus. I did just that.

Take a peekie boo at the FTC's website (ftc.gov), what do they say about fraudulent billing with internet companies? Does anything seem similar?

Rang clear as a bell for me.

When i told these guys I had done that I IMMEDIATELY got back an e mail apologising for THEIR "mistake."

Now put it all together, what do you get? Go with the obvious.

These are reasonable and legitimate questions for someone to ask themselves when they get a bill for a company they have never heard of before.

In closing, I'm sure the Jamaican lady had plenty of other correct billing.

I worry about other people, it upsets me to see others get taken advantage of... Especially, seniors. They would just pay it, never ask, because they don't WANT to think poorly of anyone or anything. This stuff makes me absolutely INDIGNANT.

 

I'm sorry but our service is neither a scam nor do we make a large number of errors. With major LECs we have absolutely no problems. CLECs and smaller LECs are more tricky I admit. We handle a large volume of traffic on a daily basis, our grand total number of billing error is about 1.5% if you factor in both LEC and CLEC customers.

As for your ticket number, no that is NOT private information. We assigned you a ticket number on our customer service system, so how is that information private? It sounds to me like you're not even a customer of ours but someone just trolling the boards OR you are only telling the board the half truth.

I assume by "that Jamaican lady" you mean Miss Cleo? Well like I said in my first post, it sounds like you are a CLEC customer. It is harder to bill for CLEC customers which is why more billing errors occur with CLEC customers.

Also no Miss Cleo did not goto jail. For starters she doesn't own the company, she's just an actress. Second, the FTC filed a civil suit against the company which does not equate to jail time.

Look if you want to criticize something that's fine, but it is libelous to call our business a scam because it's not.

Edit: "Second problem, the phone number this was billed to had been SHUTOFF 4 YEARS BEFORE the transaction was said to have occured."

Did you tell our customer service rep that the phone number they billed was shut off? And they didn't give you a refund?

If that's the case I do want to apologize because that is not the acceptable protocol. Since you refuse to give me a ticket number I can't even take action against the rep who did this.

Like I said this happens from time to time. Someone else got your 4 year old phone number and happened to be using a CLEC, made the call using our service and we pulled up the billing information using an alternate BNA source due to the number being assigned by the CLEC. The alternate BNA source had your information on it instead of the customer who is the actual owner of the number now, and we mailed out the invoice to you. This of course was a mistake.

 

O.K. National One person.. I can't seem to read my private message so i'm not sure if Kirsten or you sent it, but I'll try and elaborate on my problem. I received an invoice from you guys and not my phone company. I have never heard of you guys before nor did I make the phone call I was charged for. I'll even give you my invoice number since "George" at your email end was no help at all. #216504. There, now tell me this, why is it when I asked for specific details on where this call was made to, who a supervisor there was, what your company is all about, why couldn't I find this call on my local carrier's bill, and many other questions, I got zero answers. I only was told that I was going to have my credit rating ruined if I didn't pay promptly.
I can't in a million years believe that a real company would treat it's so-called customers this way. No phone leading to a real person, no "live" contact with anyone like the bill said, and no response after I pleaded for help form "George." No company would do that unless there are some iffy qualities to it.
I have done just as Kirsten has advised and contacted the FTC, the BBB, and my State Attorny General about this.
I have no idea what a Clec or a Lec is so could you help me with that one as well?
Oh, I checked on the web site that was listed in one of the emails and it wasn't even a site that I would go to in a million years let alone want to give money to and there isn't anyone who could have used my computer to do it for me.
Also, the time listed on the call was when I was on vacation. Intersesting, very interesting.
And finally, how can some company charge me for a phone call and not my actual phone provider?
One more, why hasn't George gotten back to me?
Thanks.

 

Kudraet,

As stated earlier, mistakes do happen. I will personally look into your account and issue a full credit and put a block on the number that was billed. I am also going to be looking into George's track record and take up the issue with his supervisor personally. I deeply apologize if you were treated unfairly, and I assure you that disciplinary action will be taken if all of this is confirmed to be accurate.

We are extremely proactive on locating complaints that our service was unsatisfactory. I must reiterate that the complaints here are truly the minority, and when these issues are brought to our attention, we act upon them immediately. Once again, we apologize for the inconvenience.

 

Why is it that you require a plugin to view your site.. Thats not a good way to get customers.. Weather its a scam or not your totally anti-customer.

 

If all of this is up and up, then why is that phone number on the invoices not a good number when dialed with a phone?

(yes i have an invoice from these people also, with incorrect name etc on the account)

 

Why doesn't a telecom company have a phone number?
I'm sure one exists.
This question is directed to the "Customer Service Manager" of National One. Assuming that you have a phone number - please post it as I'm sure 1.5% of your "customers" would like to contact you. I can't download your plugin on your website (proxy server blocks it) and hence can't get anywhere. Why wouldn't your website allow a way to get around the plugin?

Rather than everyone posting their invoice number and the names of your customer service reps. Just post your legitimate number for your legitimate company. I have searched in both Texas and New Hampshire and cannot verify your existance.

This appears to be a typical scam - and you will need to prove otherwise on this forum. I've already looked at Experian as you mentioned - can't find anything.

 

According to the Better Business Bureau, National One Telecom has "been responsive to any complaints brought to its attention by the Bureau. According to information in Bureau files this company has been the subject of a pattern of complaints regarding billing issues." So evidently, if they falsly bill you, which seems to happen quite a bit, they will quickly reverse the payment... LOL Scam?!?! NO way!! Don't mind the sarcasm.

Their phone number is on the BBB website, just follow this link!
http://www.dallas.bbb.org/commonreport.html?compid=90010840
Or, for another possible "branch" of their company in New Hampshire, check this link out.
http://www.bbbnh.org/commonreport.html?compid=92005198
They say on this page, "The Better Business Bureau has requested basic information from this company. The Bureau has not received a response. Without this information, the Bureau may not have current information concerning such things as the company's management or its nature of business."

As a last hurrah, check out there "plug-ins" website for a surprise. HTTP://WWW.CANDIDPUBLISHING.COM
They are the guys who signed the "plugin" to make it "secure."

Have FUN!!
*SCORE!!*

 

Good post - good information from FunMan9000. If you have any questions about their company, their phone number is apparently 1-866-293-3814 as listed on the NIC registry under "registrant" and also as "administrative contact" and also on the BBB of Dallas website. Thanks FunMan9000.

One quick call to that number told me I will not be sending any money. My local TV news will be very energetic in researching this piece of paper.