BEWARE
If ANYONE calls stating they are an agent of your phone company, that they are changing your phone service to give you a discount/savings, stay with them til they put the recording on then make them state their full name, have them confirm AGAIN that they are an agent for your telephone company and their employee number. If they don't or won't do that on recording RUUUUUNNN!!! Don't get hit like I did with the outrageous bills or hassle.
I had an experience like Joseph D, almost exactly. I, however, didn't confirm with my phone company. I am now filing with the FCC and reading complaint after complaint online.
Take care and prosper.
Posted on 7/17/2012
|
United Telecom Inc is a Fraud!
I was contacted by Barbra from "AT&T Corporate Office in Los Angeles" stating that when I recently switched to AT&T we were supposed to have received a credit from AT&T which we did not receive. She went further to state "that AT&T had switched from SBC to United Telecom for long distance billing and that I was supposed to have received a credit and that my monthly billing should have been $29.99 a month". I asked her 4 times to verify that she was indeed with AT&T and that NOTHING would change from my bill, nor would I be switching to another carrier. She stated that she did work for AT&T and that AT&T recently switched to United Telecom for their long distance and they had to go on to a voice recording system that verified they told me about the switch. By doing so they would issue my company a credit for $100 plus an additional credit for fees accrued since the time I started with AT&T.
I am kicking myself for agreeing to the voice recorder, but I trusted her since I asked specifically 4 times if she was working for AT&T and NOTHING was going to change to which she blatantly lied to me and told me she did work for AT&T and this was just a measure to notify me.
Immediately after I got off the phone with Barbra, I called AT&T to confirm they had switched from SBC to United Telecom. I spoke to two representatives from AT&T who told me that AT&T had not changed anything and this was a trick to have people switch to other carriers.
AT&T can and will block any tricks like this but you MUST CONTACT AT&T TO GET THIS DONE!!! I am really glad they were able to help me before this became a problem.
United Telecom fraudulently held themselves out to be AT&T. BEWARE UNITED TELECOM!!!
I wish there was a way to get a class action lawsuit against companies like this!
Posted on 1/27/2012
|
The exact same thing happend to me as all of you are describing in your reviews. I with AT&T who told me how to report them to the goverment because what they are doing is called "slamming" and it is illegal. If enough people report them than they can be banned from doing business in your state of even put of of business. United Telecom has already been banned from doing business in Oregan.
To file a complaint go to this address and find the state that you live in then follow the instructions.
http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/slamming-states-administering-slamming-rules
Hope this helps everyone as it has me and I hope reporting will put a stop to their dishonest business practices.
Posted on 8/3/2011
|
SCAM SCAM SCAM. I own a small business where a "Qwest Rep" called about a great offer to lower our current phone bill. Of course I will trust someone calling and stating they are from Qwest. They walk you through this great savings and "preferred customer discount" but then say I will need to record a few things with you stating your authority to make the appropriate changes. Here is where they start the recording, then they state they are from United Telecom. But they have already stated they are from Qwest and make you believe they are calling to save you money......FALSE. This is a SCAM and a SCAM company. I called Qwest immediately to report, Qwest did offer to credit the amount on the bill rather quickly......there may be a little under the table action between the two. In any case this should be illegal. I will never trust nor speak well of United Telecom!
Posted on 3/18/2011
|
I've had an experience quite similar to the other reviewers. Our business has 2 branch stores in other cities and I am the accounting manager for the corporation. United Telecom claimed to have received authorization to assess charges for an unlimited long distance plan that were billed to us through a 3rd party (USBI) and appeared on our AT&T bill. However, it was obvious that the "authorization" they claimed to have received was fabricated. The recording was "pieced" together from a conversation they had with a delivery employee at one of our branch stores. Each affirmative response by this employee on the recording sounded exactly the same as all the others as if it had been recorded and then "inserted" over and over again in the places they needed an affirmative response. Additionally, the recording played had him stating his position at that branch store as "Manager." He was not the manager and even if he was, the manager of a branch store does not have any authority to make changes to ANY billing at all for our corporation. Only corporate officers can do that. The fact that this company fabricated the recording is proof enough to me that they are engaged in completely unethical business practices. However, let's just say for arguments sake that this delivery employee of ours actually spoke to them and lied about his position and really agreed to everything as it was portrayed in the recording. Shouldn't United Telecom have a responsibility to ensure that the people they are getting "authorization" from actually have the authority to grant such authorization?
Well, let's say they aren't required to do that either. At the very least, I know that a business is required to actually provide the services they are charging you for. United Telecom was charging $92.33 (total with taxes, fees, and all) per month for an "unlimited long distance plan." Well, our corporation has documentation on our AT&T bill of each and every long distance call made and they are itemized with charges per minute for the call. We have copies of our canceled checks showing where we submitted payment to AT&T for the per minute charges for all long distance calls. So, we obviously weren't benefiting from ANY sort of unlimited long distance plan. Our bill was not reduced in the slightest; It simply increased $92.33!
Thankfully, if these charges appear on your AT&T bill, as it did on ours, AT&T will credit the "3rd party" charges, but it is not without some very time consuming effort. In our case, this has been a 6 month long battle. AT&T's 3rd party blocks are not always effective (as evidenced by our experience) and you may be stuck with having to spend many frustrated hours on the phone trying to track the originating company that is billing the charges and then trying to get things straightened out.
The ONLY good thing I can say about this company is that they have allegedly agreed to credit back the charges in response to our BBB complaint. I can not confirm that they have done so yet (since they claim it will take up to 60 business days for the credit to appear) so I am still waiting to see if they live up to even ONE claim they make. However, they behave as if this credit is a "favor" they are doing for us; they called it a "courtesy & good will gesture." I call it reimbursement for unauthorized charges that were billed unethically in the first place. I really believe reimbursement is not sufficient and restitution should also be paid to compensate for the enormous amount of time and resources we wasted trying to track the source of these charges down and then making complaints to have them ceased and the previous charges credited. United Telecom has not even responded to any of the accusations of unethical practices and fraud we have made against them, they simply ignore that part of the complaint.
United Telecom is a prime example of unethical business practices and most likely even fraud. Even their company website is a warning as it looks like a haphazard template quickly pieced together and is incomplete in several areas: http://www.utelinc.com/ I believe they absorb what losses they sustain through conciseness consumers' complaints and still turn a profit on the back of the unsuspecting customer that isn't as vigilant about checking the details of their bill and/or is unaware of how to stop them/seek reimbursement. If I had any clue how to seek legal justice against this company, I would. I have serious concerns as to how a company like this is allowed to continue these obscenely unethical practices, especially when they have working phone numbers and a business address that can be tracked.
Posted on 3/3/2011
|
This same thing happened to my business. They switched us from Verizon without our authorization. I called to ask them who authorized the switch and they told me it was someone named "brenda Curtis". We do not have and have never had an employee by that name. Then they played a recording of some strange woman authorizing the change. How can a company be allowed to operate like this?
Posted on 1/18/2011
|
We are a new business. We signed up for comprehensive services with ATT in May 2010. We just learned that United Telecom falsely changes our service through very unscrupulous tactics. They called, identifying themselves as an "agent" of ATT and that there were some legal confirmations they needed for AT&T and could we confirm with them. The person spoke extremely quickly making it sound like this is simply a proforma call on behalf of AT&T. We now know that this was the so-called "third party confirmation call"...which of course makes no sense since there was no other call...no sales call of any kind and no discussion of services, of pricing, etc. The person in customer service at United Telecom gave use the corporate address.
we are working with AT&T to take us back and reverse their very high early termination fees and we will not pay the United Telecom fees, which are exorbitant for services we don't want and didn't order. This was a total "scam" grossly misusing the "third party confirmation call" process.
Posted on 8/30/2010
|
This company switched my long distance to them without my permission. When I stopped the phone conversation with them and told them that I did not want "the deal" they were trying to give me the person on the phone was extremely rude and hung up on me. Also, they lied during the phone call saying that they worked for my local phone carrier. On my next phone bill I was charged with fees for switching to them, even though I did not give them permission to make the switch. Thankfully my local carrier removed the charges from my bill and switched me back for free.
Posted on 7/9/2010
|
This company will falsify information and you will be slammed with expensive charges that were never requested. They get their information from a mailing list and then charge your telephone service provider a third party billing charge. This is a personal experience.
Posted on 12/16/2009
|