Several months ago UCAN Member Alan saw charges on his Verizon landline bill for 13 international phone calls he never made to Indonesia. Verizon billed these calls at $5.50 / minute for a total $320.

The phone number was 626xxxxxxx (last seven digits are x's for privacy).

It turns out that the calls had been made to a local number shown on the bill that was, in fact, Alan's Skype phone in Los Angeles metropolitan area code 626.

62 happens to be the country code for Indonesia, and Verizon mistakenly billed the local calls within the 626 area code as international.

Mistakes happen, so Alan contacted Verizon, explained that it was his Skype number on the bill, and disputed the charges. Verizon would not budge, eventually disconnecting Alan's bundled call phone and sending the account to collections.

Alan contacted the Fraud Squad for help and filed an online complaint with the CPUC. At first, Verizon maintained its hard core stance eventually offering a courtesy credit for the obvious error. Further investigation revealed that the supposed Indonesia number didn't even work.

Finally after UCAN sent a Consumer Legal Remedies Act (CLRA) demand letter (click link for sample letter), Verizon admitted its mistake and properly credited the account.

UCAN has found recently that many companies often take a hard core stance with their customers even when an obvious mistake has been made, often offering a partial credit or no credit at all. Customers that have automatic bill pay set up may not even realize they have been mischarged.

Be vigilant in these tight economic times and contact the Fraud Squad when you need help getting credit where credit is due.

Any other Skype users that have similar issues contact the Fraud Squad