Hello,

For the past few months, I've noticed that certain calls placed in 
central New Jersey on our Bell Atlantic/Verizon NY Metro (00022) local 
Digital Choice account are being charged as roaming calls rather than 
"home" calls as indicated on BAMS's brochures and service confirmation 
letters.

Specifically, calls made in the Princeton area (along US-206, from where 
the NY/NJ "NY Metro" 00022 system stops and where the NJ section of the 
Philly 00008 market begins), as well as along US-1 and sections of I-295 
north of Trenton (where I-95 would have gone if it had ever been finished 
in NJ, which it is not), and anywhere else in that general area, show up 
as roaming in "Hunterdon NJ/B".

The difference this makes can be dramatic -- a 20 minute call under the 
current (and incorrect) billing formula which BAMS employs will cost over 
$12.00, while if the correct (home) airtime formula was applied it would 
be included in our bucket minutes or in our unlimited off-peak airtime 
and thus cost nothing. A few of these 20 minute calls could easily cost 
more than the monthly subscription rate of the plan!

(Note this does not refer to TOLL charges, which BAMS still foolishly 
charges grandfathered Digital Choice customers if you dial between the NY 
Metro Market (00022), the NJ section of the Philly market (00008) and the 
Atlantic City/Ocean County system (00250), all of which are marketed as a 
"home" calling area. (They do this with all of their older Digital Choice 
plans, like New England plans, etc.). This is pretty silly -- I realize 
they want to get people off of the first incoming minute free / unlimited 
off peak airtime plans, but if they do, they may just go over to AT&T 
Wireless which offers SIGNIFICANTLY larger "home" markets (12 states in 
the Northeast), with unlimited off peak airtime after 8PM, and no LD 
charges at all, and generally equivalent coverage other than the poor 
handoffs AT&T has to it's roaming partners.)

In any event, after a few months of this, I calls BAMS, and asked them to 
remove the charges and that there must be some mistake. They took them 
off, and I asked that they look into it, and that someone call me back.

A month later, no callback, and still the charges appear. I call them 
again, get some service center in Kansas (and a rep who has practically 
no idea where Jersey is! [BAMS was much better off when everything was 
handled through the local markets -- they KNEW their markets and you 
could talk to someone who knew what they were talking about -- 
BAMS/Verizon is becoming like Cingular where if you are from Boston and 
call customer service they have absolutely no idea where you are or 
anything about the market -- they ruined what was once a pretty decent 
customer service dept. at Cell One/Boston]).

After speaking with the rep for a few minutes explaining the problem, she 
says "Well, you were probably picking up a tower in Pennsylvania, which 
is why you were charged".

So I replied "Well, so why does it say 'Hunterdon,NJ/B" on the bill? (IE, 
Hunterdon County, NJ, B system, which is BAMS').

And she said "Since it is in Pennsylvania"...so I saw this was going 
nowhere, and after explaining to her that the "NJ" stood for "New Jersey" 
(an utter moron she was) I asked for a tech rep in Orangeburg which (used 
to?) run the NY Metro Market.

Instead, I somehow got Wallingford (BAMS-A/CT and W. Mass), and started 
the whole thing with them. I talked to 3 reps there and each one said 
"You were picking up a tower in PA", and when I refuted that they came 
back with "Oh, but your plan doesn't include all of NJ, just the North", 
as if it was some pre-printed card of excuses they were pulling up just 
to get the customer off the phone!

Getting fed up, I finally said "Look, you don't even know where Hunterdon 
is, and then when I tell you where it is you come up with an even lamer 
excuse that it is not included in the plan". So the last rep goes 
(dripping with sarcasm) "Well, SIR, I AM looking at the web site right 
now and it doesn't show all of NJ as part of your plan"...so I asked her 
"well, that's a coincidence, so am I, and it shows ALL of NJ...what URL 
-- err -- that line of text at the top of the screen -- are you looking 
at? "...so she seems stunned, and mumbles "Err..verizon.com"....So I'm 
like "Well, and that's all??" and she says "Yes, and I CLEARLY see only 
northern NJ". (Now knowing they haven't had a plan like that for years, I 
continue...) "and after the Verizon.com, what does it say?" and she says 
"Nothing, just Verizon.com". I replied "Well, then you are looking at the 
main page of the landline division and it has nothing to do with 
cellular, so stop making up pathetic excuses and I'll talk to a tech rep. 
now.."

So, after 10 minutes, I was finally transferred to Tonesha, x 4205, in 
Wallingford, who after going through all the above excuses (although she 
was polite) iterated above said she would check with NY (Orangeburg) as 
to the correct rate for Digital Choice plans from when they started in 
1998 to when they were updated to the non-unlimited ones 9 or so months 
ago. She comes back on the phone and says that "everyone" is Orangeburg 
said only North Jersey was included, and that South Jersey is roaming.

Getting even more fed up, I told her I'd just call corporate in 
Bedminster, fax them the literature (from less than a year ago which 
SHOWS my home airtime rate as all of NJ) and have them get back in touch 
with her. At this point, she got a bit more attentive, and suggested to 
let her try some more to get it resolved and she'd get back to me. 

In the meantime, I had my secretary photocopy and fax 4 or so brochures 
-- including the annual 'We have reviewed your usage and you are indeed 
on the correct plan' nonsense letter -- all of which clearly show South 
Jersey as being part of the NY Metro old and current Digital Choice plans.

Well, a few days later, I hear that she called, so I call her back and 
what do you know? I was right after all! Tonesha said she checked some 
more and that the plans DID include ALL of NJ, just as I had been saying 
to 10 other people there, all of whom couldn't be bothered to take the 
time to check on this. 

However, she then said "It's an odd billing problem, and the billing 
office STILL says that it is not included, although it is obvious that 
South Jersey is...may I suggest that you switch plans to one which 
includes South Jersey?" and I replied "But mine DOES include S. Jersey -- 
you just aren't billing it correctly -- you should get in touch with them 
and have them fix it". Tonesha also offered to switch at the same rate 
that we are currently paying ($39.95 per month, which I believe is the 
same price as the limited, non-First Incoming Minute Free plan, so no big 
deal there), so I said "But your current plans do not include FIMF or 
unlimited off peak" and she said "Well, you don't get that either"...and 
I said "You may want to check on that again -- we've had it since we 
signed up over 2 years ago".

So she said she would send it down to billing, and get back to me when 
she hears back. 

Overall, not a very professional showing from BAMS -- the fact that I got 
so many excuses as to what was going on rather than someone taking the 
initiative to check out what I was saying, and the assuredness with which 
people who have no familiarity whatsoever with a given area can make 
clearly erroneous pronouncements about my usage is startling and 
repellant. 

It is one of the most frustrating experiences dealing with people who 
even when presented with clear and convincing evidence that their 
suppositions are in error stick to them and dogmatically refuse to accept 
that they have presented incorrect information to the customer. 

Although I'm glad that Tonesha, after being presented with overwhelming 
evidence that she and the people who she talked to were flat out wrong,  
tried to remedy the issue, the steps I had to take to get to this point 
were so frustrating that I was just going to drop BAMS altogether and 
switch to AT&T's Regional Digital unlimited off peak with free long 
distance plans rather than argue with them. (and not pay the roaming 
charges of course -- if they wanted to collect on that, let BAMS take me 
court where -- not that it would ever get that far -- where they would 
have to yield to the overwhelming evidence against them.)

And the problem STILL isn't resolved -- Tonesha said she would take it up 
with billing (and I believe her), but who knows what they will say to 
her. Hopefully, armed with the faxes of the rateplans which I had sent to 
her she will have some additional clout to get this resolved. 

(WBAMS' own representations are home rate and NOT roaming.

I'll post details as they resolve (or fail to) this issue.

(This post and SID list are also available at http://www.wirelessnotes.org)

Regards,

Doug


Interpage(TM) Network Services Inc. / http://www.interpage.net
d1@interpage.net
+1 (510) 315-2750