By Dan Baldwin
So I'm helping a large multi-location business customer based in Southern California sort through, analyze, organize and otherwise "fix" their multiple AT&T and Verizon phone bills and we ran across this politely worded notice recently mailed from Ma Bell:
Dear Valued AT&T Customer:
Your business is important to us...(yada, yada, yada)...please note that monthly rates for Local Exchange service are scheduled to increase as follows...(we're adding $8 a month to the cost of each phone line).
If you have any questions...(blah, blah, blah)...Thank you for choosing AT&T.
Sincerely,
Your AT&T Service Team
Huh, what!?
Well I can certainly understand why AT&T "values their customers". I'd value my customers too if I could jack up the cost of every widget I sell them $8 a month everytime I was running a little low on cash by sending out a simply worded one-page letter.
(Note to self. Call attorney to see if I can jack up my customer's rates any time I like with a simply worded one-page letter...Just kidding!)
There's really not a lot more to say about this.
Business customers that get their business phone service from any of the old phone carriers just don't have a lot of say about what they'll pay. Most every phone bill tariff is written to allow the carrier to pretty much change the rate any time they like with little more notice than a post to the tariff page of a carrier's website - regardless of the way a customer's "contract" is written.
Most contracts that business customer's get from a phone carrier state little more than:
"We totally promise on a large stack of phone books that this is the absolute rock solid price per line per month that you'll pay for the entire term of this agreement until we decide to charge you something different.
Sign here, press hard, you're making three copies..."
How Can Customers Avoid Unexpected and Serious Monthly Price Increases?
Work with a professional telecom agent when ordering any phone, data or technology service.
Independent telecom agents and business phone service consultants are impartial brokers of all the business phone service carriers, broadband Internet and wide area data network (WAN) providers.
Keeping tracking all of the service providers and making note of which ones have the most steady prices without sacrificing network quality and customer service is what independent telecom agents do.
And that's what we do.
Give us a call and we'll let you know what our other business customers are doing to minimize or completely escape the "Gimme more money" letters from AT&T and the other old, large carriers.
Click here to see a full size view of AT&T's price increase letter. The red increase column was aded by me.
Getting Ready to Sign or Renew Your Carrier Agreements?
If you're getting ready to sign or renew an agreement with a telecom, data or technology service provider, call us first. We'll let you know how the rates and terms you're getting compare to both the best and the least expensive providers in the industry.
We can also introduce you to Ben Bronston, the telecom lawyer we recommend to clients who want every clause of their prospective agreement economically reviewed by a competent telecom trained attorney that's seen all the tricks the carriers try to sneak by unsuspecting business customers.
But we can't help you if you don't call us first!
Looking for a Southern California based, vendor neutral business communications technology service expert that can help you out with your multi-location telecom or data network problems?
Click here to learn about how we might be able to fix your problem for free, then contact me directly at 951-251-5155 or [email protected].
BaldwinTel helps multi-location businesses across the United States but specializes Southern California especially San Diego County, Orange County, Los Angeles County, Riverside County and San Bernardino County.
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