Millions of dollars are lost each day in telecom billing errors and some of them are entitled to refunds. Have you ever cancelled a line and heard the disconnected tone only to find out months later that the billing never stopped? This is a simple billing error but it's tiny compared with the volumes we find in tariff violations and over-billing. Now the area you are in, any contracts or agreements signed, and the tariff determine whether you will be eligible for a refund. Many people are under the impression that any mistake found on their phone bills qualifies for a refund on all the overcharges. Unfortunately, this just isn't true. The Phone Company Representative will be happy to correct the billing mistake but won't mention a refund to you, and if you do mention a refund don't be surprised if you are told that its your responsibility to review your bills and that there is a time limit on the errors you may find within your bills. Why should your company fall prey to these billing errors when there is a solution? Auditel recommends before outsourcing your telecom or changing carriers or providers, that you make sure all your bills are correct, or you will never get the refunds you are due. Your company will forfeit this money once you change carriers. It is best to correct the mistakes before changes are made, not after.
As many companies tighten their corporate belts they look toward outsourcing job functions to reduce expenses. People's jobs are talked about in labor hours and these hours counted for each project to determine the best use of the corporate resources.
The Corporate World is either unaware of telecom and telephone billing errors, or they feel the time spent on bill correction, or clean up won't substantiate the savings. If they could only see the telecom bills through the eyes of a trained, professional telecom billing auditor they would have a change of heart.
Many companies we've conducted audits for recommend we help educate others by giving them a "clue", something they can go to their bills to look for. We decided to take the challenge and include a few items for them to look for. Since there are too many auditing skills and procedures to mention here, let's just look at a couple of things in your bills.
First step is to gather all the telephone bills and telecom bills together that you pay during one month. Many will probably be from the same carrier so they "may" qualify for bill consolidation. Why do we mention "may"? Let me explain more in step two.
Step two moves deeper into a specific bill. Just remove one phone bill from the stack and look at the monthly service charges. You will need to determine what this bill is comprised of. Most providers have a total monthly service fee. Look at the top of the bill and locate the Account Number or telephone number. There is usually one number on the page for single bills and two numbers are used in summary bills. Research needs to be conducted to see if this is your location and to see if all the numbers within the bill were ordered and belong to your company. There are many other things within the bill that need to be analyzed such as features and other charges that make up the bill total.
If you want to dig further into your bills here's what we recommend that you do. Contact our office to learn about USOC codes and tariff. You will need to order a customer service record (CSR) but without deep telecom knowledge these service records will look like hieroglyphics. With a telecom audit we walk you through all the items found in your telecom records. We advise you on our findings after we compare the CSR records with the actual service you have at your location. With a detailed audit we give you details of your telecom services, and advise you on any items billing incorrectly. If any recovery is available we will obtain it for you.
Remember before considering telecom outsourcing and before making any provider or carrier changes do your homework. Research the bills and contracts as much as possible or have a telecom audit which will include a detailed investigation of your phone and telecom billings.
