Payphone Price Gouging and
Overcharges Investigation
Have you received an exorbitant bill from a telephone company you probably never heard of for a long-distance call you made from a pay phone, or hotel or motel room phone?
The national law firm of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, is investigating complaints by persons that they were grossly overcharged for long distance calls when they dialed what they thought were the numbers for established long distance telephone providers such as MCI (which operates 1-800-COLLECT), or AT&T (which operates 1-800-CALL ATT).
For example, a caller who dialed 1-800-COLLETT instead of 1-800-COLLECT might unknowingly have been connected to ASC Telecom, doing business as AlternaTel, a Kansas company actually owned by Sprint Corporation, instead of to MCI. A caller intending to dial 1-800 CALL ATT might instead have dialed 1-800 CALL ALT or 1-800-CATT ATT, and again unknowingly been connected to ASC Telecom. Without being informed of the mistake, the caller could have been charged as much as $12.00 per minute for a call.
As alleged in consumer protection lawsuits and by the Federal Communications Commission, ASC Telecom or AlternaTel has engaged in a deliberate scheme to take advantage of mistakes people make in dialing. Federal law requires that providers of operator services identify themselves clearly at the beginning of each call, and that they tell customers how to find out what the charge will be before the customer actually places the call and incurs the expense.
In September 2002, the FCC gave notice that it intended to fine ASC Telecom $1,440,000 for violations of federal law in ten test calls made by FCC investigators. ASC Telecom allegedly failed to comply with the Federal law by failing to identify itself in placing calls for customers who mistakenly dialed 1-800-COLLETT, 1-800-CATT ATT, and other wrong numbers. Read a copy of the FCC Notice (as an Adobe Acrobat document).
If you believe you have been subjected to this alleged deceptive and misleading practice, and would like to learn more about your legal rights, please contact a Lieff Cabraser attorney.
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This website is sponsored by Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, a national plaintiffs' law firm, and is not affiliated in any way with ASC Telecom or AternaTel, Inc.
About Lieff Cabraser
Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP is a fifty-plus attorney law firm that has represented plaintiffs nationwide since 1972. We have offices in San Francisco, New York and Nashville. We represent plaintiffs in class and group actions and in individual lawsuits in cases involving substantial losses. For the last six years, the National Law Journal has selected Lieff Cabraser as one of the top plaintiffs' law firms in the nation.
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This website is sponsored by Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, a national plaintiffs' law firm.
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