Thursday, July 3

you've been crammed!

A month or so ago, I decided it was a complete waste of money to have multiple phone lines that I'm not using, so .. I dropped 2 of my 3 phone numbers. Today, some company decided to charge me for voicemail service on one of those 2 dropped phone numbers.

I suppose they think they're doing me a favor, but .. all AT&T provides in the email notice is the total amount billed:
A new bill for your telephone number ending in xxxx is now available to view online. You can print a copy of your paper bill by selecting the link "View/Print copies of your paper bills" on the Account Manager Home Page.

To view your bill, log in to AT&T Account Manager and select the > View My Bill link, found under the Current Bill Summary section.
The email makes it sound simple enough, but it's not, since some Rocket Scientist decided the best way to annoy the customer is to shove so many choices onto the website so that most people would simply throw up their hands in disgust. They achieved their design goal, for sure.

This "simplification" (email with the total charge only) has opened AT&T up to additional fraud, far as I'm concerned - it's now much harder to spot fraudulent charges.

So, I logged onto AT&T's site to find out that a sleazebag company called TRIVOICE INTERNATIONAL added a $14.95 monthly charge for voicemail service to my phone bill. No, I didn't authorize it - I've used an answering machine for a long time. The referenced number is one of the two I "threw away" while simplifying my home phone situation; it also couldn't be used to dial out -- it was merely a "special ring" number that sits atop your regular line, but double-rings to let you know that it's a business call (or whatever).

Billed on Behalf of TRIVOICE INTERNATIONAL, LTD. #
Questions? Call: 1 866 473-1999
Itemized Charges and Credits
Item
No. Date Description
4-01 5-28 TRIVOICE INT'L, LTD-VMAIL MONTHLY FEE 14.95


Naturally, the Trivoice number says they're closed until Monday. Ditto for AT&T Customer Service. At least AT&T's website has info on cramming, so this must be very common. I tried sending them an email but had to do it several times (their website returned me to a very pretty, yet completely WHITE screen on multiple occasions), and have zero hope they'll read it before Monday - if ever.

I searched the web for info on these crammers and quickly found something on ripoffreport.com describing the procedure I'll have to follow if they're uncooperative.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

My name is erica and i am going through the same thing with the same company but i have embarq. and embarq said they could not help me at all if i wanted it cancelled to call and cancel it. my charges was $31.99 to tryvoice vmail and residental email.

Anonymous said...

I just noticed the same charge on my Verizon bill. I stated that this was a new service provider this month for $14.95 per month. I called Trivoice and cancelled this service and I am supposedly going to get a 2 month credit since they have also charged me for the current month. Trivoice stated that I signed up for an 800 number so that people could reach me but never gave me the number that I supposedly signed up for. I then called Verizon and informed them of this. What bothers me the most is that they have my email address at work and my mothers maiden name. They gave me a date and time that I supposedly signed up for this service but when I check my internet history for that time, I was not on a webiste of this nature at all.

Anonymous said...

I just noticed today on my phone bill Trivoice Int'l also charged me for service they said I requested on oct 30th via email. I never requested such service from this company nor have any need for it. I would like to know how they got my email address. I called them and they said they would give me a 2 month credit. Gave me a confirmation number and told me the credit should appear on my bill within 2 days. We shall see.

Anonymous said...

My husband and I just discovered that on our monthly A T & T phone bill (viewed online)shows a $14.95/month charge billed on "behalf of Tri-Voice International." This is a "rip-off that has been going on since August of 2008, for seven months. We did not catch it due to periodically adding internet through at & t, and later adding Dish Network with additional expenses. We also have been ripped off and have discovered there are many others experiencing a similar fate. We do not intend to pay the charge and are considering changing our phone service. It seems likely we will never be reimbursed by at & t.

Anonymous said...

I, too, just discovered that we have been paying for Trivoice International services in the amount of $15.25/mo since August '08. But, that's not it. Apperantly, there's also Greentree Data for $8.39/mo AND gofaxer.com for $13.01/mo. Thankfully Verizon has refunded us $369.50 for all of the charges. Unfortunately, we never look at the itemized bill online so we didn't know about it until today. We signed up for NFL Sunday Ticket back in August so we just thought the increase was the monthly payments for that. I wonder if they attach to the NFL package somehow. Did anyone else order it?

Razldazlrr said...

Yes - I have also been scammed - I asked the girl that answered the phone when I called for the 3rd time if she was not embarrassed to work for a company that steals from people? She replied that at least she had a job - are you kidding me!!! People - you have to watch all your bills for scam artist companies out there that are stealing from people!

Anonymous said...

Same thing here--since August 2008. I am wondering what the magnitude of this problem is. Since I didn't find much relevant information about this scam following a Google search I guess this scam is not widespread. Or this may just be the beginning of reports pouring in. If's it's a back scam, lawyers should be thinking whether there is a class action case waiting to happen.

Jack Johnson said...

The company TriVoice International is a criminal enterprise. They place unauthorized charges on your phone bill referred to in the phone industry as "cramming". TriVoice International randomly bills millions of phone accounts with fake charges. These scammers are counting on the people that don't check their phone bills to demand a credit. That's how they scam the big bucks. It's a multi-million dollar fraud. Anyone who has been crammed and scammed should immediately contact their actual phone company and demand a credit and request a 3rd party billing freeze on your account. Additionally, you can file a formal complaint with the Attorney General's office in your State.

Anonymous said...

I JUST GOT MY BILL OUT THE MAIL AND THERE IT WAS TRIVOICE INTNATIONAL 14.95 I CAN'T BELIEVE ATT WOULD ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN I USE A ANSWERING MACHINE WHAT WOULD I ND VOICEMAIL FOR I MEAN TO ADD ATT VOICEMAIL IS ONLY $6 ATT SHOULD STOP THIS FROM HAPPENING ITS A SCRAM SO WHY WON'T THEY STOP IT ARE THEY IN ON IT TOO?

Anonymous said...

Same thing happened to us. My husband just told me tonight that the phone bill was huge. Came to find out that some woman by the name of Debra Donovan had signed up our telephone number through the internet and we have been paying Verizon an extra $14.95 per month for the past 18 months!!! So it's not only AT & T customers that are affected.

Anonymous said...

You all are RETARDS!!! you are being charged cause you didnt read the terms and conditions and signed your asses up for products while you tried to win something for free... read the terms and conditions and duh nothings free.. .besides what stupid idiot doesnt check thier phone bill... some of you all have charges from 2006 and older... hellooo stay of the damn internet and stop signing up for shit!!! a TriVoice employee

Anonymous said...

If you tell AT&T that you will cancel their service if they are not going to protect your account from scam companies like this, they WILL remove the charges and they can PLACE A BLOCK ON THIS COMPANY for your phone number so they will no longer be able to charge you again. I do not understand how these companies are allowed to stay in business!!!

Anonymous said...

I am on the phone right now with AT&T and they said they cannot block companies from charging to your bill. I cannot believe they allow this, they said they don't have any choice in the matter.

Anonymous said...

A very angry person in New Orleans -- how dare AT&T and the Government allow this to continue to happen -- just happened on my bill; along with other scum/scam companies, here's all the different names on the bill:
TRIVOICE INTERNATIONAL
ENHANCED SERVICES BILLING INC - for monthly voicemail fee $12.95
OAN SERVICES, INC
PHONETICOM,INC- for emergency msg system fee $14.95
PAYMENT ONE - IDPROTECTIONPLUS.COM, LLC
for monthly service fee $15.25

They all need to be shut down and people need to go to jail for this. How convenient that they tell you that someone with your same last name authorized it.

again, how DARE AT&T allow this to happen.

I was looking at RipOffs website but they want too much information. I'm not calling these companies again to get an address on them, because they want all your information when you call.

Anonymous said...

This is Dianne on AT&T with same scam from Trivoice Intl. Yes, phone company said they will remove charges & are well aware of this problem. Trivoice asked for my date of birth & email address. I contacted my state FBI office & they don't care either. He said I needed to resolve thru AT&T & monitor my credit report.He also said if it was a known problem that AT&T should be reporting it.

Anonymous said...

Same thing for me but through Verizon. Can't believe a company like Verizon would let this happen. It must be illegal. I did not order this

Anonymous said...

My wife just noticed that TriVoice is charging us #15.95 a month. She is on the phone as i'm typing. Doesn't sound like it's being resolved. We're with Verizon.

Anonymous said...

I just talked to Brittany with Trivoice 1-866-473-1999 and she wanted me to go to their website www.mytrivoicebackup.com and sign up for gifts but then had to pay out of my pocket to have it sent to me. I told her I did not want this stuff and that I wanted my money back. See indicated that a credit would be put on my bill showing that there should be zero balance owing. I will be looking at this very closely.